per·spec·tive n.
1
a. A view or vista.
b. A mental view or outlook: “It is useful occasionally to look at the past to gain a perspective on the present” (Fabian Linden).
2. The appearance of objects in depth as perceived by normal binocular vision.
3.
a. The relationship of aspects of a subject to each other and to a whole: a perspective of history; a need to view the problem in the proper perspective.
b. Subjective evaluation of relative significance; a point of view: the perspective of the displaced homemaker.
c. The ability to perceive things in their actual interrelations or comparative importance: tried to keep my perspective throughout the crisis.
4. The technique of representing three-dimensional objects and depth relationships on a two-dimensional surface.
The reason I've included the definition of perspective above is so anyone reading this won't have to trawl through a dictionary to look it up. Any one can have a perspective view of an event or situation. Nearly all individual perspectives are subjective (yeah, okay, if you don't know what this means, sorry, but I couldn't be bothered going through the rigmarole again). Very few of us can maintain any objectivity, particularly when it comes to love, family, religion, entertainment, politics or favourite sports teams. But the reason I want to talk about perspective is to do with the fact that national elections are occuring this coming weekend (today being Friday) and it does bear a little last minute discussion.
I watch Channel 9 News and frustrate myself even further by watching Ray Martin's A Current Affair. The only 'current affairs' Ray has on this show is with his toupee, as far as I'm concerned. Most of it is cash-book journalism at its worst, where every measley device is used to pull whatever strings the producers think need pulling. Forget about anything even remotely objective: this bleeding-heart liberal bullshit is so subjective it can hide up its own fat, comfortable backside. It is this sort of 'objectivity' that is confusing a lot of voters out there. A friend was at a hairdressers recently and, in conversation with the 20-something girls working there, established they were all registered to vote, were all going to the polls tomorrow, were getting their names crossed off and not entering a single pencil mark on their ballot papers. Yep, they'd decided their form of protest would be not to make any selection whatsoever. My friend did her hardest to try to get them to change their minds but nothing worked. Now, this was one small business in the northern suburbs of Sydney, traditionally Liberal territory. A lot of voters are so confused about who is right, who is wrong, who is lying and who is telling the truth that they can't make up their minds.
What disturbed me more is that they seem to have no perspective when it comes to politics. A lot of people are getting their opinions made up for them by television shows such as Current Affair and just not bothering to do a little research themselves. And when they are constantly told through extremely subjective advertising that the news and current affairs they watch is "the number one news in Sydney", I guess they figure its one less thing they have to worry about. Far be it from me to say which team is right or wrong, but at least I can say I've read, listened and thought about whom I would like to lead the country and whom I would like to represent my community in Parliament. My concern is that many people will do exactly as the hairdresser girls are going to do, which means the process as a whole loses a lot of its necessary objectivity. I'd rather see a system similar to the states if this is the case because then at least there is a good chance that those who make the effort to vote have formed a reasonably intelligent opinion about whom they'd like based on their own research. If you are going to vote tomorrow, please at least fill out your ballot paper. Have your say and you, and I, may be pleasantly suprised.