I have never been able to predict public opinion. I have a distinct memory of the pupils in my primary school one day being swept up in a frenzy when they saw a car pass our school. This was in the 50's. Both boys and girls were affected. They ran along inside the schoolyard following the car which was on the road outside. And they were making a noise something akin to cheering. It was in effect a mob action. Wow!....... Look at it!.......Did you see it?.........Thats such and such........ My Sister knows him......... Etc. What they were doing was following Public Opinion. Public Opinion had already said to a number of students that this car was exciting. They in turn passed this belief on to the rest of the school. The car was a two tone Holden Sedan. The colours were dark green and light green, It was polished shiny. It had a foxtail attached to the radio aerial. The driver was wearing sunglasses. I could not understand what the excitement was all about. A bloke that I felt no connection with was driving past the school. Why was this a thing of excitement? Should I have joined in the excitement? Why didn't I find this exciting? Why did I stand apart? I think that some of the attraction was the car. This person had acquired the things that were meant to bring envy from the rest of society. The foxtail was a brand new fashion and appeared to indicate sophistication. The man himself was dressed fashionably and he wore sunglasses all the time. This was at the end of austerity when children still wore cast off clothes. He was seen as a success to be emulated. He had acquired a fashionable car. Somehow his life was seen to be very exciting. His life had meaning . All the children at my school wanted to know him. Except for me. The man in question was new to the area. He had lately moved to the area to take up a job with a local transport company. I don't think he had any relatives in the area. He was boarding with a family further up the creek. He had only recently purchased to car. He didn't stay long in the area. I don't know what happened to him. He disappeared. Of course later in life I learned what his life would have been like. I didn't know this at the time. He only had a labourers job cleaning trucks and loading trucks. He didn't even drive them. All his wage would have gone in car repayments. Probably he had his car re possessed and felt so humiliated he had to leave the area. This often happened in the district I loved in. Family honour meant this type of thing was only mentioned in whispers. The 50's was the beginning of hire purchase and this would have allowed him to purchase the car. The majority of his pay would have gone on the car. He would have been attached to the Finance Company in an extremely close way. His life would have been in effect a hollow one. There would have been none of the glamour attached to his life that people thought. He would have had to work hard as a labourer. He would not have had much scope for a private life. But public opinion at the time said he was glamorous. Young people wanted to emulate him. Perception is important to the majority of people. This is how public opinion works.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Topics
All
Archives
February 2024
|