From: mott@rp.CSIRO.AU (Martin Ott)
Subject: Re: Club of Rome Warning!
Organization: CSIRO Division of Radiophysics/Australia Telescope National Facility
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 08:25:37 GMT

I better put my disclaimer right on top:
I am german and a guest in Australia for 6 months. Therefor it
is not up to me to critisize (neither good nor bad) the australian society.
All my points below base on observations in west-europe, east-europe
and a bit of USA. 
But I think the phenomenon of ignorant society is a global one.
And maybe you can use my 2 cents below in seeking for an answer to ur 
'australian-specific' question.


In article <996200270@peg.pegasus.oz.au> losway@peg.pegasus.oz.au writes:
>
>Information about and from the Club of Rome is scarce in Australia, ...

They same counts for Europe.
> 
>[...] 
>In the above mentioned program Dennis Meadows says,
>[...]
>"Unless we undertake a fundamental re-orientation of our economy 
>in both directions, that is use of materials and population 
>growth, it will be too late by the year 2015 or 2020. By then 
>collapse is unavoidable. Possibly a global collapse will not 
>have happened by then, but similar to the loss of control on an 
>icy road where one can still feel safe and sound moments before, 
>the catastrophe, the collapse, is directly before us, 
>unavoidable. The same will happen to us."
> 
>[...] 
>Again I ask: why don't we hear more about the Club of Rome? Why 
>don't we open more to the world in general, rather than being 
>forced to concentrate on mostly American-style moralistic 
>agendas?


Saw Stephen King's 'IT' this week ? : "They just do NOT want to know...!"

The western style of economy base on expansion. Be it 'free market economy'
of the USA or the so-called 'social market' of Germany, if the market is
saturated (i.e. every family got its 4 cars and 5 TVs) the only way
for economy to survive and even more important, the only way the income
of the workers to increase is to find new markets
(families with yey only 3 cars and 4 TVs :).
In this respect workers as well as the big bosses are united. One side wants
to keep their jobs, the other side needs yet another dadcha in Florida.
So there is no reason to change anything in the market. All are simply
too conservative.
The 3rd party are the media. And you might have guessed it by now: They are
run by the same type of workers and bosses. That is, the media/news
business is like any other kind of business (nowadays). 'News/Information'
is simply a product, which is sold to the ppl. And in order to survive,
a media-'factory' must produce news which can be sold.
You might agree that bad news about future are very difficult to sell.
Such reports as by the Club of Rome are therefore presented as 
'amusing things out of the world of scientists', implying that scientists
have no idea about real life (i.e. the need for having a job, 4 cars....).
(As an astronomer I got some special experience on how the media
sell science to the public)

Let me give you an example for the same kind of "we dont wanna know"
phenomenon:
in the middle of the 70s, about after this first report of the Club of Rome
the german government founded an institute with the task of doing
'futurology', i.e. finding out about possible types of furture realities
if this or that might happen/continue. As head of the institute was 
choosen Carl-Friedrich von Weizsaecker (an older brother of the current
president); a man with probably the best reputation in every respect
one can think of (at that time).
After 2 or three years the first reports were presented and out of a 
sudden ther was officially no more money for the institute and it was
closed down by the same government. If that government would have been
of the conservatives (the socalled 'christians'), I would have said
"Ah, ok.. of course, the industry's bosses lobby...".
But those days it was the social-democrats (workers party) in the lead,
so I thought: 'stop,...why dont even they reject the 'truth'?'

The reason why even bright managers, politicans(do they exist?) and
workers dont want to change anything in production lines is maybe
for the 'group-pressure' (germanism: 'I better do what society expects
me to do'). But the problem is, as known, not only one of changing 
protuction lines from making tanks to make vaccum cleaners. It is
the problem of teaching families that they only need 2 cars and only
one TV per village.
In summer 1991 I visited some villages in the Caucasus mountains.
For me it was a paradise. But they of course wont rest until there
village looks like any other western city, for that's what they
consider to be the paradise.

To be honest to my self, I think if I would go 100KPH with my car
and there would be ice all over the next curve, I wouldnt want to know...


Hmmmm... wonder if you can make anything out of my worker-boss-examples.
One thing I like most in your country is the class-less society, a
east-european socailist can only dream of...
Or did I get a totally wrong impression in the 2 months being here ?

so long
Martin

2nd disclaimer: I neither 'red' nor 'black' nor do I favor any other
kind of party or religion
Newsgroups: aus.politics