Why we need to activate ‘civil society’

In high school, I was ridden by fear and a need to fit in. Some of that fear was from bullies – usually the human wrecking balls that would chase you down at lunch – and some was from just wanting to say the right thing to ‘be cool’. When I said something I didn’t believe, or didn’t say things I did believe, I was trying to fit in. That is understandable.

But it comes with trade-offs. I said things about women and girls to the boys that I knew weren’t right. I didn’t say things when I knew something was wrong. Undeniably, this reinforced a permission regime for misogyny in the schoolyard. It was understandable that I did this, but it wasn’t defensible. And it had broader consequences.

Our mental health system

Our need to fit in impacts our ability to transform mental health systems. Our mental health systems are still amid what will be remembered as an age of mass human rights breaches.

While the daily decisions of politicians, policy makers and practitioners are undoubtedly shaped by systemic incentives, to stop the conversation would be to deny the evidence of our unique human agency. Through collective reason, we have the ability to design profoundly helpful systems that have saved lives and improved living conditions.

Equally, that reason as often goes to rationalising our conduct, rather than correcting it. Often those most eloquent are those most seduced by our self-affirming words. They produce and are a product of a ‘go-along-to-get-along’ culture.

This week’s events

This week, myself, Nicole Lee, Tim Reed MP (Greens) and Emma Keally MP (Nationals) were in the Guardian calling out the Mental Health Complaints Commission and Victorian Government for failing to release public data. It is a case in point of specific decisions by individuals being the cause of misery – the ability to release this information could be done today – rather than a broader system.

What bothers me is that this conduct by the Commission has been an open secret within the system for some years. Only organisations like Mind Australia and VMIAC have been willing to speak out about it in recent times. That this hasn’t been taken up by a broader base of organisations is to me, a product of a go-along-to-get-along culture within the system which risks lapsing into complicity. This has meant upwards of 14 000 complaints (as of 2023) have been made by harmed consumers and carers, without much to show for it systemically. This is not their failure, it is ours as ‘civil society’.

Time to move on from our ‘go-along-to-get-along’ culture

Change is going to come in this space. The only question is the pace of the change and whether we can justify the harm to Victorians caused by our commitment to glacial progress.

Civil society – referring to the broader organisations and individual advocates outside the government – is how we hold government accountable. It is the lifeblood of democracy and a principal safeguard against corruption. Our capacities to reason didn’t function to work in isolation, they only function correctly via collective dialogue and debate. This is why organisational courage and public information on system performance are both so crucial.

We have the ability to demand more change. The question is whether we democratically unify to demand that change. If we do, progress will move far more quickly. The mass support for the recent Not Before Time is one personal example that comes to mind for me.

We’ve all graduated or moved on from high school. Let’s leave that mindset and culture behind too.