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  1. Lefter 7 ~ fear

    January 21, 2009 by emweb

    What are you afraid of? It strikes me that wealthy people have an inordinate fear of other people and are incredibly over protective of their misbegotten gains. 

    I live in an area in Auckland that used to be a humming hotbed of racial intermix, a favoured abode of musicians, hippies, lefties, poets and writers. 

    Used to be. 

    Now that it’s considered desirable – in many ways thanks to the community efforts and creativity of those aforementioned dwellers – it’s becoming a white suburb in which wealthy people move in and rebuild the once working-class medium-sized bungalows and villas into multi-storied mansions, almost inevitably with big ‘f__k-off’ gates in the new high walls surrounding them. 

    Since wealth is tied to the right, and as I have mentioned before, the right seems to rely on fear and loathing to build solidarity, I guess this makes sense.

    But what are they afraid of, actually? If a person is robbed, it’s bad. No one enjoys being robbed. But rich people can not only, presumably, afford to replace items much more easily, they inevitably have really good insurance policies as well. 

    So it must be more than fear of basic theft. It must be related to sense of self, and self worth.

    A bizarre thing happened a couple of weeks ago which brought this phenomenon more to my attention. I went to a little bay near Takapuna for a swim, driving the little old family car with two teenagers in it, plus my partner. As I turned into the street leading to the beach, one lined with extremely expensive big houses, I noticed a new VW Beetle following us. There were no parking places left so I went down to the end of the cul-de-sac and, OK a little naughty I guess, double-parked while everyone jumped out. This was a speedy process. I would meet them at the beach after parking the car. 

    I heard a toot and looked up and the VW was aimed amidships of our car, engine idling. 

    “Just be a moment, sorry!” I yelled out. I waited a few more seconds so my family could grab their towels and what not and prepared to drive off.

    But this guy wasn’t having any of it. 

    He jumped out of the passenger side of the Beetle (a woman was driving) and yelled “M-a-t-e” (which I most certainly was not), “It’s my driveway.”

    “I know,” I said pleasantly enough, “I’m just going”. 

    “It’s not good enough, it’s my driveway,” he wheedled.

    My partner, always positive, said something like “Relax, it’s a beautiful day, isn’t it? We’re just going.”

    But he made an angry retort. So did I. Anyway, I drove off, shaking my head in disbelief, and parked around the corner. As I walked back, I noticed this guy stalking about with a pad and pen writing down the number plates of every car he thought infringed his, or someone else’s, property in some way. How galling it must have been that part of his driveway formed a portion of the public access to the beach – but he must have known that when he moved in and rebuilt his fortress, surely?

    For the amazing thing is (he scurried off when he saw me coming) I saw that he lived in an absolute stone-block-constructed several-storey mansion with amazing views out to Rangitoto, fronting the black rocks by the cute little beach. It was surrounded by a high block wall and every few metres there was a sign stating that trespassers would be prosecuted and the house and environs was under constant surveillance. It was more like a castle than a house. 

    Nice life, huh? What an idiot. 

    My daughter thinks it’s guilt at having what you shouldn’t have.

    Category Left, New Zealand, Politics, Thought | Tags: , , | No Comments

  2. Lefter 6: right and left

    December 29, 2008 by emweb

    When I have discussions of left and right – not that I do very often in New Zealand, where political discussion is not favoured – some like to say that you can’t boil fundamental ideologies down. I think this argument is facile. Of course you can. It’s the detail that leads to all those arguments that the left traditionally overindulges in to dash itself to bits against the hard shore of daily reality. 

    But if you grasp a basic understanding of what left is, and what right is, it should inform you how to live your life. And who to vote for.

    I am not a strong supporter of the Labour Party. I’m certainly not a member. Labour is far too centrist for me. The Greens have the right idea – ‘we shouldn’t shit in our nest’, basically. But is it a left wing party? I’m not so sure. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

    I often vote Labour (and sometimes Green). I would prefer that the left wing view prevails for the good of the people of New Zealand (and not just for the good of the wealthy, for whom I have no patience).

    As I said in my second blog “the left puts people first, the right puts money first”.

    Consider this statement: “To a great extent the left over-identifies with the other as a victim, which locks it into a hierarchy of suffering whereby the wretched can do little wrong. To a much greater extent the right disidentifies to build political solidarity through fantasmic fear and loathing. Faced with this impasse, critical distance might not be such a bad idea after all.”

    [from The Return of the Real, p203 by Hal Foster, published 1996 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology]

    This book discusses art and theory and the quote appears in a chapter on the Western world and the other world. I think it’s a pretty good summation, too, of broad philosophical and cultural differences between left and right. If you’ve seen Michael Moore’s documentary Bowling for Columbine, the final message is that the governing forces of the US have been fostering fear to maintain position. Fear of ‘the other’. Look at the complete lack of discussion post 9/11 about why on earth somebody would feel they had to carry out those attacks. To spend all that time, money and energy organising them, then carrying them out. From the US perception, it was as if the attacks were carried out simply because ‘terrorists are evil’. This was further propagated by the misidentification of Iraq with Osama Bin Laden. Unfortunately, to most Americans it didn’t matter. Iraqis were ‘other’ anyway. Attack them. 

    How about “critical distance”, though? In the passage quoted above, Foster is talking about art in relation to society. But if you believe either or both of those summations (mine and Foster’s), you start to see daily events in a different light. Underlying motives become more apparent.

    As we head into a year in which the recession looks like it will show its effects more deeply, you might be thinking about what kind of government you would prefer to have in place. 

    What caused this recession was people so eager to have what the Western promise offered, they would borrow far more than was sensible. These loans were vended to them by greedy bankers over-keen to take their money, at any cost. 

    Now, in the environment of worldwide recession, our National government rolls out no tax breaks to those earning under $40,000 per year but progressively higher tax breaks above that to people who earn more. National has modified the life-saving KiwiSaver scheme – potentially life-saving to low income workers who now have savings, and to those who would buy a first home – to pay for those tax breaks for the wealthy.

    If you ever wanted a regime that fosters the division between the wealthy and the poor, this is it – National is consigning lower paid workers to penury and unfair competition for dwindling jobs while rewarding those who manage to stay employed in jobs earning over the national average. This would be bad enough if the economy was humming, but to do this now?!

    Is that what you voted for?

    Category Left, New Zealand, Politics, Thought | Tags: , | 2 Comments

  3. Lefter 5 ~ Politically Correct

    December 10, 2008 by emweb

    Bizarrely, as I write this, two young men with swastika tattoos are washing the house. The house washing people didn’t say anything about neo-Nazi operators. It’s not like the firm was called Himmler Housewash or anything. 

    ‘Politically Correct’ is one of the catch phrases people seemed to love to use to label all sorts of sins of the Left, and of the Labour Party. 

    But what does it mean? 

    Being politically correct means you don’t act on racist, sexist, or homophobic assumptions – or that you try not to, assuming you’re aware of these tendencies in yourself. You live and let live. You don’t promote racist or sexist acts. You try and be mindful of the rights of others and to treat people as your equals. 

    What on earth is wrong with that? Every major philosophy and religion in the world says essentially the same thing.

    You have to wonder if those who rail loudest against ‘the PC brigade’ are the worst recidivists of racism and sexism. It’s easy to assume they hate the strictures of being politically correct because it’s the antithesis of their real beliefs. And if their real beliefs are the antithesis of being PC, you probably won’t want much to do with them as they are not rational, reliable human beings. 

    When people ask me, with a withering tone, if I’m politically correct, I say ‘Yes, I am.’ Then I ask them ‘What’s wrong with that, exactly?’ It pays to challenge people on these statements as, unfortunately, you’ll discover they don’t often know what they mean. They just like the easy put-down. But it’s time to pull the rug out from under their feet, especially as National sets about dismantling the structures that attempt to keep our society decent and fair. 

    So explain what it means, then ask them to explain what is so wrong with treating people with respect. Be proud to be politically correct.

    Category Left, New Zealand, Politics, Thought, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | No Comments

  4. Lefter 4: the Middle Class

    December 3, 2008 by emweb

    A few years ago my younger brother, who I respect and like, told me that the Middle Class basically paid all the taxes here yet was being squeezed continuously by successive governments. He said the Middle Class was shrinking and this was bad for New Zealand.

    I challenged him on this, and he annoyed me further by saying “Think about it. The Lower Class doesn’t, essentially, pay taxes because it earns too little or is actually costing money through benefits, education programs etcetera. Meanwhile the Upper Class will pay any amount of money to avoid paying taxes. That leaves the Middle Class carrying the tax burden — and the country.”

    I was angered at his words, due to my own working class pretensions, I suppose — but over the next couple of weeks, I realised he was essentially right. The Middle Class does carry the country and the tax burden. The Middle Class also produces professionals, artists, academics, educators, writers, managers, small business entrepreneurs … and New Zealand used to be renowned as a Middle Class society.

    And it did used to be, maybe up until the 1960s anyway, but over the last few decades the percentage fairly counted here as poor has risen dramatically, while the gap between the very rich and the rest has also widened dramatically. As a result, the Middle Class has not only been under financial pressure (for example, GST), but has been shrinking in size as members drop into the lower categories. This process may be about to accelerate as the debt burden, due to this current economic crisis, effects more people. 

    Side-stepping the issue that it was really bloody stupid for people to borrow so much money on so little equity just to have stuff they didn’t need, or ever bigger houses, for now, this perhaps-subconscious perception of stress probably added to the grasping at ‘lower tax’ straws that I think was short sighted. As call me old fashioned, but I don’t mind paying taxes as I quite like having roads, water, rail, power, schools — come to that, a defence force tat can help with disaster relief — and I like knowing that if I have an accident I will be cared for. Contrast that with my friend in Europe who had an accident on the motorway and nearly died because his medical care was so poor.

    This because, in amongst all the blood and mess, the doctors couldn’t find his medical insurance card so they got him out of the hospital next day, despite gaping wounds and multiple fractures, and he almost died of blood poisoning five days later. 

    Be proud to be Middle Class. It’s time we fought back.

    Category Left, New Zealand, Politics, Thought | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

  5. On greed

    November 26, 2008 by emweb

    Lefter 3

     

    Average-height poppies

    Last post I mentioned a fundamental difference between left and right philosophies. I wrote that, in a nutshell, left-wingers tend to put people first whereas right-wingers put money first. 

    You might think that means you ought to have a right wing accountant (I must note that my accountant is one of the coolest left-wing people I have ever met). But of course, if you put money first this world view can – and often does – lead to greed.

    I’m always conflicted on greed. I am a white Middle Class male living in a  Western Democracy. Almost by default that puts me in the upper percentile of wealth compared to humans on Planet Earth. Even if I lived on a benefit, that would still be the case. So am I greedy?

    I have to say, I’m no Mother Theresa. I won’t be leaving New Zealand to live in a slum to help people there. This is partly because I have no useful skills to pass on – I can’t make engines work or even swing a hammer very competently. I don’t know how to channel scarce water, and I’m terrible with gardens. The people I ought to help would probably end up looking after me, which would be a complete waste of resources.

    But of course it’s partly because I’m lazy and partly because I have a family here, in safe old, comfortable New Zealand. And it’s partly because I feel I can make more of a difference in the society I grew up in. 

    Anyway, what is greed? It’s usually defined as the excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves. If you put that into your own context, it’s pretty clear pretty quickly who is greedy and who isn’t.

    I know New Zealand is supposed to be an ‘egalitarian’ society but it has always shocked me how much greed there is bubbling away under the surface. We teach our kids when they’re pre-schoolers to share. However, to become wealthy, you don’t share. You hoard. As adults, when we criticise the excesses of the wealthy, the usual riposte is that we’re exhibiting ‘tall poppy syndrome’. This implies we’re jealous; we’re trying to cut down the ‘tall poppies’ that have used personal wealth to place themselves above the rest.

    So in New Zealand, we’re expected to tell our children to share and control their greed, but we’re supposed to laud it in adults. This is absolute poppycock in the context of those who live lives of excess as the rewards of their personal (or inherited) spoils. A true tall poppy is someone who has added to their society.

    At this point, some people like to claim that rich people run businesses so they keep lots of people employed. Again, pure poppycock. To a wealthy business owner, materials are controlled and modified in the process of creating profits. 

    Workers are materials too, that’s all. If you weren’t making a profit for the owner for every hour you spend on the job, don’t kid yourself – you would not be there. And if greedy business owners think they can get more out of you without paying you more, they will, and the National Party in New Zealand has always assisted anti-employee and pro-owner practices. That’s why they hate the unions, designed solely to stand up for workers’ equitable conditions and wages. (And I know NZ unions have been victims of their own excess in the past, too.)

    Myself, I like to do a good job, to be thanked for it and to be paid fairly. 

    That’s all.

    Category Politics | Tags: , | No Comments

  6. So, I’m left wing

    November 19, 2008 by emweb

    Most Kiwis won’t say what their political affiliations are; this may be similar where you live. I find this frustrating. I was shocked when I went to Holland, though, over 20 years ago. You’d meet someone and they’d say “Hi, I’m so and so, I’m a journalist and a communist.”

    In New Zealand, you might know someone six months before you even got an inkling of where their political affiliations lay and even then, you might be guessing for months or years more before you had a clear picture. Just asking a Kiwi who they voted for is often considered a real social gaffe.

    For me, I wish New Zealanders would get over it. It’s pathetic and shows our immaturity as a nation. I wonder where it comes from? Farmers? In theory we have one of the biggest personal spaces in the world. Don’t come too close … Maybe our political space is as off limits as our personal space? But probably it’s because the wealth of the nation is so firmly rooted in agriculture it’s considered, at a deep level, weird to be anything but a National supporter. Anything else is an aberration so don’t ask. It would be as gauche as asking someone if they had piles. 

    But hey, the world is changing.

    Of course every discussion about left and right begs the question: what is ‘left wing’? Well, it aint ‘communism’. Not if you consider the Chinese, Russian, Albania etc systems ‘communist’, anyway. Those were (are, in the case of China) right wing systems of social control almost from the get go. While they did spread the wealth a little better than the systems they replaced, how hard would that have been considering their extremely iniquitous predecessor regimes? Any gumby could have arranged better distribution, but as soon as the state control ratcheted up, they were heading towards full-on fascim realy fast. But hey, good old George Orwell sussed that out long before most outside those systems did, right? Clever man, that Orwell. 

    Only a facile git would level the ‘Communist’ slur at someone who’s left. Which is not to say original Communist theory wasn’t left wing, at least in some major aspects. 

    To me, boiling it all down, the left puts people first, the right puts money first.

    I will discuss this further.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: , | 2 Comments

  7. Lefter 1

    November 13, 2008 by emweb

    The new government has been elected, and my beloved Grey Lynn is now part of a National-held electorate. For the first time ever. It makes me feel nauseous. The party of John Key all seems to toe the line “equality of opportunity, not of outcome”. In other words, if I present the same opportunity to a Remuera student and a same-age student from the Hokianga, that’s fair. What they do with that, well, who cares?

    Having the tools, upbringing and background to exploit and manage those opportunities is not considered, but since they don’t believe in equality of outcome, tough shit. Charming. Raise the class flag and go for your life. John Key can emerge from a solo-parent and state house background and, thanks to his overweening greed, become a millionaire, so why can’t you?

    Why should you, for goodness sake? Some people just aren’t greedy, John Key. They actually care about other people and their communities.

    Category Politics | Tags: , | No Comments

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