WHO SETS THE AGENDA?

WHY DO MOST DISCUSSIONS DEGENERATE INTO TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE AND REPEATING SOMEONE ELSE'S AGENDA?
Within the last few days, I listened to some talk show discussions on a radio station which advertises itself as 'most influential'.
On 2 occasions the 'topic' started off addressing serious issues - the disparity in sentencing for possession of an uzi automatic weapon vs obscene language to a police officer in one case, and, reports of possible failure by an Attorney to pay Damages collected on behalf of a client to that client in over 2 years.
Serious issues indeed.
Just cast your minds back to the 2 cases, some years ago, in which there were serious sentencing disparities in sexual offences matters and how the women's movement got into action and there was some redress.
But, in the world of infotainment - promoted by the US networks - the serious discussion on sentencing where a youth was jailed for 30 days for obscene language while a man who had an automatic weapon hidden inside a tv and told the Court he intended to sell it, was only asked to pay a fine, with time to pay.
In the atmosphere of murderous criminal slaughter, weapon possession with an admitted intention to sell could by no stretch of the imagination be less serious than juvenile obscene language.
But, in this talk show discussion, this matter ended up in a discussion about 'dishonesty - real or perceived - of Opposition politicians. It even degenerated into a mauvais langue and speculation about the home of the Opposition Leader.
The discussion on the failure of the Attorney to pay his client Damages awarded to him and other matters almost inevitably drifted from the rights of the client and his possible redress.
It, too, ended up in a tirade about the Law Association and who was responsible for putting that Attorney in the Senate.
In these days of 'fake news' and other attacks on the media, both traditional and social, championed by Donald Trump, one response by the mainstream media, is to say 'We good'; It's social media that is the problem. Even though some media houses (print and electronic) now use social media posts as their 'source' of "news".
The issue is that both in the regular media and on social media, discussion almost inevitably degenerates into mauvais langue about people and events.
Worse, it generally ends in repeating the mantras of one or other political party about the other and their claims about 'Who is More Corrupt' than Who, when Corruption in public life began and has been nurtured with both of them occupying the positions Government.
That narrow partisan discussion is part of the agenda of those whom those political parties serve to keep the people from discussing the Real Issues which are affecting their lives and have them living in anxiety for their safety, security, incomes and livelihoods and the future of their children and society.
The more we are sold the idea that it is enough for us to be concerned with discussing people and events, the less we are able to really examine the Issues - What is the real Cause of the Problems we face and What is the Solution.
The introduction of 24-hour network news (now mostly speculation by 'experts' and 'analysts'; then, the talk show culture on the local airwaves with the introduction of 30+ radio stations battling for market share and ratings, and later Social Media - This so-called 'democratisation' of the media has turned into a multiplication of the propaganda to defend the status quo, rather than fostering a real social dialogue for ensuring the participation of the majority of the body politic in serious political discussion about real issues.
For the people, who are faced with the anxieties arising daily in a social system which does not fulfil their needs, guarantee their Rights or provide them with a secure future, to accept that 'Politics is a matter for some special group of 'politicians' ' and small talk about this or that one or about which of their political parties is better is to fall into the trap that those who control wealth and power have set to keep things just the way they are and without any progress or solution.
We must refuse to be trapped by that agenda.
The people need to set their own agenda - To analyse and understand that the problems they face are not merely the result of the 'policies' or 'actions' of a particular Party-in-Power.
The Real Source of the problems we face, is the economic, political, social and cultural construct of the existing social order, the nature of the kind of society in which we are living.
The agenda of those who benefit from this kind of society - the Rich and Powerful - has a big element which is to keep the Majority from seeing the real source of the problem - the very system itself and focusing somewhere else that will only result in replacing one Party-in-Power with another and leave the Power-Behind-the-Throne (the 1%) with their wealth and power intact.
Let's get serious and start setting the Agenda that benefits We, the People.
 
Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen Who Fights for
Democratic Renewal of
Our Society

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