Fairfax political journalist Michelle Grattan stated on Radio National last week that Australians are unlikely to take the all-encompassing 'helicopter' view at the next election. And this, despite the 300 pieces of new legislation achieved so far by the Gillard Government under the extremely challenging conditions of a minority government.
Instead of focusing on the overview of this remarkable achievement, these citizens will be bogged down in the detail of one scandalous union funds abuse, the misbehaviour of another high profile government official and the alleged impact of some new progressive taxes on their personal lives.
It has become the fashion to trade negative remarks about the other side of politics but this takes us nowhere. Better to contemplate the advantages of Grattan's 'helicopter view' which is very like the concern of the Canadian political philosopher, John Ralston Saul, about the proliferation of 'experts' in the conduct of affairs in the West.
We need the generalist citizen, Saul argues, who remembers it is his or her right to speak up on all matters from a citizen's broad perspective. We are responsible as citizens for what happens to our country. This means taking the whole picture into account, being prepared to hear all perspectives and to participate in the public debate. We have an early template for the benefits of this process in readings about the ancient Greek city state.
Australia has a headstart with respect to the helicopter view. Our own Indigenous people have manifest in their art the most miraculous ability and inclination to see landscapes as though from the sky. Many Aboriginal artists, without having viewed their area from above, have mapped their 'country' on canvas with remarkable sensitivity.
Perhaps it is because of this overview of the lie of their land that they tended it so sustainably in pre-European days, as detailed in Bill Gammage's recent award-winning book The Biggest Estate on Earth.
Some years ago I was blessed with a personal lesson in the value of the helicopter view in the classroom, at a centre for specially challenged students. Before each session the teacher would require the students to discuss why the learning we were about to do was important in the world's terms. Then at the end she would have us