Welcome to our Socialist Paradise

The Long Game

New Zealand is a socialist country--at least ideologically.  By which we mean that the grand majority think in socialist categories.  The vast majority of the population endorse the state being the sole educator of children, as well as a state controlled, run and rationed healthcare system,  and one of the most "generous" state welfare systems in the world.  Not surprisingly, almost all social problems and challenges are expected to be solved by the state.  Equally not surprisingly, just on sixty percent of government expenditure goes to health, education, and welfare [1].  The overwhelming majority of the population, if asked, "What must we do to improve social welfare, health, and education in New Zealand?" would argue that the government needs to spend more money in these areas. 

Now, if one asked the "man-in-street" whether New Zealand was a socialist country, he most likely would be offended at the question.  Of course not, he would reply.  That's because the country believes fervently in socialism without doctrines (as historian Michael Bassett put it).  The practices of applied socialism are so entrenched no-one needs defend or advocate for them any longer. The frog in the pot has well and truly boiled, whilst experiencing no discomfort.

Given that New Zealand is a socialist paradise without doctrines and that all political parties without exception live with this reality (even the most conservative and libertarian minor parties seek to make changes only at the margin), how does an professedly socialistic party fare, politically?
  Well, as you would expect, the Labour Party, the historical socialist party, has itself become a fringe group.  Its litany of complaints about low polling and lack of support almost always turn around a chorus of complaint about National "stealing" its policies. 

The upshot is that Labour is now a cluster of dis-entitled fringe groups, which constantly wage war against one another.  A newspaper cartoonist captured the reality wonderfully well:

(Hat Tip: Keeping Stock)

What is a self-respecting, freedom loving, anti-statist, God-fearing, mankind-loving Christian in New Zealand to do?  On the political scene, very little.  One should get as far away from that madding crowd as possible. We are such a minority that Christian votes count for very little in any event.  Consequently, no self-respecting politician would bother courting the Christian vote--and in any event, far too many Christians are so seduced by socialism without doctrines that they are quite happy to see still greater government intrusions and expansions--as expressions of Christian social action.  For many Christians, their real, functional messiah remains the State.

The sad reality is that New Zealand is such a pagan secular country that Christians ought arguably to be regarding themselves as kindred spirits to the ancient exiles by the river Chebar in Babylon.[2]  On the other hand, one of the implications of this is that there are huge strides to be made on the ground, in communities, in and around local church environs.  There is plenty of work to do in the pagan secular city, because socialism, even without doctrines, does not deliver a "city set upon a hill".  On the contrary, it delivers form without substance, life without meaning, along with the gnawing perturbation of grievance mongering.  For the socialist at heart, one's problems are always caused by others or the "system". 

Forget trying to make an impact upon national politics.  Socialism, in the final analysis, does not deliver a messiah.  Consequently, in our socialist paradise there is suffering and degradation aplenty that needs the kind of healing that only Christ can bring.  Moreover, more and more Christians (and non-Christians) are realising many government schools are effective only in aeducation (to employ a neologism) which is the art of inculcating children in the socialist causes d'jour, whilst neglecting fossilised subjects like reading, writing, and maths.  Consequently we are detecting a growing interest in Christian schooling amongst both Christians and non-Christians.  There is much work to do.

We Christians play the game by faith--which means amongst other things, that we play it long, very long.  The Kingdom of God comes from the bottom up--a bit of leaven changing the entire bowl of dough. There will be a day for Christian politics in New Zealand, but it is not this day.  A few misshapen political houses need to fall apart first.

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[1]   Treasury Reports on Expenditure

• Social security and welfare: $26.3 billion
• Health: $13.9 billion
• Education: $13.4 billion
• Total Government Expenditure: $91 billion

[2]

Psalm 137 English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)

By the waters of Babylon,
    there we sat down and wept,
    when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
    we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors
    required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How shall we sing the Lord's song
    in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    let my right hand forget its skill!
Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
    if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
    above my highest joy!
Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
    the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,
    down to its foundations!”
O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
    blessed shall he be who repays you
    with what you have done to us!
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
    and dashes them against the rock!