Abstract:
The recent TV campaign run by the Victorian Labor Party, depicting New Zealand as a basket case after eight years of right-wing experimentation, struck a raw nerve in the Bolger Government. What the advertisement implied was that the current distress in New Zealand was a wholly avoidable situation if only other policies had been adopted. Such a message runs in diamatrical opposition to the official line in Wellington that the current pain is simply the result of hard times brought on by decades of collective profligacy. Both of these views overlook the upalatable truth that the boom and slump cycle, and its attendant human misery, is how the capitalist economy works. This said, it also seems incontestable that the current wasteland of cynicism, corporate glitter and despair is rooted in the modalities of the New Right’s mentality and passions. The political psychology at its core exalts a rugged individualism and the idea of managerial leadership over citizen politics. Norms of social equity are viewed by those currently running New Zealand as highly injurious to economic rationality; to be resisted at all costs. There is a profound distaste for the communal in any shape or form. In terms of economic rationality, New Zealand’s decline is defined not as one of overdependence on the world market but rather insufficient integration with it. This has resulted over the past eight years in supreme importance being given to the wishes of the country’s international creditors.
Details / PDF:
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