Injustice and all that...

OK, I'm starting to sound like a broken record now, but I really, really like the biography of John Newton I'm reading.

An interesting insight into Newton's life is that he actually captained a slave ship after he had a conversion experience, and it wasn't until he was a relatively old man that he realised the injustice of slavery.

It made me think about a couple of things. Firstly, we don't automatically recognise injustice when we see it. There are often things our society accepts that are quite unjust, but until people stand up against it we don't notice.

The second thing is that as a society we are actually rather fatigued with campaigns against injustice. In the 80s we had Band Aid - which didn't really do much to provide lasting change in Ethiopia. Then we had the Jubilee 2000 campaign, which failed to achieve anything by the year 2000, so it's morphed into "Let's make Poverty History". What did that boil down to for most people? White silicone wrist bands. Has anything changed? Well, we had some fun concerts last year...

The third thing is that we are cynical, now. We doubt the ability to achieve anything so we don't try. We see people bring injustice upon themselves and so don't go into bat for them. Take the pokies for example. James Packer is Australia's richest man, and his fortune now largely rests on the misfortune of the poor people in our society. How? He's slowly reducing his stake in media companies and increasing his wealth through online gambling, casinos and poker machines. He's used his influence to get Morris Iemma to pressure the Gaming Minister into allowing Betfair to run in NSW. These systems are patently unfair. By giving away a bare minimum of money they enslave people into losing their homes, families, and livelihoods on a regular basis. But we sit back and think "well, people have a choice, and they let themselves be sucked in to this stuff".

Slavery is alive and well in our country - a voluntary slavery to the flashing lights and false promises of prosperity. Sure, people submit themselves to this false promise, but let's see it for the blight it is. The clubs don't want to lose the revenue, but their plush lobbies and atriums are built on the backs of debt-ridden struggling families. It's not the wealthy Eastern Suburbs residents who donate their wealth to poker machines. Where are the largest clubs in Sydney? Penrith. Rooty Hill. Fairfield. Not exactly brimming with Maybachs and private yachts...


Here endeth the rant. :)