I’ve been thinking about the distinctions between Left and Right a bit lately. One of the great things about the Not Happy John movement (and the MoveOn movement in the USA) is the way that they are drawing people together from across the spectrum. Members of the movements have thus discovered that they share more in common with their perceived enemies than they might otherwise have realised. Although, there are of course differences.
So what are the goals I want Australia and the world to strive towards? What is utopia? Many Left wingers will disagree with me (which by the way makes a bit of a mockery of the label “Left”). But I want to figure out what exactly my utopia is, to try to dispel a few myths about what I, as a Leftie, am fighting for.
People often talk about Communism and equal distribution of wealth. See, I don’t think equal distribution is necessarily important or even utopian. I think different people should be allowed to work harder towards specific goals they have. I enjoy the sense of completion that comes from working towards a goal I might have. I enjoy being able to work towards a specific thing that would be important to me.
But I do believe that everyone should be able to live comfortably. That is, I think we should all have adequate housing and health. I think it abhorrent that we have set up a system where there is enough food being produced for everyone to live without fear of starvation but still millions of people die of starvation every day. I realise that that is a pretty major problem that won’t be solved easily. But considering that the food is there, it really shouldn’t be so hard. I also realise that many people on the Left and Right want to see an end to starvation. But something which I have found amazing about the recent Tsunami disaster is the amount of money that ordinary Australians have suddenly found they don’t need. If we can maintain some of the momentum of benevolence created by this disaster, we can make some serious inroads into world poverty.
Many Aboriginal Australians live in third world conditions. They have been exposed to diseases with which they are not equipped to deal and they have not got the medical knowledge to deal with because it was not necessary until recently. As Prime Minister Howard says, the poor state of Aboriginal health should cause a national sense of shame. I want to see Aboriginal people with the ability to diagnose and treat preventable diseases like diabetes and leprocy. The knowledge is available, we just need to get the health services and doctors to the right areas, and we need to equip people in those areas with the education to treat each other.
Up to now I have outlined things that I think most people would agree with as being good priorities. Cultural issues are probably the most important things to me that will provoke strong disagreement. Unlike Hitler, I don’t believe in the superiority of any culture. Different cultures have different priorities and rules and because of this they have achieved different things. I believe that culture is important to people. Culture helps us develop a sense of identity. Many people are proud of their cultural backgrounds, and I think that this is a good thing. However, as Michael Franti put it, “Love just one nation, and the whole world will divide”. It is possible to be intensely proud of one’s own cultural background while also having a strong appreciation and affection for other cultures. It is for this reason that I believe in multiculturalism, which, by the way would not survive terribly easily under a Marxist utopia.
I also believe in sharing cultural knowledges and learning from each other. I don’t think this should be made legally compulsory, but I do think that our Government should encourage programmes and activities that encourage multiculturalism. The Whitlam, Hawke and Keating Governments actively expressed their approval of multicultural appreciation. I think this set an excellent and inspiring example for Australians to follow. I grew up under Hawke and Keating and I believe that having these leaders setting this example had a strong effect on me. I was a very patriotic Australian because I believed that this was what it meant to be Australian: to be appreciative of other cultures and peoples. I am ashamed that this no longer seems to be something that Australia prides itself on as being an integral part of our national identity.
I believe strongly in the rights of Aboriginal cultures. Yet because of the way Western society works, it is considerably harder these days for Aboriginal culture to survive. Living off the land is not easy when white people have decided they “own” certain parts of that land and won’t let you on it. Nor is it easy when many native plants that used to survive are no longer in their natural habitats because white people have planted foreign crops. The most important cultural clash here being that Aboriginal societies mostly ate food as it was found and travelled to where it was, whereas European societies cultivate food in concentrated areas and transport the food to where the people are. I want to see a lot of work done towards finding ways for Aboriginal knowledge and culture to be continued. It is a way of life that people should have the right to maintain. But by the same token, I believe Aboriginal people should have the right to participate in Western society and to straddle the two worlds if they choose. I also believe white Australians should have the same rights.
Australia currently has an immigration policy that heavily emphasises suitability for work. I think this ironic considering that we started off as a convict colony. Yet finding a doctor who can’t speak English can be a problem. Then again, people dealt with such problems for centuries before the concept of having a national language was developed. In a modern context however, perhaps we should instead emphasise more strongly our language education, in the same way that European nations do. We could also encourage more interpreters to migrate to Australia and work alongside immigrants who don’t have “vocational English”.
I believe in accepting a much higher number of refugees and processing their applications considerably quicker. About 90% of the people Australia locks up for immigrating illegally eventually get their refugee status approved, suggesting that the problem lies with our slowness at processing their applications. It would be nice if there weren’t any refugees at all. But there are, and we should show compassion towards them and accept them.
These are the most important issues in my utopia. When I post the rest of my manifesto, I will deal with the other issues and how I believe these issues might actually be achieved.