Democracy needs experienced minds
Image credit: Sergio Gonzalez on Unsplash
“I wrote this article for the Grown Ups website. It was just after The Democracy game had been published and I still held out hope New Zealand citizens would see through Luxon, Seymour and Peters. Though, to be fair, Labour had spent three years dithering so my hope wasn’t strong!”
I was conducting a strategy workshop for a small organisation in the health sector – it’s what I do because being an author in New Zealand doesn’t pay the bills! To demonstrate the amount of experience they had to draw on, I asked each person how long they had worked in the health sector. There were twenty-five people at the workshop with a combined experience of over 500 years.
I told them, “That’s a wealth of experience you have to draw on. The trick is, can you?”
The combined years of experience of New Zealanders over the age of 50 would be a staggering number. The collective experience, skill and insight, acquired over a lifetime results in the kind of minds able to knit together information into a broad and coherent picture. Those are minds that are better able to sift through the deluge of information and misinformation that is literally raining down on us.
Don’t believe me . . .
Why you should thank your aging brain
“Studies have shown that older people have better judgment, are better at making rational decisions, and are better able to screen out negativity than their juniors are.” Among a range of observed advantages was, “Older people are less likely to rush to judgment and more likely to reach the right conclusion based on the information.”
Older minds have experiences and histories that matter. Here’s a fact worth considering, New Zealanders aged over 50 are the only people who have experienced living in a New Zealand before Rogernomics! They have lived through many of the major changes that has resulted in the society in which we now find ourselves. The very real threat of nuclear war that resulted in New Zealand being nuclear-free. The 1970s oil crisis, perhaps a portent of times to come.
These minds are needed now, more than ever, to help ensure our democracy is stable, robust and not able to be “gamed”. We need these minds to help society cut through the fog of misinformation to work out how we can deliver the New Zealand its citizens want. For me, that’s the objective of democracy, that we are represented by people we can trust to put their energy into creating the best New Zealand we can have – for everyone.
“I’m not interested in politics,” is a statement I often hear on my travels.
It’s understandable. Politicians are usually lumped in with used-car dealers and journalists (a sad indictment on the state of our media) when it comes to people we trust. The question I ask in return is, “who benefits from this lack of interest?” I don’t usually get an answer, but it’s not the people of New Zealand. Arguably it’s the politicians themselves who get to carry on with little scrutiny, swapping sides of the house periodically until it’s time to retire.
Over 230,000 New Zealanders aged over fifty didn’t vote in the 2020 general election. To put that number in to context, the Green Party (226,754 ) and ACT (219,030) both polled around that number of party votes. Add to this the unknown number of people who voted but, through a lack of engagement, didn’t make their decision based on sound information. Unengaged voters are increasingly the target of political parties using complex computer algorithms to influence their decision – they’re easier to sway.
Back to the Harvard study mentioned above. I think the key words are “the right conclusion based on the information”. In order to make a sound decision you need information – to get that information you need to be engaged. You wouldn’t buy a car without researching the options.
I’ve heard it said many times, your mind is like a parachute – it works best when it’s open. So, whether you’re currently left, right, or centre, I encourage you to take a fresh look at the political landscape, give your mind the chance to chew over the problem, reject the misinformation and let it make a sound decision. There’s plenty of time, the last date for voting is Saturday, 14 October 2023.
I have faith that if the majority of New Zealand’s citizens engage sufficiently, we, as a society, will make sound political decisions and implement policies that will put New Zealand back on the path to be viewed as a world-leading country. Democracy is only able to be “gamed” if New Zealand citizens allow it.
