We listened to a Radio New Zealand Kim Hill interview with Chris Trotter, author of "No Left Turn". Some of us wanted to turn closer to home and to attempt to integrate some of the thinking that went on last week about aid and self -interest in a New Zealand context. We wondered if Chris Trotter would provide a starting point for a dialogue national issues."While the successes of those who came to this shore in search of power and wealth remain locked in bitter conflict with those who came in search of equality and justice, nothing of enduring worth can be constructed in this country." We found Chris Trotter's framing of political life as a battle between right and left a little simplistic and outdated. But we were inspired by his stories of the working class engagement with ideas and political awareness in thirties New Zealand. That voter turnout was 92 percent in the 1930's compared to 77 percent in 2005. We remembered how in earlier years New Zealanders had a strong record of sorting out their own social problems at a community level. For instance kindergartens, worker's libraries, Ironsides (mobility transport) were all community level initiatives. We recognised that the new underclass was not working. We wondered what it would take to change this class from being beneficiaries of welfare to becoming participants in a democracy. How could this most under-represented group be given a voice.
The work of Michael Young on the dangers of organising society on the basis of meritocracy was mentioned. Social mobility uploaded the most intelligent and articulate of the working classes into the ranks of the middle class where they are easily distracted by individualistic consumption and become alienated and therefore fail to represent their working class roots. This ensured that the system doesn't have to change since the ideology and hope is that the best of the poor rise up through the system. Then poverty could be seen as the fault of the poor....if you worked harder or had more talent you wouldn't be poor.
We asked ourselves if left or right labels were still relevant in political commentators since the turn of the NZ Labour party to the right in the mid 1980's. We wondered when does the right to pursue individual freedom turn into the right to exploit others for our own pecuniary gain? We decided that keeping 80% of the population relatively happy meant there was a significant vested interest in keeping things the way they are and made structural systemic change very difficult. If society cared about the whole 100% there would be changes made to housing, health and employment and perhaps our child abuse statistics might improve.
We finished with thinking about the value of ideas versus ideologies. Trotter's arguments are passionate and powerful but he engages in analysis of the past rather than in designing the future. We would like to ask him what kind of a future he would design? Encourage him to be generative.
We concluded that the TED talks had served us well since they present ideas rather than ideologies; there is space left to consider these ideas as ideas; they inspire and therefore create hope. De Bono was quoted from the Knowledge Wave conference. "Analyze the past. Design the future." I wanted to play Dudley Benson: It's Akaroa's Fault video from Youtube.
Lynne
Nicky Hager reviews Chris Trotter's "No Left Turn" in the August 25th 2007 Listener and you can read the review here
We finished by listening to Trinity Roots play Aotearoa from their Home, Land and Sea album.
