Society Is Trying To Stand On One Leg

I have an image in my mind of an Indian yogi, standing on one leg, his other foot propped against his knee, with his hands held palms-together in front of him, with his head bowed and his eyes almost closed...concentrating. These guys are very skilled and can stand like this for hours, on one leg....concentrating.

Then I see our society, trying so hard to stand on one leg, refusing to use two, simply because we are too proud to admit we are wrong.
We established Australia as an egalitarian society, with votes for women a reality soon after we were made our own nation.Ok, we screwed up along the way, but we accepted many things as normal in society, before they were made law, and we pride ourselves on the idea of judging someone by who they are, not pre-conceived notions. We have always accepted  other points of view, other peoples, other ways of life. It has always been a hallmark of our national character. No more.

Make no mistake, we have not always been comfortable with new-comers, and we take time to accept new ideas, but we never reject ideas out of hand. Until now.

Australian politics and Australian media has become so polarised that they can no longer admit that any point of view except their own is correct. We have witnessed very negative election campaigns in recent years, and now the media is either "Murdoch" or "Packer", with the former being staunchly conservative, and the latter interested in ratings and little else. This does not make for an informed public, or an intelligent society.

The result of this is a society that is becoming polarised as never before in our history. No balanced society can have everyone in either the Left or Right camp, with no-one in the middle. If you stand balanced on two feet, you will still sway slightly, left and right...this is your body maintaining balance...that's what "balance" means, evenly distributing weight between two points (of view).
No society can stand on one political idea alone, like that Yogi, unless that is the only thing they are concentrating on. The U.S.S.R. focussed so strongly on remaining communist at all costs, concentrating only on ideology, that they sacrificed progress, and liberty, and eventually fell so far behind the West that they ultimately collapsed.
The Revisionist Islamic countries that are fighting so hard to only be Muslim, will eventually suffer the same fate, but the cost in lives will be terrible. Ironically, these Islamic idealists are actually trying to recapture the Ottoman Empire, a Golden Age of Islam. The irony that they do not see is that the Ottomans were part of the most enlightened and progressive era that has ever existed in Islam. Learning, Music, Art and Trade were treasured as signs of civilisation by the Ottomans. They will never recapture that time as long as they focus only on religion.

As long as Australia has an "Us and Them" attitude towards politics, societies, religion, and people in general, we will continue to fall down as a society....balance is required.

BUT....it is necessary, as with all things balanced, for this to be a two-way street. They must also accept us a nation and a society. Australians must not accept radical and intolerant views amongst our OWN people, and migrants need to do the same...after all ,isn't that a form of balance?