What was interesting though was the interview with former attorney general Chris Finlayson. In this brief interview, Finlayson commented lamentably on the rise in support for the ACT Party and NZ First on the back of growing concerns about where the treaty might lead. Most notable was Finlayson's comment that voters who opted for NZ First in the last election were bewildered and frightened of the future.
Finlayson's comments have a wider application than the narrow context of this interview. His comments indicate a pervasive disdain for voters who question the promulgated vision for New Zealand, and who dare to question people like him.
Who, then, are the "people like him"?
These are the people, of course, who know best.
In short, Finlayson's comment reflects the persistent views of political elites across the West that their duty is not to accede to (or even seriously consider) the wishes of those who elect them, but to impose upon them their own particular worldview. Finlayson's comments around bewilderment and fear, were akin to Hillary's deplorables, the great unwashed who voted in favour of Brexit, or those who support Donald Trump.
Disproportionately, those who voted NZ First (and ACT to a lesser degree) have a conservative worldview, as do those who support Trump (some of whom do not like him at all), or who voted in favour of Brexit. They are concerned about the erosion of Western values, about the assault on free speech (or markets), about the invasion of immigrants who, sometimes (especially the second generation) appear to have no respect for the values of the country that has opened its doors to them, about the selective re-writing of history and the denigration of all that is Western.
When researchers have drilled down a little they have found that conservative-leaning voters are much more diverse and well-educated than left-wing stereotypes allow. They cross all income groups and professions. This is not what mainstream media want you to know, this does not fit the "bewilderment" (or deplorable) narrative.
Conservatives generally (while not perfect) are cautious folk, they value their history, believe people should work, they pay their taxes, are generally law-abiding, and believe in the collective wisdom of those who have gone before. They believe in the Western experiment, its significant cultural legacy, and the opportunity and freedom this produces.
The characterisation of conservatives as shallow and poorly educated is a myth, calculated to avoid addressing their arguments. It reflects the sort of political tribalism (and polarization) that threatens to undermine faith in the democratic order.
There is a view in social psychology that functional systems should be tinkered with only with great caution. If a system (or society) is functional, and far-reaching changes are made, there is a much greater chance of making things worse than better, sometimes irreversibly. The conservative worldview reminds us that functional systems should be played with only with great caution, conservatives know this, they know, often instinctively, that political (and social) experiments can have catastrophic consequences, and that it is very difficult to turn the clock back.
There is growing evidence that on treaty (and other) issues, our political elite has no interest in listening to the genuine and well-founded concerns (and inherited cultural wisdom) of many New Zealanders.
Most disturbing is that their determination to misinterpret the treaty, to deny accession of sovereignty, to grant rights to some, and deny them to others, has its adherents, in some form or other, across the political spectrum. The left is no longer accountable to the right or the right to the left. Political difference is, in part, an illusion.
Concerning the treaty, our main political parties have, by and large, joined hands over what would once have been an unbridgeable abyss, and they have been doing this for decades.
Caleb Anderson, a graduate history, economics, psychotherapy and theology, has been an educator for over thirty years, twenty as a school principal.
3 comments:
Finlayson and his likes are curious. Vanity, ego, continued lucrative professional work for monied maori, and the desire not to alienate pandering life contacts preclude any significant admission of error or misjudgement. However he does maintain that the Treaty was with the Crown, hence there is no essential case for many of the supposedly Treaty based pandering statements and consequent actions by Councils and others.
Does Finalyson explain why NZ First voters should not be afraid?.A country dominated by the likes of Muhata, Morgan, Tamahere,Waititi certainly frightens me. ?the mystery is that vastly more are not greatay concerned?
'Frightened of the future' This is a future they don't want us to have a debate on but they will expect us to pay the bill.
Excellent Mr Anderson, and as accurate a description of my thinking, as a cultural chauvinist, as you will find in a day's march. Each piece of commentary such as yours is another chance to comfort those who worry that no one thinks as they do, and another sharp implement to shove up the fundament of those who would turn this country into a Neolithic fiefdom. I long for the days when New Zealand had more conservative newspapers so that a greater proportion of this country's people could read your views. Fat chance however with the Marxist rags we are currently cursed with.
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