The Generalisations of Politics
Mark Twain once observed: "All generalisations are false, including this one."
Politics thrives on playing the generalisation game. Lump everyone into a group. Don’t look too closely. Offer simplistic causes and solutions to highly complicated problems.
So, it's easy for the Green Party to throw around blanket terms like "the greedy rich" or for the National Party to imply that homeless people wrestling with mental illness or addiction need to exercise "greater personal responsibility".
Neuroscience has found the human brain loves to identify patterns so much that we often impose imaginary patterns where there are none. They call it pareidolia. Think of animal shapes we find in the clouds. Or human features we claim to see in a rock formation. And the problem is that once you see it, it’s hard to unsee it.
This tendency for pareidolia extends to social classifications. Once we start applying stereotypes, it becomes hard to kick the habit.
Which is why the recent resurgence of class warfare rhetoric in NZ politics requires a cautious and reasoned response.
Demonising or lionising the rich or the poor is about playing with voters' emotions and prejudices rather than engaging in serious policy discussion.
Historically speaking, pitting the two extremes in a great antagonism toward each other makes matters far worse for society, not better.
Those in power - irrespective of the group they claim to represent - have a democratic duty to all citizens to ensure the Bill of Rights Act is upheld. Identity politics, on the other hand, corrodes BORA by creating different tiers of citizenship. Personal freedoms depend on equality before the law.
Much of the discussion around the government's Summary Offences (Move-on Orders) Amendment Bill feeds on shallow stereotypes and an impatient impulse toward quick fixes. If we ignore the Attorney General's Section 7 report on the Bill, the government will be in violation of BORA, achieving nothing more than a sweeping of the real issue of homelessness under the rug.
The Greens' new tax policy is no better. Announced by party co-leaders last Monday, it goes after personal wealth with the undisguised revolutionary glee of a guillotine operator. Forget the fact their accounting was off by nearly a billion dollars. Or that a couple living on a single income of $160,000 or more a year and supporting children while paying a mortgage in Auckland would find themselves taxed at a higher rate than if they earned a combined $160,000 or more. The implication is clear: penalise the traditional family as an economic unit.
The moral measure of a person should never be determined by their bank balance.Nor should their civil liberties depend on it.
If there's one thing we actually can safely generalise here, its that political parties have a habit of playing the class warfare game every time an election rolls round.
This week, PILLAR submitted on the Summary Offences (Move-on Orders) Amendment Bill! We’ll be heading to Wellington to speak to MPs about this bill in the coming month.
Friend, at PILLAR we call out threats to Civil Liberties wherever we see it, regardless of which side of politics it is coming from.
Your support and engagement with our work continues to make this work possible - thank you!
