Garry thinks it’s time to build bridges between opposing ideas:
I will now probably be stoned by some of my friends for saying this. Each week I read the article written by Oliver Hartwich in Newsroom.
He has a deep knowledge of Europe, and he writes in depth about it. He works for the NZ Initiative, an organization I deeply distrust for its promotion of solutions which are mostly right wing. This week’s article To stop megaphone populists triumphing, we need unlikely left-right alliance – Newsroom addressed a topic I feel strongly about. No, I’m not going to start attending the Free Speech Union, but in this article, there were many challenges we have to face up to. Too often we sit comfortably in our tribal settings glaring at those we see as not agreeing with our quite sensible solution. Well, that times over. For the good of the planet and future generations.
Take a read of the article and let’s discuss what I got wrong in what I wrote underneath it. Here was my response:
As somebody who easily wears the label “left” I found this article thoughtful and challenging. I share your concerns about the state society is in right now.
Years ago, I abandoned my regular attendance at Catholic mass. However, the messages I learnt from the day I was born within this religion are deeply engrained in my thinking and actions. I spent years studying liberation theology and this philosophy has always driven my thinking and actions in both my personal relationships and my public life.
The word missing in your excellent article is “ethics”. As a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants one of the key documents I feel so often missed by fellow members is the “Code of Ethics”. Without a commitment to ethics and morality our society is in a vulnerable state. I have had a foot in private and public enterprise, and public elected office all my life.
At the age of 75 it appears to me that our society has arrived at a place where we know the price of everything and too often discount the value of anything which cannot have a financial value placed on it. Our public debates are not driven by people sensibly listening to each other but instead by algorithms “managed” by a small number of shockingly rich men which focus on the extremes separating us.
Our politics are managed by professional politicians who are essentially technocrats living within tribal frameworks. Too often not driven by ethics but the expectations of, and loyalty to, their tribe. On my shelf is a frame holding the cut in half life member card of the Labour Party. I finally, having been a successful Labour representative in Local Government, became fed up with the party focus being on centralizing everything whilst cutting the flow of funds and the responsibility which goes with it to people on the ground. Some months ago, I wrote to my local MP asking him if he would mind informing me of the difference between Labour and National. Since then, silence.
Oliver, I feel that the right has been incredibly successful in sucking the marrow out of morality in public discourse through the tool of neo-liberal economics, accepted by most political parties as acceptable. I observe community agencies willingly describing themselves as “non-profit” organizations. This description is straight out of the neo-liberal textbook. The implication is that because it is not for profit then it must be measured against how a “for profit” organization would perform. Every action in our society seems to be measured against financial goals only.
Right now, government agencies, and their political masters, are protecting their own interests and cutting local and community support to the bone. In our towns and cities, we have indicators like school attendances, hospital waiting lists and the homeless lying in shop fronts and under trees in our parks. This is the manifestation of an absence of ethics and compassion in our society at the highest levels, in every party.
Later last week I attended the tangi of a woman who alongside her husband cared for the poor, lost and crushed people in our city for decades. She didn’t measure her work in dollars. She just gave a helping hand up.
The challenge right now for both left and right, Oliver, is to empower those marvellous individuals who teach our children, who heal our sick, and care for those society has left behind. The answer is in ethics being injected into political theories and public, and private, institutions. Thank you for your thought-provoking article.
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