Why we trust our institutions less
15/06/23
With the counter-offensive beginning, it's been a good week for Ukraine. Or, as RNZ would say, it’s been a bad week for Ukraine.
Trust has declined at the same time the government has looked increasingly feckless to voters.
You can tell the way people vote by the way they discuss Michael Wood's shareholding. Labour voters insist no-one cares. If they're right, that tells us how far trust has slipped when no-one blinks at a Transport Minister owning shares in an airport.
Why does this government stumble so often? One reason is that even asking the question is treachery. If you suppress the contest of ideas, you don't get to find out until it's too late where your plans are weak or your opponent has a point. Labour found in the 1980s and 90s that disunity can be devastating, so it never learned the converse: debate can make you stronger, not weaker.
Politics is about how you make people feel, Jacinda Ardern said. How do you constructively disagree with someone's feelings? When you see issues as symbols not substance you end up asking how you feel about promising zero carbon emissions rather than asking whether these policies are likely to achieve it. Only a ‘bad person’ would disagree.
I was on a panel last week with Gluckman and the deputy editor of the Economist newspaper, Ed Carr. Ed thinks journalists should do more reporting if they want to renew trust in media. Get out of the office and talk to people. Real stories reflect our messy, ambiguous reality.
He's right.
Josie's Stuff column is here.
Trust has declined at the same time the government has looked increasingly feckless to voters.
You can tell the way people vote by the way they discuss Michael Wood's shareholding. Labour voters insist no-one cares. If they're right, that tells us how far trust has slipped when no-one blinks at a Transport Minister owning shares in an airport.
Why does this government stumble so often? One reason is that even asking the question is treachery. If you suppress the contest of ideas, you don't get to find out until it's too late where your plans are weak or your opponent has a point. Labour found in the 1980s and 90s that disunity can be devastating, so it never learned the converse: debate can make you stronger, not weaker.
Politics is about how you make people feel, Jacinda Ardern said. How do you constructively disagree with someone's feelings? When you see issues as symbols not substance you end up asking how you feel about promising zero carbon emissions rather than asking whether these policies are likely to achieve it. Only a ‘bad person’ would disagree.
I was on a panel last week with Gluckman and the deputy editor of the Economist newspaper, Ed Carr. Ed thinks journalists should do more reporting if they want to renew trust in media. Get out of the office and talk to people. Real stories reflect our messy, ambiguous reality.
He's right.
Josie's Stuff column is here.
