Love the German word for “spirit of the times’’ – zeitgeist. Some dictionaries say it’s the “defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time’’. The modern media, especially the visual and digital variety, is the prism through which current issues are distilled in our communities.
So is the media capturing the zeitgeist as we speak? The media is of course very fragmented, so for instance if you turned on ABC TV any time in the past couple of years the top three issues covered to the max are climate change, boat people in detention centres and gay marriage. The republic was a goer a couple of years ago but it’s got the flick of late.
But are these three the most iconic issues of our times for the average person in Macarthur and Liverpool? Nobody is saying they’re not important, but I suspect most local people only think about them when alerted to them by the media.
So if there was a zeitgeist Top 5 what would be the five issues that we should be talking about at home and at work? While you’re thinking of yours, here’s our Top 5 zeitgeist issues:
Number 1. The rising cost of housing. This is first and daylight second. We are in the Sydney metro area after all. How far away are we from the day young people will give up trying to buy their own place?
Number 2. Cost of living. It hardly gets any media attention but talk to others who do the shopping for their household and this is a biggie for a lot of local families.
Number 3. Job security. There’s virtually none for everybody, and that’s the problem. Is there anybody out there listening to ordinary people who are working more and more hours for less pay? Not to mention the sword of redundancy hanging over them
Number 4. Health. Are our local hospitals functioning properly, will they look after me if I get sick and have to go there? The answer is generally yes, but people would like to find out more about their health services, not just when politicians try to win votes by talking about long waiting times, etc.
Number 5. Education is another biggie for local families; they want to know about what’s on offer, primary and high school wise. With a lot more people moving into the south west there may be a period when existing schools will come under pressure.
