Doug PollardEvolution in Action
Some die out because they can't adapt
We’re in an awkward, in-between time. We threw off the straitjacket of the Howard years with a huge cry of relief, but then didn’t know what to do next.
We didn’t want Howard, or any of his successors, but we couldn’t warm to Rudd either - or any of his.
We’re in the middle of unfinished business. We want change, but we’re afraid of it. We cling to old ways and institutions, but our heart isn’t in them. They don’t work anymore.
Trade unions don’t: if they did, we wouldn’t have a shopworkers union working diligently against gay rights.
Political parties don’t, or they would represent their members beliefs instead of changing their policies and leaders with every poll.
Churches don’t, or they wouldn’t fight like cornered rats for every scrap of government money and government-bestowed privilege they can grab: the faithful would happily stump up the necessary.
The list goes on: banks, bookstores, newspapers, television, recorded music – the old models are dying, new ones are emerging. And our community institutions are fighting, changing or dying right alongside them.
Bricks and mortar, committees and hierarchies, scheduled broadcasts, fixed publication dates are out. Online shopping, iTunes, You Tube, blogs, websites and viral campaigns are the new way.
Instead of political parties, where you pay to promote a parcel of policies, including some you don’t like, we have GetUp, where you buy into campaigns you like and ignore the rest.
Instead of tuning into TV and radio stations, we stream or download podcasts and vodcasts. To make radio and TV, we just grab some software and a mike or a camera; to reach an audience, forget expensive transmitters, just use the internet.
Instead of buying a whole album, we buy single tracks from iTunes. Using PayPal instead of a ban-issued credit card. To make a song, we don’t need a physical instrument. To sell it, we don’t need a record company.
Instead of hanging around overpriced bars hoping The Right One comes along, we scope out potential partners online, and meet where we like. Or we head out with our smartphone apps running , to alert us to prospects in the vicinity.
We run community organisations from home, meet on Skype, rent services and meeting spaces when we need them. No need for offices, staff and equipment – all we need is a laptop apiece.
It seems apt for the times, if rather unsettling, that overseeing all this is a series of shifting temporary coalitions, instead of the monolithic majority government we’re used to.
The social habitat is changing. We could try to preserve those things that no longer have a habitat or purpose, but that way lies extinction. Like everything else, our institutions must adapt to the environment, or die, so their remains can feed the new species. That’s evolution in action. Let’s embrace it.
