John Robinson: Takeover of New Zealand; the power of apartheid

The social contract: how people feel

The decisions and actions of government and officials provide part of an unwritten social contract, a way of life that we are subject to and which we collectively construct – our national culture, the consensus within which a diversity of religious and group cultures may flourish. This, the message that society sends to us, defines accepted social habits, to make those who conform feel comfortable, secure, at ease, and part of the nation.  That is so when all is well – otherwise, with a power grab by an authoritarian group, the insistence may be on conformity to a narrow and divisive ideology.  The resulting censorship will then provide the very opposite for independent thinkers, who come under attack, sidelined, and inferior.

“The way a society is structured has profound consequences for the lives of those living in it and the architecture of opportunity they face. It determines not just their material conditions but also their well-being, relationships, and life prospects. The structure of society is determined by institutions such as its political and legal systems, the economy, the way in which family and community life are organised.  All societies choose to have some things left to individuals and others determined collectively. The norms and rules governing how those collective institutions operate is what I will call the social contract, which I believe is the most important determinant of the kinds of lives we lead.”[1]

Allies in the breakdown of the principle of equality

 

A changed, divisive social contract has been formed in New Zealand, bringing racism and apartheid into centre stage.  ‘Indigenous’ people are claiming ancient rights, returning to a past tribal culture.  The calls for separate government and laws have been supported by decisions of the courts and the Waitangi Tribunal, government agencies (both central and local), officials and many holding power within universities and other authorities.  The Treaty of Waitangi has become a weapon in this social transformation.[2]

The manner of this takeover has striking parallels with the way in which big business in the USA introduced a belief that selfishness, greater inequalities and widening class differences would lead to increased well-being (the ‘trickle-down’ theory, basic to Rogernomics in New Zealand).

“To make fundamental and permanent change, they also needed to cultivate power in the other, largely unelected branch of government, the judiciary. They needed to colonize the legal community and reframe the law itself to make sure they kept getting their way. … they needed to reshape fundamental American legal understandings—to make it a toolbox they could use to accumulate more power and wealth for big business and the rich over the long run.  People these days throw around the phrase fundamental structural change a lot, but what the right did in the legal domain was exactly that, breathtakingly so. …

Conservatives figured the more they could get the Constitution to be interpreted narrowly and literally, supposedly the way Americans back in 1789 or the 1860s understood its eternal meanings, the less liberals could use it now to justify pieces of modern progress that the conservatives disliked.”[3]

 

Recovery

 

The courts, the Waitangi Tribunal, officials who advise government – a long list of powerful organisations and groups – form the ‘Treaty Industry’, which has come to set the conditions of the current social contract.[4]  A considerable effort is required to turn back this push to racial division, the belief in an ‘indigenous’ race that should be given their own set of rights, self-government and laws.  The third article in this short series will consider how the current government can help concerned New Zealanders (who face determined efforts to silence them) to join more in the debate, to raise their voices and to reassert a decent society. 

The battle is for the hearts and minds of the nation.

 

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[1] Minouche Shafik 2022. What we owe each other: a new social contract.  Vintage

[2] John Robinson 2024. New Zealand nonsense (four).  Weaponizing the Treaty of Waitangi.  NZCPR. https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/08/john-robinson-new-zealand-nonsense-four.html  

[3] Kurt Andersen 2020.  Evil geniuses: The Unmaking of America.  Random House.  Pages 123, 126-127

[4] John Robinson 2024. Who really broke the Treaty? Tross Publishing.  Pages 91-109

Dr John Robinson is a research scientist, who has investigated a variety of topics, including the social statistics of Maori.  His recognition of fundamental flaws in the interpretation of nineteenth century Maori demographics led him to consider the history of those times in several books.