(Un)common Sense

New Zealanders are a diverse bunch – increasingly over the last couple of decades – coming from all different backgrounds and cultures. Even defining the term ‘Kiwi’ is now becoming harder and harder.

So when someone tells you they are “representing the average New Zealander”, how do you know they are?

Many different ideas about what is best for us “Kiwis” are being thrown about by politicians, all vying for our votes in the fast-approaching general election being held in November. The problem is, most of these ideas tend to conflict with each other. Our ideas about what is best for the “average Kiwi” depends on the way we see the world which is usually influenced by our upbringing to a degree.

I grew up on a farm with a large family and hard-working parents and learned the value of things like working hard and saving the pennies for ‘rainy days’. I learned about the added responsibilities of parenthood by raising orphaned animals. I even learned about the dreaded T-word – Taxes – by watching my father fret as tax-return time rolled around every few months. I learned about faith and The Creator through my parents and our regular Sunday-morning visit to church. These things have shaped the way I see the world and, therefore, the way I think other people should look at things.

But how do I come into agreement with someone else who has a different worldview than me? How can we – or anyone for that matter – decide what is best for the “average Kiwi”?

With the election date drawing fast, ideas about how things should work in NZ are being put forward as ‘the magic bullet’ with great vigour by political parties. And they are being shot down equally as vigorously by other political parties. It seems the electioneering period is a time for insults, bravado and character assassinations – much like a school playground filled with little people trying to make themselves appear bigger at the expense of someone else. Ideas are being nay-sayed with uncompromising irrationality and thrown out onto the street like the proverbial ‘baby and the bath water’ by competing parties without a second thought for if there is any scrap of validity to the idea.

And the question remains: how can we agree on what is right for New Zealand and its people? A wise man called Solomon once gave this proverb, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”* What he was saying was that as individuals, we don’t have all the answers so the best way to make our plans (e.g. The Plan for the running of this country) succeed was through having input from many sources. And if we did not consider the opinions of others, the plan would be destined to fail at least in some area.

I myself have been learning that despite my right-wing conservative religious working-class upbringing, I need to listen to the opinions of others when making up my mind about issues relating to the running of this country and not write them off straight away just because they differ to mine.

Maybe if our politicians followed suit and put their egos, powerplays and party agendas aside, sat around a table together and discussed (with open minds) their ideas for the running of the county, maybe the “average Kiwi” would be better off for it.

Then again, it would probably make for a boring next few months.

* Proverbs 15:22 (NIV)