At a speech given at University College Cambridge six years ago Alan Bennett, the English actor,author and playwright said “One only has to stand still in order to become a radical”
It’s a very plumb English way of saying something that for me is a personal truth. I became a radical simply because my values stood still.
Certainly , until the lockdown , I felt I was being treated as a radical by mainstream commentators for simply re- stating values I had grown up with in a New Zealand that vanished overnight when the Fourth Labour Goverment unshered in neoliberal economics and the politics of selfishness
As a result, we don’t, for example, have a fair education system , and yet we once had a system of learning that was the envy of the world because it gave every child,rich or poor, the opportunity to realize their potential however great or small.
It was a system that put me, a kid from a working class family into the same class as kids whose mothers and fathers were doctors and lawyers . Today there are rich Public schools and poor Public schools.
Just think about that for a moment.
In my book of social fairness there ought not to be a multiple teired public education system where the sons and daughters of the rich get access to better resources and facilities that the sons and daughters of the poor.
Don’t get me wrong. The best resource in any classroom is the teacher and I have seen some stunning educational programmes being run by incredibly dedicated teachers in schools that are in some of the poorest areas of our country.
I grew up in a New Zealand where the government believed it was tasked with making sure that every citizen had food on the table , a warm dry roof over their head, got medical treatment when they needed it and education was a public good – our gift to the next generation-not an individual advantage that the individual should pay for.
Today , on the radio and mainstream TV, I still hear the bleating voices of those who benefitted hugely from neoliberal New Zealand panicking that the world is going to be very different after the lockdown is over. Why ? Because in post- pandemic New Zealand cooperation will be king and not the unhealthy brand of competition that punishes the many at the expense of the few.
I can’t tell you how pervasive is the mood for change to a fairer economy and society. What I can tell you is that in the last 27 days I’ve had skype conversations with many people around the country and read many opinions, including comments by you on my own page – all of which have broadly expressed the view that they don’t want to come out of this terrible time to emerge into the self -centred consumer driven society we had before the pandemic struck . They don’t want to return to the ‘old normal” they want a “new normal.”
They want a fairer New Zealand. They want a society that no longer measures the value of people in dollar terms but recognises the worth of an individual in what they contribute to our society – be it bringing up their children or caring for our elderly.
And they want THIS Labour led government to return to the values of fairness and equity we once held dear but the David Lange /Roger Douglas Labour government betrayed.
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
Good thoughts, Bryan.
NZ returning to greater social fairness, greater cohesion, improved mental health, and some degree of environmental health entails renouncing the loot-and-pollute mentality that neoliberalism -as expounded by the Chicago school of economics- encompasses. The whole ‘Greed is good’ and do it because you can mentality promoted by the for-profit media needs to be brought to an abrupt end.
We can only hope that America becomes so weakened under Trump that is become incapable of venting its wrath (well, the wrath of American financial, corporate and military empire builders) on nations that dare to speak of socialism and independence….Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, former Yugoslavia, Venezuela, Libya etc.
The good news is, Trump’s idiotic actions -based on the short term interests of hoteliers, casino owners and Wall Street speculators and exploiters- are lumbering the US with even more monstrously unrepayable debt than existed under Obama. Even at close to zero interest rates the repercussions are enormous. And ‘the oil war’ between American frackers and Saudi Arabia and Russia is about to demolish large sectors of the US economy (along with the extraordinarily nasty Canada tar sands extraction).
Bearing in mind that fracking has been propping up the US energy sector for a decade (even though few frackers ever made money: it has always been about future profitability and junk loans to get to that point).
‘Department of Energy was considering a plan to pay shale drillers not to produce.’
So now the Fed has to ‘print’ money to pay frackers to not frack???!!
The absurdity of mainstream ‘economics’ pushes to ever higher levels. (Don’t get me started on GDP, the absurd measure of economic activity that measures accidents and natural disasters as positives because they provide opportunities for rebuilding of replacement).
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Oil-Price-Mayhem-Is-The-Market-Broken.html
Trump calls for bailout. In a tweet on Tuesday, President Trump said: “We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future!” For now, it is unclear what form such government help will take, although a week ago, Bloomberg reported that the Department of Energy was considering a plan to pay shale drillers not to produce.
Sane and sustainable arrangements involve tackling the absurd monetary system in which central banks ‘print’ money and charge interest on it in order to facilitate credit/ liquidity, and commercial banks create money out of thin air facilitate mortgages and loans to assist individuals to become debt-slaves.
And sane and sustainable arrangements involve abandoning the worship of GDP -which is actually a Global Destruction Paradigm or Globalised Destruction Paradigm.
I suspect (almost know for certain) that Jacinda’s government’s efforts (as are all governments’ efforts) are focused on getting use of fossil fuels back to pre-Covid levels, thereby bringing forward the time when the Earth becomes largely uninhabitable for humans and most other vertebrate species.
“And they want THIS Labour led government to return to the values of fairness and equity we once held dear but the David Lange /Roger Douglas Labour government betrayed.”
So much so, that for the first time in my life, AND having the respect I do for JA, It’ll be a split vote come next election away from Labour (Electorate/Party) UNLESS there is some clear indication of an intent to reform. Completely away from the pervasive neo-liberal agenda. That reform needs to include the public service and provide a means for the 4th Estate to operate in a way it was intended it should evolve. It’s a tough ask, but it’s reform that’s way overdue – and it doesn’t require complex solutions or needless dithering.
Amazing photo Brian, where is it from?
Eloquently put Bryan. “standing still” is majorly why Bernie Sanders resonated with people so strongly.
The rarely mentioned deadly combo of neo liberal individualist pyschology and “anything goes” post modernist philosophy, have lot to answer for.
The socio-economic status of the parents is usually decided by the parents. Basically they have children they cannot afford . Some times a situation arrives like the present crisis that cannot be planned for and that is why we have a social service to help get through. Most would agree that the benefit levels are too low and cause those on them into the poverty trap. The benefit could be higher if less people thought it through before having extra children.
One sliver lining to this crisis is that benefits will need to be higher for all as so many will rely on them and the cry will come from a quarter that have never needed to be on a benefit and they will discover what a struggle it is . We cannot have a system that has so many relying on charity food parcels.
Trev is a bit of a Canary in a coal mine on this…he is right that there is a whole layer of people not accustomed to the reality of where the old 1964 Social Security Act is really at in the 21st century. Job Seeker Allowance is not easy to obtain, but easy to get cut off or sanctioned from. There is a whole world of pain awaiting small business people suddenly cut adrift from an income stream. Stand Downs, 70 cents in the dollar abatement rates on part time work, and you were going to mention your assets, relationships and partner still working?–uh huh…
Our glorious ex leader John Key was raised on a Widows Benefit in a warm, dry, state house. Went on to free tertiary education, and a career in international Finance Capital. A generation later he was saying “beneficiaries need a kick in the pants”.
The easy way to fix all this and retire “bennie stigma” is to disestablish WINZ/MSD, and expand IRD to administer a Basic Income around National Super level for most with some optional add ons. Food banks should not exist in this country.
Trev, that is utter rubbish and seems to be your pet subject. Take me for example, Parents well off, intelligent did everything right etc etc. Only 2 kids and both of us broke and struggling despite qualifications and good work ethics. Try another tack will ya. The rest of your comments I agree with.
In the 1930s to give relief to the population suffering the Great Depression, The Labour Government of Michael J. Savage imposed the mortgage moratorium.
Time to dust off this policy for the 21st Century.
Rent and mortgage moratorium relief for small business and farmers and families. And it doesn’t cost the taxpayers a cent.
San Francisco Chronicle
A rent and mortgage moratorium can stop the next Great Depression
By Hillary Ronen and Matt Haney 3/26/2020
You know the city has put a pause on evictions, but it hasn’t put a pause on debt.
“….If the pandemic continues for at least three more months — which most scientists say it will — on average, if you live alone, you will be $11,000 in debt to your landlord. If you’re one of the lucky workers who is eligible for unemployment, the baseline benefit is up to $450 a week (with another $600 in the federal stimulus deal), and if most of your income was in tips, then you’re getting nowhere close to that amount. Do you just stay in your apartment facing insurmountable debt, or do you break the shelter-in-place order to find work?
Meanwhile, the restaurants, salons, nightlife venues and clothing stores that used to employ you also have been closed down. And if that continues for even a few months, most of these small businesses, already under enormous financial stress from a decade of rent hikes, won’t reopen at all.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/a-rent-and-mortgage-moratorium-can-stop-the-next-great-depression/ar-BB11K22y
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/local-leaders-calling-for-stop-on-rent-and-moratorium-on-mortgages-during-covid-19-crisis/ar-BB122BcI
Please God, don’t let us go back to ‘business as usual’.
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