The industrial age is morphing into the virtual era

Thinking about the pace of change (again), my belief is that our rate of
social and organisational change has exceeded our ability to adapt and
respond. There's a lag between what happens day to day within society,
evidenced by behaviours, and our response as a community to those
changes. When we changed 'slowly' it was no problem, as changes occurred
we thought them through and came up with an adaptation of behaviour that
suited the new situation. Solutions 'emerged'. We maintained a sort of
self-adjusting status quo. (This may not have been a good thing, I'm
just suggesting it was so.)

This is a very special time. The industrial age is morphing into the
virtual era and we really don't know what to do.

Let me illustrate how societal changes have impacted our culture and
upset the status quo.

Starting with rights for women. Slow changes over a hundred years,
building into a crescendo of change - quite rightly - over say 20 years.
Expectations are reset, women increasingly become more educated, more
participative in society and in a broader range of activities. It's
still not right and fair and equitable across the board, but my point is
to illustrate the lag and consequence of changed behaviours. A higher
percentage of women in the workforce means more daycare, more before and
after school care. It also has meant more demand for part-time work. It
has increased family incomes and thus demand for services and
time-saving devices. It has increased our spending on entertainment
products. But more significantly it moved responsibility for 'care' to
professionals, often with poor qualifications. It has changed the face
to face time spent by parents with children. Just a few points of
change, but our response as a community has been ad hoc with little
integration. How has this affected respect, or education? We don't
really know, but suspect many subtle impacts.

This social change has also changed our family law. Whilst John Howard
may prefer the 50s, we have moved on. The family structures we have now
is a very different mix from the 50s. Where does discipline fit within
the new family? Or within education? Or with respect for institutions?

And privacy is bound up in all this as well. Now it's expected that we
can protect our privacy, whereas in a village situation we knew
everyone's business. However we also looked out for everyone and
'policed' errant behaviours. Society 'self-policed' within a natural
culture that simply emerged from the group. Now we have to legislate
what once simply emerged - and we have veered sharply away from the
group norm into a personal protective shield for the individual. Where
does discipline fit within the privacy act? How does it impact
education? Or respect for others, or our institutions?

But this is an integrated, complex set of relationships. In the 2 or 3
generations where we have made great social progress with rights for
women we have also, as Pat mentioned, recognised the rights of children.
(And I think that's great, btw). But how have we planned for this? What
is the impact? We look back on the impact, we rarely plan ahead.

During this time of generational change we have also increasingly
diluted our 'rule-based' culture (where the law is held as final arbiter
and we tell the truth in court, even when family is involved) with many
cultures from 'relationship-based' cultures (where respect for our
relations is more important than the law and we will bend the truth to
protect our family).

We have also turned our social democracy into more of a free market,
operating globally, with many public institutions privatised. We have
also moved from a public-transport or pedestrian-based society into one
significantly based on private powered vehicles. We are now unlikely to
walk down the street to the shops, chatting to our neighbours as we go.
Instead we enter a sealed capsule and remain seated until we get to the
shops. How has that changed our view of discipline, or of education, or
of respect for those around us? Again, the village breaks down.

My grandparents owned the only car in our street in Marrickville (NSW,
Australia, suburb of Sydney) in the 1940s. Their neighbour later had the
only telephone in the '60s. Back then the neighbourhood shared resources
and knew each other. It was a village. Now we have hacked villages
apart, sliced them in 2 with roads and moved shopping precincts into
giant soulless boxes. What's the effect of that?

I can go on and on (and believe me I do) with the myriad changes that
are interwoven with the shifts in education, discipline, rights, privacy
and respect for authority... but basically we have shifted from a
community of daily reliance and thus respect for the people around us to
one of personal independence and disconnection, coupled with a greater
diversity of views, a greater opportunity to communicate opinion
instantly (ie via radio, TV, Internet) without actually having to meet
(and thus confront) anyone and a general additional layer of distance
from 'the source'.

Perhaps our disrespect for politicians, for institutions and for public
education springs forth from this 'disconnected' communication? Where we
can state our opinions without serious challenge. Where community
leaders simply do what the opinion polls say would sell, rather than
take arms agaist the sea of troubles in front of us and actually lead?

We increasingly can't see how things work, or where our electricity or
water comes from, we just know when someone somewhere has let us down in
the delivery and planning phases. And whinge. Or a few of us whinge and
the media blows it out of proportion. We sense public education is
falling apart and this is amplified by the media, relishing as it does
contention and angst. Never before in history have we faced this instant
mass communication, coupled as I say with freedom from challenge. We
feel this urge to criticise public institutions generally, including the
police, the law, parliament. What is driving this?

It's not one thing. It's everything. It's so complex and so quickly
evolving that we may not see what's happened for 50 years. And by then
we'll have a whole new set of circumstances.

Just my $0.02 worth.