Centophobia.

It’s hard to describe a ‘better’ world in terms / words like everyone’s happy, people get along etc. I think people will always have issues with one another and have different ideas about what is important. It is also difficult to strike a balance between personal freedom and liberty and what is the ‘best’ for society. For example, everyone being treated equally such that if someone doesn’t treat someone well what should we do with them or keeping someone in jail versus letting them out to enjoy their life even though they have hurt someone. I think a better world would be one where, if people have an issue with something that, they have a forum to be heard and everyone else has the duty / responsibility to listen and consider their view/issue. The only problem is – do we all have enough time in the day to listen and take on board and fight for all the issues occurring – the answer is probably no.

I think the right to be heard is a fundamental right, and one that I would be willing to fight for. This is why I don’t like the media movement in to sensationalisation and “info-tainment”. I think this reduces the media’s role to investigate, to be part of the public sphere and their responsibility as the fourth estate to merely an entertainment media. I also have issues with the privatisation of public space which limits the ability for important societal communication. And also relates to my like of the internet as a way of having your view put out there.

Gay rights/ discrimination is also something important to me. It is amazing htat so recently being gay was a criminal offence, a sickness to be treated with electroshock therapy.

I think in a country wit h strong liberal ideology is so conservative in so many ways – all of which are social human rights type things. Why can’t they be more conservative with economic systems and business regulation and a bit more liberal with personal freedom. My blog is called Centophobia showing ho I feel (and for a bit of time now) about the disadvantages of human nature of being Centophobic (afraid of new ideas.) The fact that older generations have to die before new ideas can be embraced really frustrates me because we could have progressed so much further if people (the human race) could accept new things so much faster. Women’s perspectives, aboriginal and other indigenous cultures could have been embraced a lot earlier. I don’t want the world to have to wait until I die to move on to the more important things then discrimination against people for their race, skin colour, gender, sexuality etc.

tag: Government, Human Rights, Rights, Public space, Media, Fourth Estate, info-tainment