Facibus Reviews

Craig commented on my Big Brother Law post:

A couple of questions;

do you wonder just how deeply Coonan is connected with the issues of modern communication networks? (I know I do.)

Do you wonder why legislation like this is proposed when there is already sufficuent legislation in place to deal with these issues (if they really are issues.)

And lastly, from an IA POV what do you think about the proliferation of legislation dealing with exceptions rather than the big issues. Coulod democracy do with a knowledge manager?

I replied:

Hi Craig,

thank you for your comment.

I am fairly sure that Helen has some good people advising her - and in this instance, advising her that a little wowserism will go a long way to appeasing people that have extreme views on the place of nudity on TV. I take your point (by inference) that she probably doesn’t know a lot about the communications needs of the average Aussie.

I believe that the issue is one that has been created purely to maintain the 1950s family orientation of those people with extreme views.

It has been said that if it’s on the news, it isn’t important - because road accidents, heart failure and cancer deaths happen every single day. If it’s on the news, be sure that someone will legislate for or against it. There is more media kerfuffle at the moment around a 12 year old model than there is about the thousands of Australians who will die in terrible pain this year - there is evidence that the cancers with a high profile get more funding, and are eventually better treated.

I do not think that democracy needs a knowledge manager - I think that we all need to take it upon ourselves to think about what the real issues are (and I include myself in this, absolutely). We need to be our own IAs - filtering out infospam and soap operas (including BB) and looking behind the bread-and-circuses piffle to what is really important.

What do you think?

Cheers, Andrew

So what’s important? 12 year old models or road deaths caused by truckies who are being worked to extremes by big supermarket chains? Kevin Rudd’s night out on the town or “fashionable” cancers getting more funding than others? Paris Hilton exposing her genitals or the sad state of our health system?

For me, it is about improving the quality of life for as many people as possible - that’s social responsibility 101. Everything else is a distraction - and when we forget that it is a distraction instead of the main game, people die needlessly. We can blame whoever we want, but there is a personal responsibility that we can all take to stay informed about the real issues.  I’m as guilty as anyone on this - perhaps more so, because I know enough to know that there is a difference.