It's no surprise that a program like this one is a hit with audiences - Australians are great respecters of the successful con. In fact it would be fair to say that 'beating The Man' and 'bending the truth' (elsewhere referred to as. er. bull-dusting?) are national sports as well acknowledged as cricket and footy.
Guerrilla Gardeners' basic premise is a war on urban eye-sores. Each episode a team of six land-scapers, gardeners and . well, 'bull-dusters' tackle a neglected piece of public space in the city of Sydney. They come up with a creative plan that promises to beautify a space, then go to work prefabricating its parts so that they can be installed in one fell swoop. Intersections, roundabouts, even rail bridges have been transformed into inner-city oases.
So where's the drama? Well, the tension of the series relies on the team's determination to do all of this work without asking for permission from councils, planning authorities or law enforcement. Now you have all the elements of Backyard Blitz and Spooks combined. Construction cover stories, false IDs and costumes provide a veneer of respectability as the guerrillas race to complete their transformation before they are caught. Even when the authorities turn up, the team aims to maximise confusion and delay until the job is done:
"We've been caught building illegally on council property - but the authorities don't know which council owns it!"
Brought to you by the same people who created Bondi Rescue, it is no surprise Guerrilla Gardeners injects far more tension than actually exists. Getting the permissions the team requires for the vast majority of their work wouldn't be much of a barrier to an experienced producer. On the contrary, councils would probably welcome the opportunity to be seen as public benefactors instead of stingy authorities. However covert, wobbly camera work and tense voice-overs make it sound like the team is always skirting on the edge of legal disaster. Episode after episode, though, it seems that most of what they are doing is of little concern to those pesky authorities. And when they do get pulled up for something significant - like the erecting of a structure that doesn't comply with safety standards - notice how quickly the entire operation shuts down. The producers clearly lack the courage of their convictions, and are not prepared to trade legal action for public approval.
But who can blame them? We may talk about the unfairness of putting a speed camera at the bottom of a hill but when the fine comes in the mail who actually ignores it? Who would really tell a magistrate that on that particular day you had decided to 'stick it to the man'?
Guerilla Gardeners apparently sees a place for civil disobedience - if you think something is ugly, you should have a right to change it. At the end of each program they tell viewers,
"If there is a public eye-sore near you, let us know! So we can do the wrong thing for the right reasons."
There it is - the ends justify the means. It's philosophy we wouldn't accept in any other facet of life - on the roads, at work, in the law courts - but it is trumpeted here because the areas the Guerillas are attacking seem so trivial. And so we arrive at another favourite human philosophy - it's all right, so long as I'm not hurting anyone. But that is simply a matter of perspective. Each Guerilla Gardener story could sound quite different told by a distraught family and a current affairs program.
The balance of each episode makes it clear that the real targets for the Guerrilla Gardeners are not the garden beds but whatever passes for Authority. Yet the day-to-day truth is that we cede our personal authority to the institutions we set up - the police, traffic authorities, even councils - because we recognise that peace rests on the back of a hefty set of rules.
Rules are easy to dispense with, until you come to the ones that protect you personally. A world where people can do whatever they like in the name of beauty and personal expression doesn't work. It results in hastily constructed gazebos falling on heads and idyllic palm trees causing car accidents. We need someone to step in and regulate behaviour, ensure just and equitable outcomes, and not just at the street level.
It is one of the fundamental hopes of the human heart that, one day, justice will be done at every level. When laws and human authorities fail us, we look to God to balance the equation. He is perfect. His laws are indisputable and they promise the sort of tranquillity you can't get with a garden bed. More so, His judgement is something that no-one can talk their way out of. If we trust that He will judge justly, it gives us hope. If we don't . we might as well go about reshaping the world according to our own preferences while trying to ignore the thought of our own accountability. But don't be surprised when someone more 'creative' comes along and decides to build a garden in your carport.
