About New Zealand Politics
I have noticed that people in New Zealand are becoming increasingly divided by politics and that’s a problem that I’ll discuss in the next few paragraphs. Political division seems to be a trend around the world and it’s probably partly due to the nature of humans to be biased.
Biases happen on subconscious levels and can interact with our psyche in strange ways. This results in odd logic (magical thinking) that makes sense to the individual, but they often aren’t able to explain their reasoning to others in a way that stands up to any good scrutiny. This gives rise to political arguments based on logic fallacies or injudicious allegiances to political figures, parties, policies or ideologies.
Another reason for this division might be that political solutions to complex problems aren’t always possible or have undesirable effects. This means that the best we can do is a solution that sits in the middle and accepts failings on both sides. Additionally, some problems might be too technical or complex for the public to understand, or may have elements that rely on information that cannot be publicly disclosed.
Consequently those on the left see the solution to be failing because it’s too far right and those on the right think it’s failing because it’s too far left. The result is a demand for more extreme policy on either side, and greater political division.
Improving Our Thinking
Whether you are left leaning or right leaning, I’m sure that you can see the opposing side as being guilty of the above failings.
The fact that both sides feel that way might suggest that perhaps they’re both correct and in fact we’re all guilty of biases that we can’t see.
Let’s take that a step further and recognise that we’re rarely able to see our own biases and that there’s a chance that in a discussion with two sides who are equally sure of themselves, it’s possible that you are the one that is wrong! But then, making the assumption that there are only two ways to view a problem is not correct, so perhaps it’s possible that all parties could be wrong. Perhaps it’s a little small-minded to say that there’s no truth or value in anything someone says or thinks, so perhaps all parties have part of the solution.
The key is to recognise the importance of challenging our ideas and opinions - especially when we feel so strongly about them, because ironically that’s when we’re most often wrong.
I believe that the best way to challenge our political thinking is to collect and review the facts, understand what is opinion and have open-minded discussion with people who can present different perspectives on our thinking without arguing - because when we argue we dig our heels in, no one changes their mind or learns anything, and we become more divided and less intelligent.
About This Publication
I created this publication to keep track of the NZ government’s actions and what’s going on in the political arena. The aim of this is to inform people of both the good and bad things that are going on, which can be used as a list and summary come election time to serve as a reminder of how the government has performed.
In addition to this, the second aim of this publication is to change people’s thinking, including my own. I am just one person who has a day job, a side-hustle and hobbies that take a lot of my time, which means I can’t be a journalist that does in-depth research (I’ll mostly be relying on our left and right wing media for my facts) and I will probably not get all the perspectives and information available to each subject - so I’m relying on my readers comments to help me with my research and help me form my opinions at times. This may mean that I make adjustments to my articles after they are published and emailed out, so I invite you to return to re-read them and review the comments.
While I will likely opine on matters and perform analyses, I will try to keep this record politically neutral. If I achieve this, I expect that left wing folk will think that I’m right leaning and right wing folk will think that I’m left leaning.
What Did The Romans Ever Do For Us?
I was undecided what to call this publication. I contemplated something simple like “NZ politics” (which is the URL I ended up choosing due to it’s length and relevance), but that didn’t work with my playful side.
I considered calling it something like “Oh Beehive!”, a reference to Austin Powers which works in a few ways: It’s punny and it can be read as a sigh at the government building in any manor of tones. I didn’t go this way because I dislike puns.
In the end I went with the rather lengthy “What Did The Romans Ever Do For Us?”. This came from The Life of Brian, which is a famous Monty Python film, in which, a group of people sit around complaining about their Roman oppressors. In doing so, they ask themselves “What did the Romans ever do for us?”, to which the others agree with the sentiment but then comically list all the good things that they got as a result (the aqueduct, sanitation, roads, irrigation, medicine, education, wine, public baths, safety, order and peace).
I feel that this is an apt title for the publication because I like the idea that the people in the sketch are sitting around complaining about the ruler, but then after discussing it logically, they actually decide that the government is doing good things for them... and that's what I want for this publication - for disgruntled people to have their minds changed and complacent admirers of the government to remove the rose coloured glasses.
