It’s a
strange world out there. I’ve been watching the current
political debate and the comings and goings in the ‘big house’
with interest. While the demise of the Democrats is now
complete, what does lie in store for us? Perhaps the next bunch
of “fairies at the bottom of the garden” will do much better
“keeping the bastards honest” than being part of them. But that
is not what interests me.
The rise in
utilitarian, populist politics is much more interesting. Over
the weekend I read half a dozen articles on the current
government from a range of authors, right, left and in between.
All of them wrote from the same script. They concluded that Rudd
is just as, if not more, of a populist than Howard and that he
is yet to find his mojo.
The last
election, like most of the ones I can recall, were all about the
‘what’s in it for me?’ factor. In other words, who is going to
do the most for ME! Higher wages, better hospitals, more
schools, flatter roads, less tax, and the list goes on. So far
as I can see, after all the bluster from all ruling parties so
far in my life, things haven’t really got much better. Sure, I
earn more and the income / cost ratio of many goods has reduced
but what is the overall cost of these things … to all of us?
For instance,
in our quest to source cheaper goods and at the same time enjoy
higher wages, many of our manufacturing processes have been
shipped off shore. I’ve just heard that another 500 Australians
will loose their jobs because a tyre manufacturer will move
their plant to somewhere with cheaper labour. For the 500 blue
collar workers, who I assume quite a few are Labor voters, what
do all the promises of the incumbent government now mean to
them?
This
phenomenon is not, of course, exclusive to the Labor party. The
Liberals promise petrol price cuts while at the same time saying
they want to protect the environment. They are chasing our vote
by hoping that we will weigh up the utility of being able to
access cheap petrol against the harder to quantify benefits of
being able to enjoy the amenity of the natural environment. Who
among us really cares if Pacific islands are already sinking
under the sea? Only a few really care and most of them live on
those islands. Some here may be concerned that their investments
in those places will, no doubt, be devalued. However, under a
‘carbon trading scheme’, they may be compensated for their
loss.
On the matter
of so called ‘carbon trading’, we find again that this is being
packaged as something we should accede to as being good for us.
However, the very title suggests that it is something we should
be very wary of. Why? Because the ‘creation of a market’ means
there will be winners and losers and the losers are usually the
vast majority of citizens who stand to gain no benefit. When
taken apart the scheme is really about providing tax payer
funded subsidies for highly polluting industries to continue to
pollute. They buy a few ‘credits’, someone plants some trees and
hey presto, problem solved. I don’t think so.
Utilitarian
voting hinges on the politicians being able to spin the biggest
issues in the smallest packages. That is, the spin doctors
reduce complex and interlinking issues to the easily digested
sound bite or media grab. In so doing they contribute to the
dumbing down of the electorate. Like the priests of old, the
politicians tell us that we should remain outside the ‘holy of
holies’ and trust them to communicate with the ‘gods’ on our
behalf.
In order to
make this work, the spin doctors spend large amounts of our
money trying to find the best way to sell their ‘message’ back
to us. They know that it’s too hard to try and connect with our
intellects so they go for our gut and / or our heart. What they
do is target our emotions then back that up with something more
concrete.
For instance,
most people would love to see cuddly koalas remain untouched by
climate change. They’re cute, constantly stoned and make us a
fortune in tourist dollars. On the other hand, we need huge
buses and private cars to drive the tourists to the koala park
thus contributing to green house gasses. So, in a hierarchy of
utility and populism, the cute, cuddly koalas are easier to sell
than an esoteric concept such as ‘green house gasses’. We are
told we need tourist dollars and we need to cut emissions as
well. There is a conflict between our heart and our head. We
want both but ultimately one will have to go.
In trying to
get around this the spin doctors devise a campaign that says the
koala park donates a small amount from each entry ticket to
climate research. Ah! The good consumer says. I can drive to the
park, eat the pre-packaged over processed food, enjoy the highly
manicured, over watered garden, safe in the knowledge that two
cents from my $25 entry fee went to save the whales or
something. The heart (which enjoys the experience) is able to
resolve the conflict with the head (how much will this cost) by
diverting the intellect from examining the bigger picture
(climate change and its impact on native wild life). In the
battle for hearts and minds, the heart wins every time.
Utilitarianism is all about cost benefit analysis. If I do X and
it is good and costs me Y, which is bad, how bad or big will Y
be and how will it impact of my enjoyment of X? According to the
current politic this is a question best left to the high priests
within the political and bureaucratic classes. We vote, in the
end, for the one who offers us the best cost / benefit ratio. In
other words, X will cost me but under A it will cost less than
under B. Simple!
It is a
strange world out there. Collectively we seem to ignore threats
to our own person in pursuit of intangibles such as ‘wealth’,
‘happiness’ and ‘prosperity’. These concepts are made material
by their expression in goods and services, all of which cost
something. The objective of a good politician is to maximise
political appeal while minimising the perceived risk to the
individual they are attempting appeal to. Sure, its not an exact
science but it does seem to work.
After all,
I’m sure the 500 workers who are being sacked thought that no
matter who governed, their jobs were safe. Like the cute, cuddly
koala, perhaps one day we will have enclosures for that other
endangered species, the Australian manufacturing worker. Problem
is, by then there will be no petrol to put in the car or bus to
take the tourists to see them.