The Eden Effect (12 page)

The stage was empty. The officials had not yet arrived. There was big table on the stage with eight chairs behind it and a microphone in the centre of the table.
Microphones on vertical stands were located in the aisles, presumably for any questions that the audience might have.

There was a low hum in the room, hundreds of voices intermingled and unintelligible. An occasional child's voice could be heard above the hum. No crying thankfully, no one had brought a baby. Martin and Arthur were seated near the front, just two interested residents of Eden. Natalie said she couldn't be bothered coming and would be busy washing her hair. She was sure that Martin and Arthur would fill her in on the details. In any case, she already knew what the meeting was about, as did Martin and Arthur who had planned the whole thing in the first place.

At 1:45pm people began to file onto the stage. The Mayor was first followed by the members of the Shire Council, all six. There were eight chairs behind the table so that there was one more person to come. At precisely 1:55pm that person made his way onto the stage and took the only seat left at the centre of the table, and in front of the microphone. It was Robert Mackie, wearing a dark blue suit, pale blue shirt and a red tie. He had a black folder on the table in front of him. Robert stood up as Mayor Gibson approached him. They shook hands. Robert introduced himself to the Mayor as the person who had spoken to him the phone, some weeks earlier on behalf of the Eden Foundation. He asked the Mayor to open proceedings, as this was an official meeting of the Shire Council. The Mayor agreed and would then introduce Robert to address the crowd. All this was said in an undertone, away from the microphone. No one in the audience could hear, not even the Councillors sitting at the table.

It was 2pm. Mayor Gibson stood next to Robert at the table, between Robert and the Councillors on his left. He lowered the microphone down to the level of his mouth, tapped it twice to make sure it was on and commenced.

‘Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, residents of Eden. We are about to begin. For the record, this is a dully constituted meeting of the Shire Council of the town of Eden. All council members are in attendance. I, Alan Gibson, Mayor will chair the meeting. It is noted that almost all the inhabitants of the town of Eden are present. I will now hand over to our guest, Mr. Robert Mackie, who will address you.'

Robert stood up and adjusted the height of the microphone. He was considerably taller than the Mayor.

‘Thank you Mr. Mayor,' he began. ‘As Mayor Gibson said, my name is Robert Mackie. I'm a lawyer from Melbourne. I'm here representing the Eden Foundation. I would like to make it clear that I have no role in the foundation and I am acting on its behalf as its legal representative.'

There was complete silence in the marquee. Everyone was waiting to hear, finally, what this was all about.

Robert continued. ‘By now, I imagine everyone in Eden is aware of the Eden Foundation. You must be wondering, what is this foundation? Where does it come from, and what does it want to do? Let me explain. The foundation has been set up with a sole purpose of advancing the town of Eden. Who is the Eden Foundation? That, I cannot tell you. Suffice it to say, that the benefactor, who, for at least for now wants to remain anonymous has set up the foundation. This benefactor has close ties to the town of Eden, and like you, realized that the town had been stagnating with an uncertain future. He wants to see the town thrive and you all prosper.'

Robert stopped for a moment, leaned forwards and picked up the glass of water in front of his chair and took a sip of the water. He then continued.

‘This benefactor has had the good fortune to come into some money. Shall we say, a large amount of money. More than he would ever need and his wish is to use some of that money to advance this town.' Another pause. ‘Some of you would be aware that the Eden Foundation has made extensive purchases of property in Eden. It is unlikely that you are fully aware of the total extent of those purchases, and I would therefore like to inform you. Today, the Eden Foundation owns Eden Valley that is common knowledge. It also owns the TV and radio stations and the newspaper. That is something that until now has been kept confidential. The Foundation also owns all the other smaller businesses in the town. In fact, it is safe to say that the Eden Foundation owns all of the commercial assets of Eden.'

There was a murmuring in the crowd, which until now had been completely silent. Robert stopped speaking. Clearly a lot of this information was new to most people. The murmuring consisted of people asking each other, ‘did you know about all this?' Robert could sense a degree of unease in the audience.

‘Let me reassure you. The ownership by the Foundation of the town's business assets has no sinister motive. You may not be aware that Eden Valley had been quiet on the market for some time, and foreign owners were circling. And you know what that would have meant. Yes, jobs going off shore. This will not now happen. While it is true, that in affect almost the whole workforce is employed by the Eden Foundation, all your jobs are secure now and into the future. And as you've no doubt read the Eden Star, Eden Valley is looking to expand and take on more workers. Also, the Foundation is looking at a number of tourism projects, including reopening the old gold mine to attract tourists. A boutique hotel is also being planned to provide upscale accommodation. So, as you can see, Eden's prospects are bright and as the slogan says, ‘The Eden Foundation: Moving Forward.'

Robert picked up the glass again, and this time taking several sips of water. He had been speaking almost nonstop for fifteen minutes. There were a few drops of sweat on his brow. It was a warm afternoon and he was in a woollen suit.

‘I'm sorry if I've been a little long winded,' he said, ‘but I wanted to bring everyone as up to date as possible with the recent events. But that is only part of the purpose of this meeting.'

Murmuring in the crowd again. Robert thought he could hear, ‘here it comes,' somewhere from the front of the audience.

‘The other purpose of this meeting is to ask you, the people of Eden, to do something for the Foundation in return.'

The murmuring grew louder but stopped immediately. Robert started talking again.

‘Some of you have been very generous with your time answering the telephone survey that we have been conducting. And almost all of you have participated in the face-to-face survey, which was recently completed, and for that the Foundation is grateful. You will acknowledge, I hope, that the Foundation has been generous to you and you have all been well compensated for taking part.'

Robert could see smiles on some faces and many heads nodding in agreement.

‘What the Foundation is now asking from you is to be involved in a project. A social experiment, if you will. This will involve little effort on you part, possibly some minor inconvenience. It will take twelve months, but the Foundation feels that the results it expects will make the effort worthwhile. And, at the end of the twelve months, the Foundation will compensate all of you that are involved. I'm not at liberty to discuss the compensation, but bear in mind, the level of compensation you receive for just half an hour of your time.'

This time the noise level was well above the murmuring level and did not die down until Robert tapped his glass a few times with his pen and silence again returned.

‘I'm a lawyer. I'm not able to properly explain this social experiment to you. And to do that, I call on Professor Fiona Malcolm, Head of the Department of Psychology at La Trobe University. Please make her welcome.'

From somewhere behind the stage a woman appeared to rather muted applause. She looked to be in her fifties. She was tall, almost six foot, in the old measurements, short blonde hair, and wearing a female equivalent of a man's business suit. Robert moved his chair a little to his left to allow the Professor close to the microphone. She did not need to change the height of the microphone. The little applause that there had been now stopped.

‘Thank you, Robert,' she began. ‘It is my role to explain to you what Robert calls this social experiment is all about, and I will take questions once I finish.'

You could hear a pin drop and then a child's voice, ‘Mummy, I need toilet,' followed by the embarrassed exit of a young woman with her son, who looked about six or seven years old.

‘Let me give you some background first. You would all be aware of the long standing controversy of what effect violence and movies and TV shows has on the people watching it. There is a school of thought that extreme violence, of the type we see in movies today has harmful effects and could lead to violent acts to be perpetrated by people so predisposed. The opposite opinion is that most people can differentiate between reality and screen violence, and that such violence really has no significant impact on people's behaviour. The jury is still out. But let's extend that to the real world, not the fictional. As you know, we are now living in the so called, 24/7 news cycle. News is instant, ever accessible anywhere, anytime. If an earthquake occurs ten thousand kilometres away, you will be able to read about it and see the pictures in less than an hour. This is a relatively new phenomenon. And it's not just earthquakes. It is murder, rapes, abductions, and bombings. Whatever one person or a group of people inflict on another person or group, you will know about it, wherever it occurs, almost instantly. The question we ask is, is this a good thing or possibly a bad thing? Have you, the people, asked for this news to be so available to you, every minute of every day and at night? Or has this been foisted on you by the ever increasing number of media outlets and news sources. And, is it doing you harm? And if you were not exposed to all this mayhem, would your life be for the better or the worse?

‘The answers to these questions are not known. This is where our social experiment comes in.'

Again, murmuring, but this time quite soft and very brief. She had the audience hooked. She could tell the by the faces of those close to the front that her words had struck a chord. There had been a few nods of agreement while she had been speaking.

‘What is proposed is that for twelve months, the news you will receive will be restricted. Some may prefer the term censored, but I prefer restricted. All news relevant to Eden, to the state of Victoria and the country of Australia will continue as before. But, if a young boy is abducted in the state of Georgia in the United States, and is then found dead, hacked to pieces, you won't know. That will not be broadcast in any form here in Eden. As the same goes for the suicide bombers who blow up schools in Pakistan, or a gunman who massacres a church congregation in Nigeria. Some of you will protest, we have a right to know, you will say. And I do not disagree. But does the right to know override any harm that the knowledge may be doing to you? And quite frankly, what purpose is served by you knowing about a murder of a poor little boy many thousands miles away? I suggest no purpose. Yes, you feel terrible, but your life is not impacted in anyway. So, that is the project. We have estimated that twelve months is required to look for any effect on you, good or bad. After twelve months, the survey that you would have just completed will be repeated and the results compared. We hope to publish the results in a prominent international journal.'

Another chair had been brought to the table next to Robert. The Councillors had all moved up a little and Professor Malcolm sat down.

Robert stood up. ‘Professor Malcolm has said that she is happy to answer questions. You will see microphones in the aisles. Please ask your question at the microphone, and please identify yourself.'

Within seconds, each of the six microphones had queues of three or four people standing behind it. But before any questions could be asked, Robert continued.

‘I would like to anticipate one question, which I'll answer in advance. Your participation in this venture is purely voluntary. I repeat, purely voluntary. You should not feel any pressure to participate.'

At least six prospective questioners returned to their seats, their questions had already been answered.

‘I've three more things to add and then please ask your questions. You will recall from my opening remarks that the Eden Foundation now owns the TV, and radio and newspaper in Eden. The Foundation therefore has full editorial control and will restrict the news along the lines of Professor Malcolm has stated on TV, on radio and in print. I know that some of you have pay TV. Thirty seven percent of you, to be exact. The Foundation does not own or have any financial interest in the pay TV providers, but has come to an arrangement with the providers so that the news on the pay TV channels will be similarly restricted. Thirdly, the internet. This is a new major source of news. The Foundation has arranged with the three major internet providers for Internet filters to be installed at the service providers, blocking access to any news sites, anywhere.'

There was now a huge din in the marquee. Voices were raised, people were standing up, shouting, fists were being waved in the air. Robert continued to stand at the microphone for a full five minutes until it all died down. By then all the remaining questioners had returned to their seats. What else was there to ask?

‘I can see and hear that all of you are not happy,' Robert said. There were a few more shouts.

‘I know that this appears as a radical idea, and an infringement of your right and freedom of choice. Once you have calmed down, please reflect on what we are asking. You will see that there will be almost no negative impact on your life. In practical terms, nothing will change, and you never know, after twelve months you may be thanking us for putting you through this.'

Robert sat down. There was no applause. There were blanks looks on the faces of the Mayor and Councillors as people began to file out, heatedly talking among themselves.