Taking the temperature of NZ society

Life can be awfully confusing. As a society we are becoming fractured and increasingly hostile to the thoughts, beliefs and utterances of “others”. Others, of course, is everyone who doesn’t think like me.

Just take the political situation. Although there is much to criticise about the last government around a seemingly comic inability to actually get things done, much of what they were trying to do was really good.

Visionary about fundamentally changing the shape of society to even the stacked deck against the impoverished, rationalise the hydra-headed monsters in Health & Education. A bold plan to resolve the national disgrace that is 3 Waters.

Continuing to encourage the growth in power and contribution from the Maori community. Modernising infrastructure like the ferries. It seems like all that has been wiped off the table. That makes me sad, worried and a bit cheesed off. Wanton destruction of plans that possibly this government may be more capable of operationalising.

We’ll never know because if it was a Labour initiative, it has to be ritually slaughtered.

I look at the situation with Maori and how the progress that has been made over decades of what looked and felt like a shared vision of a better, more inclusive world being rolled back at an alarming pace.

I watch the emboldening of racists and the re-emergence of the thoroughly odious Hobson’s Pledge and the dismay and anger this is causing throughout Maoridom and I suspect a significant part of the Pakeha population.

Then I watch what’s been happening at Turangawaewae Marae. It has blown me away that they have pulled off a massive logistical feat with almost military discipline (without the weaponry) and it has all been so dignified, wreathed in aroha and respect. Perhaps the government could ask them for some tips on how to get things done properly.

Talking to my wife the other night, she told me about recruiting at her work. She was advertising for some kind of customer service role and the recruiter called her and said she was going to vet the applicants carefully. My wife said, don’t too much. I may be able to find some wheat in the chaff.

Here’s what happened. 90 applicants and with only light-ish screening, guess how many CVs were sent through to my wife? 2. That’s right – 2. Now, we can all speculate about what that means, but here is my take that coincidentally aligns with the recruiters thoughts.

I didn’t think about this before, but it looks like those unemployment numbers are stacking up and as people become more desperate, they start applying for anything. I know the feeling. I’ve been exactly there in the past.

There is genuine pain and misery out there in society and without being overtly political, I don’t think we are getting anywhere with resolving that.

We have got to stop using GDP as a measure of how successful our country is (or isn’t). Improving health outcomes, reducing homelessness, resolving the calamity that is youth suicide, eliminating the toll of dead babies who have been murdered.

These are the things that tell us how we’re doing and who we are. Here’s a statement to ponder. I want my country back. Usually this is said in the context of Maori being well behaved and out of sight, women being domestic goddesses and men being the boss of everything. That’s not the country I want back.

I want the country that gave women the vote before any other country. I want the country that had a Treaty signed between the indigenous people and the worlds super power de jour. I want the country that for all its faults was socially liberal, gave us ACC, led the world in many social statistics and was far more egalitarian.

I want the country that could laugh and be irreverent and not every thing triggered a fainting fit in some group or other. I want this for me certainly, but much more, I want it for my children and grandchildren.

My fear is that their future is not benign, but actually hostile, judgemental and hopelessly divided, occupying a planet that has clearly seen its best days.

That’s what I want. I’d love to hear what you think about NZ society and what you either like about now or miss from the past.