With an election campaign underway here in Australia, I am led into a
rather nostalgic place. It is a sign of age. I was a little too young to be
politically active during the nineteen-sixties. I first became politically
aware during the election of 1972, when I was fifteen years old. I was too
young to vote, but I remember being caught up in the euphoria of those days.
“It’s Time!”, the Labor election campaign proclaimed, and so, to many of us, it
seemed to be. We were emerging from the turbulent ’sixties, and from the
Vietnam War, and the future seemed bright. At last, someone with true vision
was going to run the country. Here were people who were prepared to stand for
an ideal, even if it might involve some hardship along the way. It is all too
easy to look back on those days with cynicism. The dream, in the end, was
shattered; but not necessarily because the dreams and visions were misguided.
Australia proved, in the end, too conservative to take any real risks, to
undertake any bold political, social and
economic experiments.
Since then, Australian politics has become increasingly conservative, if
not reactionary. Economics dominates everything. Placing faith in the advice
and predictions of economists is fine, if you are an advocate of crystal ball
gazing and reading the entrails of animals. Nevertheless, somehow economists
have conned us into trusting them, into accepting their unfounded opinions as
“science” – and this faith appears to continue unabated, despite the repeated
failures of their predictions and prescriptions. Faith and religion are alive
and well, it would seem – we just have a different set of priests and prophets.
Government in Australia now amounts to little more than running a large
business, thanks to the dominance of economics.
It’s interesting, because the word “economics” actually comes from the
Latin word meaning “household management”; so economics should be more closely
related to this, than to running a business. Of course the household budget is
important. But I hope that for most of us, running a household is about more
than the bottom line. It is about creating a place where we feel safe and
valued. It is about creating an environment and community which encourages and
fosters growth and development. NOT just “economic” growth and development –
how modern usage as despoiled that word!
There was a time when Australians cared about social issues. People
would march in the street in support of issues, even when they would not
personally benefit from the changes. Now we are all enclosed within our own
wallets and purses. There used to be a time when it really seemed to matter
which political party one voted for. Now we know that, excepting a few
superficial differences, both parties are guided by the same “ideals”. Whoever
gets into power, we know that decisions will be based on narrow economic
principles – however fallible and flawed those principles reveal themselves to
be, time and time again.
You can dismiss these as the ravings of an aging wannabe radical, if you like. But I can think
of far worse things to be accused of!
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