Friday 2 March 2018

Talking About Their Generation.

People Try To Put Them D-Down: When both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition are twenty years younger than you are, the torch has not so much been passed to the next generation, as posted-up triumphantly on its Facebook page!

NOW’S THE TIME for Baby Boomers like me to start feeling really old. When both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition are twenty years younger than we are, the torch has not so much been passed to the next generation, as posted-up triumphantly on its Facebook page!

The moment had to come, of course. If New Zealand was not to become a moribund gerontocracy in the mould of the pre-Gorbachev Soviet Union, then the Baby Boomers simply had to vacate the centre of the political stage for a younger cast of players.

Not that our new generation of political leaders can be expected to have very firm grasp on what the pre-Gorbachev Soviet Union was – or wasn’t. All that Cold War stuff: the terrifying stand-off between two ideologically hostile superpowers armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons; it’s all so very twentieth century.

For Jacinda Ardern’s, and the new National Party leader, Simon Bridges’, generation, the crucial date isn’t 1991, when the Soviet Union quietly blipped-off History’s screen, but 1992 when the Internet began constructing the future. If you want to talk about revolutions, then that is the only one that matters to the children of the twenty-first century.

And that, of course, is the challenge confronting both leaders: how to sail the Ship of State towards the future’s bright horizons, without first running it aground on the jagged reefs of the past.

Not every voter is a Millennial. The societies we inhabit are more crowded with generations than any which came before. There will soon be a million New Zealanders over the age of 65. A million! And practically all of them enthusiastic participants in the electoral process.

A million people who were born and grew up in a time so radically different from the present that it will require a constant imaginative effort on the part of both Jacinda and Simon to keep the cultural and political expectations of these older New Zealanders at the front of their own and their respective parties’ minds.

At the same time, Labour’s and National’s leaders will be expected to deliver to their own generation comparable levels of comfort and security to those displayed in the lives of their parents and grandparents. Well-paying jobs; affordable homes, or, at the very least, secure tenancies; functioning health and education services for their own families; a flourishing natural environment: if these cannot be delivered, then life in New Zealand is likely to turn very nasty.

Of the two political leaders, it is Simon Bridges who faces the tougher job. Although there are almost as many young fogies as there are old ones, conservatism, historically, appeals more to those of advanced years than it does to the young. As the leader of a conservative political movement, the voices resonating most loudly in Bridges’ ears will be those of the settled and the comfortable; the men and women who have the most to lose from any serious challenge to the status quo.

Investors, business leaders, landlords, will not take kindly to any suggestion that the system be changed to accommodate the interests of those without capital; lacking real estate; and unable to say “No” to their employers without jeopardising their future careers. And yet, these are precisely the interests that Simon Bridges must be willing to put ahead of those most firmly attached to the status quo. If the National Party is not to become irredeemably associated with the past; if it is not to surrender the future entirely to Labour and the Greens; then he must convince his own generation that National, too, is a party of change.

That he “gets” this, stands revealed in his observation that the party in Parliament he would most like to see National in coalition with, at some point in the future, is the Greens.

The greatest danger facing this young man: the first New Zealander of Maori descent to be elected leader of a major New Zealand political party; is that the past will rise in selfish revolt against the necessary adaptations that conservatism must embrace if it is to survive and thrive in the twenty-first century.

There are some Baby Boomers who see no reason why they should all just “f-f-f-f-fade away”. As they say in the pantomimes: “Watch out, Simon! She’s behind you!”

This essay was originally published in The Waikato Times, The Taranaki Daily News, The Timaru Herald, The Otago Daily Times and The Greymouth Star of Friday, 2 March 2018.

13 comments:

Guerilla Surgeon said...

"They" say that you are starting to get old when doctors and policeman start looking young. I haven't been to the doctor for some time, but the last time I went the young woman who was locum looked about bloody 16. And when I went to surrender my firearms license, the guy that received it was positively cherubic. Still, I suspect (well hope actually) I could still outrun both of them. :)

Polly said...

Chris,
the best read yet on our new political leaders.
Good luck to both of them.
Bon voyage to New Zealand.

David Stone said...

They look so sweet sitting together in their photoshop don't they ; you could almost imagine them as friends. Wouldn't it be a novelty if the decided to co-operate .
Yesterdays run down on Simon, and aloof at his wikipedia profile shows a busy boy and not a dummy.
D J S

Kat said...

The masters that pull the levers in the national party will never allow any meaningful co-operation between Bridges and Ardern. The new leader of the opposition in the house on day one set about smearing the coalition govt with insinuations of going soft on criminals, giving taxpayers money to fraudsters and then followed up by the general framing of Labour as the "tax and spend" experts.

Putting it simply, National only exist to keep Labour out of govt. At all costs.

greywarbler said...

David S
In another word Bridges is a schemer, and aggressive? Is that what you mean by "busy boy and not a dummy."?

Andrew Nichols said...

a moribund gerontocracy in the mould of the pre-Gorbachev Soviet Union,

or the current US legislature ..full of the decrepit Cold Warrior elderly like Trump, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi , lindsay Graham. They all need term limits. It's ironic that the current bunch of Russian leaders are way younger than their US counterparts.

jh said...

And that, of course, is the challenge confronting both leaders: how to sail the Ship of State towards the future’s bright horizons, without first running it aground on the jagged reefs of the past.
.......
Why does the government allow RNZ to champion globalization?

Spoonley says "what's happening is we are globalism in ways that are very very significant" [Smart Talk at the Auckland Museum - Immigration ] whereas in 23 Things they don't tell you about capitalism the authors compare bus drivers salaries in India and Europe and conclude that the only thing that maintains living standards for the vast majority of westerners are draconian border controls? Spoonley also asks "how are businesses in Queenstown going to get staff?" when real wages in tourism and hospitality have fallen about 1/3 since 1979. And what of the "inclusive" E tu union. Are not Labour, Masseys academics and journalists joined at the hip?
Why is everyday Maori language Day (all of a sudden). Does Clare Curran not control RNZ?

Shirley Knuckey said...

There was comment about his Maori heritage I believe. I was puzzled that despite his 'pride in his whakapapa' he uttered not a syllable of his first news conference in te Reo. Odd. It's almost a convention now I thought, to greet 'Tena koutou' and the like. Winston Peters similarly, though I have read that he is quietly and deeply attached to his Northland marae.

David Stone said...

Greywabler

Check him out on wikipedia. He has done stuff, must be quite able. That's no comment on his disposition to do the right thing, just his likely ability to do something. Political achievements so far don't appeal much do they.
D J S

Guerilla Surgeon said...

"Why is everyday Maori language Day (all of a sudden)"
Perhaps because it's an official language? Let's face it, every day has been English-language day for the last 150 years or so.

Shirley Knuckey said...

There was comment about his Maori heritage I believe. I was puzzled that despite his 'pride in his whakapapa' he uttered not a syllable of his first news conference in te Reo. Odd. It's almost a convention now I thought, to greet 'Tena koutou' and the like. Winston Peters similarly, though I have read that he is quietly and deeply attached to his Northland marae.

jh said...

The argument that RNZ should be school teachers because Maori is a official language is a non sequitur. All it means is Maori can be used in some official capacities.

Guerilla Surgeon said...

RNZ doesn't teach anyone anything except for a few phrases. Why the hell anyone get their knickers in a twist over it I just don't know. I mean who cares apart from racists and whiners? And you can easily make the case that RNZ as a government funded organisation should damn well do it anyway. And as I may have said before, if it annoys people like you and Don Brash I'm all for it.