Voting? Think on these…
By | Jun 27, 2008
This year, I’ve received a number of requests to write about the forthcoming election and how and for whom people should vote. It’s one of those catch 22 invitations, as you can imagine.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. For many years I deliberately didn’t vote - I deliberately resisted the system which I believed held no viable life giving alternative. These days with MMP things aren’t a great deal better on many counts, but there is hope - and so I’ve begun voting again.
Anyhow, here’s my suggestion, which I’ll probably be repeating and developing at a seminar called Burning Issues here in Wellington on August 9th, as we get closer to D-Day.
This election is probably the most significant election most of us will have ever taken part in. The decisions made by a government of this country over the next three years will have incredibly dramatic consequences for the long term future of these islands and the world we inhabit.
Climate change, and the peak production of oil into which we have now moved, are two primary reasons for that. 2012 (or what we could think of as Kyoto 2) is going to be crucial - and this next political term takes us right up to the door and knocks.
How well and creatively we develop social and economic policies against the background of radically shifting contexts, and how we prioritise, and how we utilise the energy of the grassroots desire for local organising and change, is vital.
I’m reading a brand new novel. In it, by virtue of some catastrophe or other, oil reaches the astonishing and fictional US$130 a barrel and the world markets go mental as a result….but of course, already that’s old news now. Fiction is becoming fact faster than our politicians rhetoric can seem to cope with, and that needs to change!
Usually most people vote on the basis of what benefit they will get from a particular party or coalition being in power. That’s why election times are full of stage managed rhetoric of the advantage we stand to gain, of course.
But I think we should subvert this process simply and with a united front.
Rather than think of what we stand to gain, think instead of those you know who are some of the most disadvantaged in our society (and if you don’t know people, get in touch with a local social services agency and ask them - they’d be happy to help).
Take time to get to learn a bit about their needs. Or, if you are ‘them’ take time to find someone and make your needs known!
Read through a Gospel - Mark perhaps - and look at the ethics (another word for politics) which Jesus teaches.
And reflect (preferably with them, but that may not work out) on how a particular party would benefit them in light of their needs and Jesus’ teaching.
In other words, vote with your neighbour, rather than yourself, in mind. And do it with as informed an approach as you can manage.
In a world and a nation preoccupied with immoral pursuit of consumption and self-aggrandizement, literally to our own death and destruction (we would buy ourselves to death) there is no greater act of subversion than this.
Lastly, it’s worth reflecting that when it comes to climate change, most significant actions are simply not present. And most of the actions we undertake do more to represent the rich and powerful (think for instance of farming, or possibly forestry, and other over-represented industry groups) than they do the poor, the marginalised, and those who suffer most the impact of rising costs and sea levels.
Current actions remain too little, too late.
For as long this mis-representation continues, and for as long the self interests of major producers of greenhouse gasses, and major consumers of oil and coal (whether corporation of nation), are not dealt with adequately, and are not part of any robust mechanism (and I’d advocate something based on contraction and convergence and using genuine progress indicies), we will surely be doing little more than preparing the seedbed (note - there is a gpi being developed at Massey).
There is nothing wrong with preparing the seedbed, so long as we understand it for what it is - it is not the crop nor the harvest.
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“Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets.” Num. 11:29
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