Winning Together

An Easter message of kindness and unity.

A man on telly tries to tell me what is real
But it's alright, I like the way that feels
And everybody sings
We are evolving from night to morning
And I wanna believe in something

Writer: Adam Duritz.

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The world is changing rapidly, over the last year or so, it has been out with the old, kindness and acceptance, and in with the new, self-interest, the supremacy of the already privileged, and survival of the fittest.

The following clip is from the States, but without question, there are people all around the world feeling similarly:

AI advances will see vast numbers of people made redundant. We live in a time with a snowballing gulf between low-paid, insecure work for many who struggle to afford the essentials of life and vast wealth and power for others.

The middle class is struggling, public service roles are being cut, once-valuable skills are no longer needed, and achieving home ownership is beyond the reach of many.

There are choices being made about what our world will look like, what we will do with the people no longer required by the economy, and how our society will adapt to reflect this new reality.

Choices are being made.

Have you ever watched a Survivor-style reality show where contestants strategise and form alliances to backstab their fellows, whom hours previously they were smiling at and declaring their undying loyalty to? In these shows, people often say, “If you’re not hearing about the plan, you ARE the plan.”

Let me ask you this: Has anyone asked you what the plan should be for this brave new world?

No, of course they haven’t. Because we’re not in the room. The plans formed may not target us, but chances are, they don’t consider us either.

We’re not in the room. So we have no voice.

Thoughts and Prayers.

The same is true here, with the coalition in power. Many have no voice and receive little consideration from our government.

It doesn’t matter what we say outside the room, or what opposition leaders say outside of government. Of course, it’s nice to hear wishful things, but they don’t add up to much more than thoughts and prayers.

I don’t know about you, but I ain’t much for Thoughts and Prayers.

The government provides platitudes for the poor and the planet; we can see through those. We need to get back in the room; to do that, we need half the country with us, which is hard to achieve.

What can we do?

One thing we can do is better support our champions, and not just those we fully agree with, but those we should back if we want to win.

On the left, we—and I’m certainly guilty of this—spend too much time navel-gazing about policies we’d like to see or pontificating about what the “real” left is.

Some say Labour isn’t left enough, that they’re National Lite. But they’re not even remotely the same, are they?

They are not the same.

Please repeat after me.

They are not the same!

The Labour party is full of really good people who strongly oppose the wanton disregard for many we see from the coalition at this time of madness.

But they have to appeal to the folks in the middle in order for us to win.

This sounds bloody obvious, but it’s the reason why sometimes they have to do or say, or not do or say, things we want. Unlike in sports, when it comes to politics, winning matters. There is nothing noble about opposition.

I know some of you will have strong views on this, I get it, that’s why I vote for the Green Party, but I also think of it like this:

Take a look at the people in the Labour Party. Barbara Edmonds, Kieran McAnulty, Megan Woods, Ayesha Verrall, Carmel, Chippy, far too many to name. Don’t you think those people would love to implement more radical policies?

I’m sure every single one of them entered politics to improve the world and help those who need it most.

The reality is that to do that, they have to win—and that requires the support of those in the middle who don’t necessarily support pushing the levers as hard as we might like.

It’s not easy. Have you met a lot of New Zealanders?

We like to think of ourselves as down-to-earth, decent folk who care more than most, but the truth is, for many people outside our online bubbles, life is a struggle as it is, thank you very much, without trying to pull other people along, too.

And then there are those who simply don’t care. I don’t know how many there are like that, but I suspect it’s more than many of us like to think.

While some of us might react to policies like gang patch bans or bootcamps with disdain for the presumption of guilt and frustration that the causes of why people end up in those situations are not addressed, an awful lot of Kiwis are going to say - “Yeah, but I hate the gangs. I’m sick of hoodlums being above the law - it’s time something was done.”

So the parties of the right run these policies that we decry as pointless gimmicks, to tick a box. It’s also why they paint Labour and the Greens as being pro-gangs and anti-police. We might know that’s nonsense and there are hard problems to solve, but mud sticks.

They have big money behind them, funding people like Jordan Williams to lie and distort, ultimately funnelling people towards the tick box that says the world is scary and caring about others is a luxury we cannot afford.

They’re hard to beat.

But we still have democracy. Here I mean, I’m not so sure about America after this.

Even with big money behind them, the right depends on getting enough of the people in the middle to vote for those at the top. Eventually, people realise that pyramids don’t work for most.

You can vote for “aspirational” policies that lead to growing inequality, but you can’t change the fact that there’s only room at the top for a few. As it ever has been.

The good news is we have enough for everyone to receive the essentials of life, and a bit more. We can look after people, but if we’re to look after those at the bottom, we can’t afford those at the top, not while they want to hoard more and more like dragons upon mountains of gold.

Image: Befunky.

My message this Easter is let’s be kind to each other, no matter what hue of left we belong to. We need to take this road together.

We can only win together, and we need to win.

If you enjoy my work and if doing so won’t strain your finances, I would be incredibly grateful if you would consider subscribing to support my writing of Nick’s Kōrero.

Take care, all of you lovely people. I hope you’re enjoying a good break. To end today, one of my favourite bands, Counting Crows, with Under the Aurora.