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But before we look forward, I'd like to look back... back a long way... all the way back to the Ancient Greeks
We have a great deal to thank the Greeks for.
They gave us the Olympic ideal, and they hosted the Games that began the modern Olympic movement. Sadly the Americans subsequently gave us the 1984 Olympics and the crass commercialism that seems to have colonised the event ever since.
Jumping forward to recent history... the Greek economy, while often derided, has taught us a great deal. Through the Greeks we have learned that the Euro was a political fix and a financial disaster (for everyone except Germany), and whether the Greeks stick to austerity or default, they will teach us that Keynes was right and the Chicago School of Economics was wrong. Most fair minded people know that already, but economists take a little longer. We can only hope that in the interim the fallout is minimised.
Looking back over the past century or more, the Greeks have been among the world's most successful migrants. In Australia they gave vibrancy to areas like Carlton in Melbourne, and West End in Brisbane. Most of our country towns boasted a Greek diner which served bacon and eggs or steak and chips in preference to Spanakopita or Moussaka, which is a great pity. They have contributed socially and culturally throughout North Queensland and in Townsville they share their culture with us every year in October, for which we are both fortunate and grateful.
Greeks have excelled in Australian sport (Mark Phillipoussis, Anthony Koutoufides, George Peponis), in film (Zoe and Gia Carides, Alex Dimitriades, Ana Kokinos and Alkinos Tsilimades), as writers (George Megalogenis, Christos Tsiolkas), in Fashion (Alex Perry and Napoleon Perdis), and on TV (George Donikian, Mary Kostakidis, John Mangos, and Andy Pasquelidis). They have contributed to a fairer, more reasoned and more robust polity (Nick Xenophon, Petrou Georgiou), and they have done the opposite (Sophie Mirabella).
Greeks of course gave us Democracy and they pioneered robust public discourse. The great Greek philosophers were orators, not writers. It was thanks to their observers and their followers that the words and the ideas of people such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were written down for the benefit of future societies. The Greek philosophers talked openly of their beliefs, and sought to defend them publicly. It was only through this public discourse that ideas would be developed, fine tuned and finally accepted when dissenting voices were effectively silenced. This practice is preserved in our universities through the delivery of Dissertations which describe and support the research PhD candidates have completed. It is also the process which occurs when academic articles are peer-reviewed prior to publication in academic journals. Sadly it is something that has largely disappeared from modern politics which seeks to win the 'battle of the sound byte'. By abandoning what was surely the underpinning principle of the Greek model of democracy, perhaps we have also abandoned true democracy to the spin doctors, the media managers and media organisations... none of whom we trust.
Labor has a long tradition of this kind of debate in Caucus, and through it the party has developed and enacted important nation building policy. The Howard Government was not in the habit of seeking opinion that 'Honest John' was not in favour of, and it seems the Rudd Government was like-minded. The Gilliard Government has demonstrated a greater willingness to consult and to discuss and debate policy, which is a step in the right direction and a point of significant difference between it and the Opposition. The Abbott led opposition has announced a range of ill-conceived policies (their Paid Parental Leave Scheme, revoking the Mining Tax and the Carbon price and promising a surplus through spending cuts which would make Newman look like he is running a Nanny State) that seem to have been released only to feed the news cycle. And they remain unwilling to debate the merit of their policies, to open them up to public scrutiny or even to discuss modifying them internally.
It is interesting that a decision made on the Palestine vote in the UN (Nov 29th) was described by every Australian mainstream media source and by the Opposition as the PM being rolled by Caucus rather than having been a part of democracy at work.There was little mention of the fact that our final position was the same as 41 other Nations including Germany and Britain. A 'no' vote, would have aligned us with only 9 nations (US, Israel, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Panama). I'm sure critical articles and Coalition speeches were pre-prepared in case of that outcome. It seems that both our media organisations and the Federal opposition subscribe to the 'Command and Control' model of previous Governments, and not the Greek model.
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While the 20 goals that Socrates scored for Brazil in International football were a great achievement, the philosopher from which he took his footballing name achieved much more. He was arguably the most important of the Greek philosophers, and was their most important and enduring political figure.
Socrates (the Philosopher) had a great many followers, but also a number of powerful political opponents. A man who did so much for democracy and the democratic process was also undone by it. He was sentenced to death by a democratic vote of his peers for corrupting the youth with his arguments and for not believing in the State-sanctioned Gods.He accepted his fate, but before he drank his cup of hemlock he famously warned that democratic decisions would not necessarily lead to moral or rational outcomes. He warned, Democracy may just measure the selfish will of many individuals, held captive by tribalism and the partisan nature of information, the stuff of self-serving belief.
While the Mayans were unable to predict the end of the world several centuries into the future, Socrates foresaw the pitfalls that democracies from all countries have fallen into again and again. And he foresaw our current political climate.
Having looked back, what does it mean for politics looking forward, and my hopes for the future?
I hope it means we return to greater public discourse. I hope it means we re-establish the foundations of a strong democracy. I hope the media decides it wants to resume its role as independent and balanced information provider, rather than the partisan opinion-maker many of us suspect it to be. I hope we heed the warnings of Socrates and give them due consideration. And I hope we face the coming year with a mixture of serious thought and a sense of humour... and what better way to do that than to revisit a Monty Python classic that does just that.. do yourself a favour and click on the video below.
Best wishes for the coming year,