1080 protests more to do with our society

IT seems to me the ongoing anti1080 protests have less to do with 1080 and more to do with the stratification of our meritocratic society, and consequent resentments.

In our ostensibly equal opportunity society, theoretically a person is promoted and rewarded according to their merit and abilities in society’s widely and highly valued fields such as business acumen, leadership, education and material success, irrespective of race, religion, race, gender and class.

Those whose abilities and gifts are not thus valued may be deemed ‘‘failures’’ by the socioeconomically successful, who rise to become of the wealthy and ‘‘ruling classes’’.

Because socioeconomic position in adulthood may now be seen as reflecting one’s ‘‘ability’’ and not the more visible features one is born with and into, and on to which prejudices are hung, wherever one finds oneself socially may be deemed to be one’s own fault through lack of those abilities in society’s valued but narrow fields.

This creates a social division of ‘‘winners’’ and ‘‘losers’’, and anger and resentment among the latter, which requires an outlet and a cause.

The 1080 issue provides that outlet and cause because, on the whole, those supporting aerial 1080 pest control come from the educated and governing sections of our society.

A cathartic outlet for the resentment against the ‘‘elites’’ felt by those who feel powerless and excluded from the ‘‘halls of authority’’ is manifested in the anti1080 protests. But the cause could equally well be a different and socially divisive issue. Paul ElwellSutton

Haast