Clive Bibby: Remembering those who also served

As a farmer trying to stay afloat financially during a time when our ability to earn an income is limited because of government relief funding holdups, one can’t help thinking about those generations of leaders who might have done things differently in times of crisis.

There is no question in my mind that modern society is being subjected to political management that, although claiming not to be, is in fact out of touch with those kiwis struggling at the coalface.

And it isn’t just because the cost of living crisis has its origins in the corridors of power in high profile Governments on the other side of the world.

Our leading trading partner China controls virtually everything that happens to those who live in the Pacific basin and has abnormal influence, even for a super power, in many dependent countries of the developing world - some of whom supply large percentages of the raw materials vital to the survival of us all.

So, in that context and hopefully as a result, a beneficial exercise in a rapidly changing world, perhaps we should be looking for answers to our problems by going back to the history books in an attempt to find out how the leaders of the past would have reacted to what is commonly called the modern threat.

Funnily enough, when rummaging through the archives, a couple of things do stand out:

1) the leaders of yesteryear were almost universally focused on the immediate threats to survival rather than spending time trying to second guess what might happen if we do this, that or the next thing in reaction to a perceived threat.

2) because of their commitment to the “here and now”, yesterday’s leaders were more inclined to focus all their efforts and resources on strategically important issues or battle fronts of the time rather than diluting the much needed reserves to a greater number of destinations where, as a consequence, they would have limited effect.

“You can not serve God and Mammon” is a religious text that means different things to different people but in it’s most accepted context, talks about man’s pre dereliction to serving “man made idols” which can be anything from statues of imaginary Gods or examples of modern technology which are, in a sense, already having similar disastrous effects on mankind’s ability to solve its current problems.

In my humble opinion, our modern leaders need to take stock of those who also served. There are lessons to be learned from their service at the top.

If our own parliamentary leaders can humble themselves into thinking that some of the world's current problems are as a result of self inflicted wounds, we might start to regain some of the lost ground in the ideological struggles that seem to be more important than they should be.

We need to put the world’s problems in context and start to deal with those that require immediate attention.

It helps nobody if we remain fixated on coercing people into doing things that have little immediate impact on the lives of families struggling with the here and now.

They desperately need help and they needed it months ago.

In their current mood they are not going to take kindly to dictators who are obsessed with matters that have little relevance to their personal plight.

The irrational concentration on this country’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions when many signatories to the Paris agreement already have or are abandoning their own promises is a case and point. Ironically NZ is lucky in that it has options for achieving its emissions reduction targets by 2050 even though it won’t matter a damn when and if we get there.

Go figure.

Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.