Opinion Articles

*Society should budget for the Spirit within
By Bryan Dunn
Bryan Dunn is the Director of Centacare, the welfare agency of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

In reviewing The Edukator, The Movie Show recently pointed out how that film lifts the lid on the phenomenon of western society's strong trend to ‘silence dissent'.

At this time of the Spirit, Pentecost in the Church's year, the opposite is encouraged. The Spirit was sent to the repressed disciples - despairing and dispirited after the execution of their leader by a coalition of religion and state. Each of them, individually, received the gift of fire. That gift enabled them, despite their fear, to listen to the voice of dissent within and to speak their truth with remarkable results.

The repression of dissent can take many forms. Often it is subtle. In a budget statement, an artful Treasurer can repress dissent by labelling disability pensioner recipients as those with ‘bad backs'. Who of us, it is implied, would support a ‘shirker' with a bad back? The next day's headline reads, ‘Workers 1; Shirkers 0'. A complicit media. Black and white. Right and wrong. No argument.

Questioning may lead us into the following conversations with ourselves.

We do not like shirkers. Mr Costello could be right. But what about that daughter of a friend of ours – the one with an intellectual disability? She could hold down a job with the right training and support. Will she get that under this new regime? And the young spray painter down the road who survived a car accident but is left with brain injury. He's a stranger to his own family. He needs support and a place to live. Will he get that under this new proposal?

What's in store for people like these? Is there dignity? They may never be workers. Is it really as simple as the headline implies?

And what of bureaucracies? They too can be infected with fear of dissent even while setting themselves up to serve the community. So a norm develops, passed on by the dominant cultural context, that those who are different can be treated with suspicion; Their faces are not white, their first language is not English, so their rights are not examined. They can be detained despite mental illness or deported despite recent traumatic injury.

Enquiries are held internally to protect ‘confidentiality'. Who can argue with that?

But do we not have a lingering doubt that all is not well, that we have been placated, our judgement silenced?

Our politicians want us to be relaxed and comfortable. They are telling us lately that we need to be reassured that we are safe. I believe, rather, that we need leadership. We need to restore our moral compass.

Perhaps we are irritated by the reassurances, by the focus on individual comfort. We may doubt that the tax cuts are what a country in drought needs. It is that lingering doubt that we can hold on to, encourage, and nurture: the spirit of dissent; the voice of the Spirit within.