Caleb Anderson: The psychopathology of the left and the slow death of decency

Recent controversy around disparaging comments about Nicola Willis made by a prominent member of the labour caucus at a closed-door workshop give pause for thought. The response by the Labour leader, when asked to explain, was simply that he had reminded his caucus to be cautious with their words as they could become public.

Basically, he was saying, be careful when you are near a microphone.

This response suggests that such comments, and the mindsets that gave rise to such comments, are acceptable, as long as they are not heard, as long as they are in-house.

We all make mistakes, there are words we wish we could take back, there are too many moments when we fall short. But what we say says something about who we are, about what we think is important, about what we believe, about how we deal with those with whom we disagree, about how we deal with the business of life.

The absence of any genuine contrition, and the metaphorical backslapping that appeared to be going on in the background at the said workshop, says something about the mindset of the Labour Party, and perhaps about politics more generally, especially, it seems, of the political left.

This is all the Maori Party have ever known, this is their target market, but the Labour Party, and even the Greens, were not always like this.

I grew up in the seventies, and I remember a time when restraint was, generally (although admittedly not always) considered a virtue. I recall a time, even in the political sphere (with some notable exceptions), when people were more cautious with their words, less personal. Perhaps the media were less probing, less interested in side issues. By and large, there were a good number of people committed to exercising some restraint, to doing what was decent, because reputation depended on this, and reputation, not so much tribal affiliation, mattered.

I am not being naive here. I well know that what we say is often not what we think, that sometimes we feel genuine, and oftentimes justifiable, indignance at the hypocrisy of others, or even of ourselves on reflection, that there are times for a deep breath, and that there are often things we would like to call back.

But the political left, globally, seem to think their cause is sufficiently, and singularly, so exalted, so pre-eminently true, that it provides a warrant to repeatedly push the boundaries of discourse, truth, and decency, and to define these to suit.

This has all become common currency.

There is no middle ground, there is my worldview and there is yours, and only an impenetrable deafness in the space in-between.

Righteous indignation has become the go to for the left, the justification for excess, the grounds for irrational and nonsensical arguments, and the licence to treat those who see things differently as enemies, and their words as hate speech. This is increasingly making the left immune to reason, to the value of contrary argument, to the boundaries of civil, rational and collaborative discourse.

There is an ontological case for being decent, for listening respectfully, for acknowledging there is more that we do not know, than what we know, that there is much to learn from those who have come before us, that things are not always what we believe (or wish) them to be, that absolutes are poison ... and that, while truth may be difficult to nail, it is something worth patiently (and open-mindedly) pursuing nevertheless.

The reluctance of the media to call the left out, the preoccupying tribal affiliations operating across the left, and the sugar hits from the hyperbolic and performative politics we have become accustomed to, polarises beyond the body politic, and deprives substantive issues of the oxygen, and the thoughtful critiquing, they deserve.

It is hard not to see the working out of deeper stuff here, of inner struggles spilling into the public domain, of the unfettered projection of negative emotion, of unreconciled complexes, of naked ambition, of scores to be settled, of enemies within becoming enemies without, and of the desperate need to be right, in the fear that one could be wrong ... and of failing to face one's own collective demons, over laying them a someone else's door.

The political left has become a lightning rod for our baser propensities. For as long as they are in denial of this, they remain unfit to govern.

Caleb Anderson, a graduate history, economics, psychotherapy and theology, has been an educator for over thirty years, twenty as a school principal.