Graham Adams: Is Jacinda Ardern the Messiah? Or just a very crafty politician?
OPINION: The Prime Minister’s politics — including her stance towards the Mongrel Mob and the Taliban — can be baffling. Graham Adams reckons answers lie in her past as a Mormon.
Graham Adams is increasingly becoming a must read Blogger over at the Democracy Project, he often writes well outside the narrative bubble and provides an enormous amount of insight and oversight.
His latest piece on the role of Jacinda’s Mormon upbringing in her semi-religious kindness art installation performances is interesting.
I’ve known Jacinda for over a decade and while her kindness ethos is genuine, I think a greater influence in her values was when she was the president of the International Union of Socialist Youth. There she had to find values that could encompass middle class socialist aesthetics with people who planted pipe bombs. Kindness as a virtue was the only way to get that stray cat army to move in any one direction.
The Ardern philosophy is less religious and more a ‘I am my neighbours keeper’.
Being a good citizen has been remolded as being a good neighbour. To reach out with generosity so that every successful recycling is a prayer, every offer to mow another’s lawn the daily sermon.
It’s an agnostic hyper Ned Flanders style of being but there is also a streak of the unforgiving puritan in this which is why Jacinda resonates so deeply with the Woke.
Jacinda’s termination of a Minister over an affair and her single minded desire to enforce kindness across all speech have all the wide eyed certainty of Ned Flanders at an exorcism.
Jacinda has repurposed leadership in a very female way by using kindness as a positive political tool without losing any of the power. She makes every kiwi woman stand 2 inches taller and has reset definitions of power, but she will punish without mercy those issues she finds fouls her kindness.
The inevitability of a Mother of Dragons moment can’t be ruled out.
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The laws of maths, physics , chemistry and ecology couldn’t care less about kindness and are in the process of demolishing the idiotic economic and environmental narratives of Jacinda and her acolytes.
The continuing descent will be very painful for everyone. But it will be especially painful for those who still believe the bullshit and who will be let down at every juncture.
The only good thing about Jacinda is that she is not quite as nutty as Judith, and apparently is less vindictive.
Sorry mate, but Jacinda doesn’t make short me stand taller. I have defended her and her stances, and will doubtless continue to do so, but I ain’t woke enough to see sweet sounding words as substitutes for action.
Like that Mormon from Tarsus said, “ Faith without works is dead.”
Spying on neighbours
Next it will be for payments – like the Bow Street Runners of Olde England
and like
Back in the USSR
Yeah but it will be done kindly…
Democracy Project is excellent.
I have a pet theory on why Woke shares much with religion. Millenials and Generation Z are the least religious generation ever, as well as the most materially privileged. Combine this and you get a search for certainty, for religious connection beyond materialism, which Woke can fulfil despite – oxymoronically – having a strong antecedents in post-modern theories that reject all-encompassing frameworks.
So I’m not sure how “new” Woke really is; people have been zealots preaching the sole, exclusive, understanding of the right and good for centuries. The problem is like Martyn says, this type of belief can easily turn to intolerance, to hegemony, then ultimately to tyranny.
Yes, Martyn, I suspect we are all a product of our past – some will find that a bit deterministic but surely formative experience provides a strong sense of identity and guides current thoughts and action. Better it be Jacinda than ….
I think Jacinda is a genuinely kind person which is why she is popular.
The problem with having popular ‘figureheads’ in government is that often unkind or stupid policy get’s through under their name because being popular can be very dangerous and distracting.
Tony Blair was very popular but used that popularity to ram though invading Afghanistan and Iraq and “the third way” and we all know how that turned out.
John Key was popular and now we have a massive pension, housing, health care problem, low wage economy and brain drain, which actually isn’t a problem for the right at all. Because as the left does their usual ‘more taxes’ to pay for it, they lose popularity and the Natz are back. Meanwhile most of Labour’s policy is NatiLite policy such as Kiwibuild, privatising state house land and ignoring and enabling corporate profiteering across all areas.
“The report asserts Meridian generated excess profits of $3.5 billion from 2002-2021. MEUG chairman John Harbord told the Herald that the trend was rising, with 56 per cent of the profits coming in the past five years, and more than a quarter in the past two.” https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/amid-calls-for-electricity-market-reform-industry-group-says-meridian-is-generating-super-profits/7V2TJIL3ANKVM7DAAI5PJZQ4WE/
Anyone who buys any food knows that under Covid it seems to have skyrocketed out of control while the copious amounts of reports go nowhere as they somehow can’t prove it.
Housing has been a hot topic for 15+ years, but nobody wants to acknowledge that NZ never used to have a housing problem 15 years ago. There was plenty of houses and less problems with health care, pensions and so forth. The lazy immigration experiment is still a taboo subject seldom mentioned or quickly glossed over.
Tarrent murders 51 people and instead of assessing our border control when the person came to NZ to specifically train for the attack, the Greens believe somehow pakeha microaggressions are to blame. Liz Gordon sees white supremacists wherever she goes. Unions have largely given up on workers rights in NZ and now seem to be championing in foreign labour, free welfare for NZ visas and payments for illegal workers.
People coming to NZ who are freeloaders seem to be welcomed with open arms. You don’t have to file any tax returns and ghost jobs are fine! https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/tauranga-barrister-and-wife-convicted-for-multiple-tax-evasion-offences/VPEW5WDZQIV36LMH465GUGYRNU/ https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/korean-society-facing-era-complaint-over-alleged-work-visa-rort/3FU23ZPL2VKWEFT4KYP627PGAE/
You can see that our free welfare system is hanging on by a thread.
SW you have redeemed yourself
Jacinda is first and foremost a politicians politician and its all she knows.
She is pleasant, non offensive and non polarising but is interesting in the way she carries herself to avoid being a bore.
But something is missing that takes her from what she is currently to being that remarkable politician whose government leaves a positive lasting legacy like Savage’s did.
Her utter indifference for the many deep seated major problems in society caused by housing has taken her from genuine and apparently caring to disingenuous and shallow, a mouth piece for lofty aspirations like so many lying corporate goal posters. A stereotypical and yet unremarkable politician.
And that’s a pity because Jacinda has never been more capable of addressing so many of the problems she says she cares about. If only she did!
“She is pleasant, non offensive and non polarising ”
It is very intertesting to see how perceptions vary, I wonder if it is partly a demographic thing? In my provincial part of NZ I would suggest PM Ardern is the most polarising PM we’ve ever had, with the large majority of people I come into contact with strongly opposed to her and everything she stands for. Interestingly this applies right across the political spectrum including people with very centrist view points. I know very few strong Jacinda supporters, and they have a hint of deperation about them these days.
In my bit of rural NZ this morning, in a brief text exchange about an uncontrolled dog, one of three and their “deadbeat” owners, which turned to politics… the words “slag of a pm” were used and the hope for an earthquake big enough to take out the Beehive and its occupants expressed.
Life in the real world is hard work and we don’t appreciate anyone who makes it harder.
Not much love for her here.
Agree 100 per cent . I am reminded of my school reports that said has potential or could do better . When the history of NZ is written this period will go down as a time when oppetunities of a reset to the benefit of the lower social areas has been lost.
This government is out of its depth but there is no better plans coming from other parties.
Trevor
Yep
Trevor
And that is what we all suffer from the most!!!
Trevor that’s because of the in house fighting…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/covid-19-coronavirus-thomas-coughlan-knives-out-in-national-as-caucus-struggles-to-show-unity-despite-obvious-division/PKJ2PZM6ABLWKZQCLRXK2BKYZE/
The reasons the knives are out are because Collins is a deplorable, both as a person and politician. And ACT would divide our country into the rich and the poor.
Yes there is a saying that we prosper by good work and action not by kind words.
Jacinda is nothing other than a strong, good, decent woman who is the Prime Minister and who is doing a wonderful job. She may be defined by her upbringing but it has not overtaken her.
There are those who ridicule her and call her names like “Cindy” – they the unintelligent, uneducated, anti-vaxxers and vaccine hesitant types and those misogynists who despise independent strong women but by yelling into the arid winds created by the discontented they identify themselves as vacuous adherents of the faint-hearted who blindly accept the white supremacist Trump view of the world. Little do they realise that they remain in the morass of their non-sensical musings while Jacinda strives to keep New Zealand open and safe, which she has done so well.
youngsuffrajet, total cringe.
I don’t get the hysterics people have over “Cindy” please thatcher was “Maggie” “Key was “Johnny boy” English was “billy” Kevin Rudd was “Kev” Morrison is “Scotty from marketing” Blair was “Tone” “bliar” , Muldoon was bloody “piggy” bush was “Dubya” Norman Kirk was Big norm David Seymour is “davo” hell and Simon was “soiman” jfk was “jack” Robert Kennedy was “bobby” Helen Clark was “aunty helen” alot of those nicknames used by the people who get hysterical when “Cindy is used”
It’s not sexist it’s not misogynist when every leaders name gets shortened to a nickname it’s the context which is used in that matters and a nickname should be a bloody honour it means the people are familiar and have affection for you in most cases.
I don’t give a damn the the pm doesn’t like Cindy… I don’t like that she ruled out a capital gains tax. She gets paid half a million dollars a year and if the people wanna give her a nickname like they do to all politicians they people can.
How come it’s this politician the left refuses to allow to have a nickname when the same people who are offended by it have derogatory terms for polis they don’t like “the coifed one” “Pullya benefit” “Winnie” “Judy the crusher” “soimon” and whatever insult that comes to mind when they think of Seymour.
Save me the hysterics. Huge swathes of the public use the term Cindy on the left and the right not publicly cos hysterical people accuse you of being a bigot if you call the pm “aunty Cindy” and labeling anyone who uses it misogynist anti vaxers tin foil hats is hilarious considering the ammount of healthcare workers, women, socialists unionists who use it.
Instead of defending Jacinda how about you worry about the people she’s leaving behind poor people, workers working class women kids, my entire generation of millennials and people with mental illness
Get mad about the state of affordable housing in nz get mad about poverty don’t get mad about a nickname that people often use affectionately.
And if you don’t like Cindy NEVER use a nickname any politician ever again
I got mad on housing affordability and child poverty and National/Act/ United Future and Maori party did nothing.
Tha Maori party of today are a different beast. Would happily vote for them.
Once there was this idea that you voted for a political party because of what it was going to do if it could form agovernment.
Things like who it was going to tax and how much. What it would do about health care, education,immigration, economci policy stuff like that.
Now it seems to come down to who has the nicest smile and projects kindness best.
Why the change. Personally I put the constant betrayal of voters by political parties.
In the 1980s people vote Labour because they believe they will get a socialist government. Labour does not tell them,” ónce we form a government we are going to perform a 180 degrees turn in philosophy and action.’
Bewildered voters turn to National which promises relief. They get ”Ruthenasia” .
They turn to Labour again( Helen Clark also projects a caring female image before people people find she is in reality the Ice Queen). Nothing much changes – the poor remain deprived and the wealthy remain untaxed.
So it goes on to the present day.
Touching Mormonism – I think it is joke that went too far.
I had a quick look at the ”Book of Mormon”. Evidently the bloke who started it all had an angel appear to him, give him the book to be copied, then goes away again.
The angel’s name is ‘Moroni” .
Does no-one else suspect there is a leg pull involved here?
I reckon the problem is once so many people get deadly serious about this it is dangerous to admit one is just taking the piss( Loch Ness Monster, Sasquatch, wealth trickle down economic theory, stolen elections).
“The inevitability of a Mother of Dragons moment can’t be ruled out.” – what kind of mother of dragon moment do you mean Bomber? the freeing of slaves or the burning of thousands of innocents?
Personally I think shes a bs artist of the highest order and I don’t believe anything that comes out of her lying globalist mouth
Its got to be balanced, yes she is kind but ALL political and non political leaders have their fupah moments , their gaffs and unpopular policy suggestions, thus they must always be held to account for that. Personally I think she was and still is the leader for this time, I don’t care what anyone overseas says. But that does not mean she and her govt don’t have to watch their P’s and Q’s anymore either. And there has been a few things like this Hate Speech carryon , and the alarming trend in Aussie of ‘no jab, no job’.
The day they start getting too big for their jack boots is the day they will find we in NZ are not so compliant and easily pushed around after all. Much like the British were towards the little guy with the funny mustache in Germany during World War 2.
WILD KATIPO I think you may be correct.
XRAY I think you may be correct.
“Is Jacinda Ardern the Messiah?”
She could be if the Messiah is a cynical, God bothering, snake tongued, right/left, double-reflection, fascist-socialist, pro bankster, false-economy, pro-real-estate-scammer-never-mind-your-completely-unecessary-pain-of-poverty-in-a-rich-country-so-long-as-foreign-banks-can-walk-all-over-you-then-run-for-it-with-your-money, kind of Messiah. Would that be being a bit shit of a Messiah?
I read Stephen Minto’s excellent report here at the TDB and it dawned on me that our entire economy is a slow-burn swindle designed to create chaos and confusion while foreign banksters sequester our money via their all bought and paid for IRD which is enabled by our traitorous, cross party politic. Try this one, normal tax payer? Don’t pay your taxes. Then see Hell fire reign down on your quivering arses.
Since Adern hasn’t yet broached this catastrophic cluster fuck of deviant financial card sharking which is destroying us and ours in broad day light I’d bravely suggest Fuck Adern!
You might now be thinking Ooohh? judith collins then…?
Ok? Go on? I dare you. We’d be a South Pacific Chinese outpost before it could be asked ” How much you want!? ”
In short. We’re leaderless, directionless and base our hopes on hyper inflated residential real estate for our spending money while our farmers are demonised, ridiculed and kept well hidden behind closed societies to be bled out for the export revenues they earn for us while also feeding us and those other 35 million people living off-shore. Aye Boys?
Let do this ! is now replaced with if only she did!
Jacinda The Messiah / The Saviour?
Hardly NZ last in the OECD for vaccine roll out?
And last for deaths…..
and with elective surgery in full operation until this lock-down.
“Is Jacinda Ardern the Messiah?” Of Wokery and No Substance!
But hey, whilst the Mels, Gen Y&Z are fiddling, she and Robo are loading them up with debt for their future!
I wonder how many internal polls they’ve run in the past week or so?
Those that seek to raise anyone to a deity do them a dis-service. We all, including the PM, are human with all that entails; those expecting the ‘second coming’ will only be disappointed.
Attempting to deify someone in public opinion is often a weapon used by those whose ultimate goal is to discredit that person.
Thank you Peter Kelly for a voice of reason and sanity. (Writing your name, I am suddenly missing Helen, and her clear perspective.)
This is the zealot who is hunting Jacinda down. Oddly, perhaps, he reminds me of a particular Jesuit priest who used to hark back to the time of the Inquisition, a fanatic whose zealotry was his forte.
In his demonising of Jacinda in a number of his articles, his rhetoric is flecked with words of zealotry, including “demonising” to describe Jacinda. In contrast, in the same article he may refer to the dominatrix heading the opposition by her first name, sans scrutiny, suggesting that individual is “the real person” while Jacinda is some creature requiring elimination.
“Witch hunt” comes to mind, but “bounty hunter” is a better fit in some ways.
Thanks Kheala for those kind words. Yes, I also miss the clear perspectives offered by Helen K.
I am assuming that the Oppostion Leader’s latest tirade against a public servant is an attempt to distract from her party’s internal problems. It’s really sad when someone’s love of (perceived) power causes them to lose all rational perspective, but it does at least expose her Trump like personality for those who have their eyes open to see.
Last for deaths excuses being last in the OECD for vaccine roll out?
No John, not an excuse, just looking at the whole picture of what’s going on and not
cherry picking what suits any particular bias. We have a limited qualified work force to continue medical care as normal, carry-out testing, and administer the vaccine; so far we have managed well balancing those requirements utilising that available resource, or would you prefer to self administer your own?
The point is, if you are lowest in death rates per capita (putting human life first – what a crazy concept) then you dont need to have a high roll out rate for vaccines. That rate is ramping up now with the best vaccine available being used in NZ and there is no way that this little country can get near the front of the queue with Pharmaceutical companies much more interested in selling to the big nations, continents first before the little fish got the chance…
Peter, Greg, common sense goes a long way.
Give it a rest John for fucks sake.” last in the OECD for vaccine roll out” sounds like your personal excuse for another attack and before you reply, yes it fucking is. If you are happy to go with that reason, then you have to take the good as well.
Sounds like a Muldoon Disciple with The Reds Under the Bed.
John would accept more deaths as long as we were first in the OECD with the vaccine roll out?
That makes huge sense?
Meh, he was early onto the He Puapua story as well – the revival of white race fear politics (1975 socialism super/2005 customary rights/2023 indigenous people empowerment/UN Agenda 21).
The inference of being kind to all, is lacking in “judgment”, is classic attack on the collective well being aspiration (public health and housing improved welfare).
Wonder what Jacinda’s legacy will be? New dictionary/thesaurus entries perhaps:
– AND YESSSS…
– AGGGAIN…
– WE’RE LOOKING AT THAT…
– MY ADVICE WAS….
Old dictionary/thesaurus entries perhaps:
-I CANT REMEMBER
-I WONT RAISE GST
-THERE IS NO HOUSING CRISIS
-I WILL BUILD 10 BRIDGES
-I WILL GET YOUR MEN OUT OF THE MINE
– PULLING HER PONYTAIL WAS ONLY A BIT OF FUN
-MY LEGACY IS NOT CHANGING THE FLAG( fuck the poor, the homeless, the nurses, the teachers) THE FLAG WAS MY LEGACY.
Frankly I am so sick of this kindness crap. I want tough love. It works 100 times better. NZ has so.many problems that need tough love.
Oh you poor thing would you like a tissue.
Bert Bert Bert
Have we upset you by having a go at the Messiah? You are very sensitive to anyone critising her or her govt. Are you Clarke Gayford in disguise? Nah…he’d be tougher than that. I/We am/are not the only one, you know. Have you read all the posts and comments here? Clearly not. Have you read Nick Mowbray in the Herald today…read it, staggering truths. Bert we are sick of the theatre from this govt. Sick of the PR schpiel. Sick of being patronised and puppet played. We want effective action on all fronts. Not just Covid. Everywhere. Or are you going to tell all.of us that your Messiah’s govt is doing, or has done a really fantastic job generally? Don’t, you’ll be laughed out the park. Covid is saving your Messiah. For now.
Thanks’ Judith, or is it Hosking in disguise. You need a covid test, you seem to be sick a lot and Nick who?
Aye CB! Cutting truths. Now I am depressed. Thanks.
She is the Messiah to big, fat, diabetics that never learned to control their own blood sugars, never cared to exercise, and constantly have to inject themselves because they are so unhealthy – so why not force it on everyone else, aye?. Yeah, shoot it up. The only way to health- shoot it up. You will need a third booster soon- it’s just like insulin, right? You’ll need it to survive, perhaps but without any long term testing- but whatever. Wow, what a Savior. I want every cent I donated to this site back, thanks. This is not informative or independent media and I feel like a fool for ever donating or even reading.
Sounds like a Muldoon Disciple with The Reds Under the Bed.
Jacinda must be doing something right (45% v 13%) – all her decisions have been correct despite the raving of tory right-wing 28%ers like collins, seymore, scomo, Herald, Magic and radio, etc. Elimination is the way to go – only one cluster, no deaths or ICU’s, unlike UK where no one ever mentions the daily death rate of around 100. Id be worried if the “grim reaper” brother and sister seymore and collins coalition were in power and opened the borders then Aotearoa will be having 8-10 deaths per day. Its unlikely NZers would accept that.
I’m happy to listen to and be directed by the expertise of the scientists and their messages articulately conveyed to us by the best PM Aotearoa and the world has ever seen.
I’m surprised you haven’t been decapitated by TheKraut with your last paragraph as much as I agree with you.
Being retired I have time to read the Press in Chch and most of the articles in the Listener and listen to the National station and for short periods talkback . Though my working live I relied on myself and my skills to survive which makes me then with a National perspective but I have been down and realise there are people out there that need help to overcome lifes obstacles .
National ignored their role in helping those at the bottom so I was happy to see Labour voted in but now I look at those at the bottom and their plight seems worse . Covid has played a part in this but poor policy and general inaction is the real culprit and I am afraid this sheets back to a very poor leader . I think she is genuine in her desire to help but restricted by a poor crasp on the real life outside of politics which she has been immuned from. I feel history will be harsh on this period .
Well done Bert I doff my hat to you sir.
Nikorima
A very nice post and a glowing tribute to our best ever PM. Fun and games at TDB! I am also very happy to be directed by scientists, that why I had two vaccine jabs. Hope everyone else here is happy to be guided by scientists. Bert…got your jabs?
Yeah bro, mine done early and mid June.
Well said Corey Humm.
The vile descriptions used on this site to describe any National or Act Party member make the description Cindy incredibly mild in fact could be taken as a term of endearment.
We have rules for you but no rules for us?
Well said Corey Humm.
The vile descriptions used on this site to describe any National or Act Party member make the description Cindy incredibly mild in fact could be taken as a term of endearment.
We have rules for you but no rules for us?
Now we’re into September, the 1st.
There is ‘roughly’ 800,000 doses in NZ and supposedly 300,000 arriving every week. No mention of the 10 million doses on a back catalogue order anymore because they know that we know that is all bullshit.
With only 1.1 million with a double-shot fully dosed up and 1.1 million with only a single-shot half dose.
Can anybody do the math for us, when will everyone minus the under 12-year-olds will be getting fully vaccinated? By my back of the envelope calculation … it’ll be the 12th of never? Maybe I’m wrong?
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