Bruce Bisset: Radical rethink needed for fairness

To help rebalance our social and moral compass the time has come to establish a robust left-wing think tank. Guiding this initiative is former Greens MP Sue Bradford. Photo / NZME.

Framing debate for what makes a "decent" society is damnably difficult when the capture of hearts and minds by neoliberal capitalism has redefined the norm; it's hard to argue for socialism in any form when so few any longer understand what that might mean.

Or perhaps I should say, care to understand.

The pursuit of money and material gratification so obviously overshadows all we do nowadays that even the idea there could be another way of doing things is seen as radical, if not a little loony.

In short, while the youth of the hippy era dreamed of utopian egalitarianism, the youth of today just want to drive a BMW.

That's why establishing a robust left-wing think tank to help rebalance our social and moral compass is a concept whose time has come.

Guiding this initiative is former Greens MP Sue Bradford. Between 2010-13, she researched and wrote a doctoral thesis examining the state of the political left and concluded there is fertile ground to support such an entity.

Not before time, I say. The proliferation of right-wing think tanks - starting with the Business Roundtable in the 1980s - influencing or helping direct government policy is one of the major reasons the neoliberal agenda has thrived, even under Labour.

Certainly lack of a cohesive academic voice to articulate left-wing policies has severely hampered the ability of left-leaning activists and parties to slow - let alone derail - the juggernaut that is New Order economics.

Moreover, as Ms Bradford's thesis shows - though this is hardly a surprise - the left is on one hand fractionated and unfocused, and on the other too busy being concerned with street-level issues such as poverty, beneficiary abuse and employment disputes to make time or money available to support a higher-level response mechanism.

The right, in contrast, is united in pursuit of the dollar above all else, and seemingly endless funds flow freely into numerous think tanks whose partisan research acts to support lobbyists to sway government towards an increasingly draconian monetarist view.

To a large extent then, debate around "values" has become a one-sided conversation and, in consequence, the whole mindset of the past two generations has lurched dramatically away from community values such as fairness, inclusion, solidarity and equality, toward a fortress-like individuality that grasps for self-interest alone.

At first glance, it may seem absurd to credit the influence of think tanks with such moral degradation, but their power should not be underestimated.

Consider the debate around climate change: it was the strident lobbying by oil-funded think tanks that led to last week's US Senate vote declaring human influence was not to blame for global changes.

And this is why, when meetings such as Tuesday's attempt at Clive to define what might create a "more decent" society in Hawke's Bay take place, those living within the neoliberal paradigm may see the problems of wealth gap and underclass creation, but cannot approach solutions as deriving from other than a tweaking of macro-economic management.

It is our social order that needs revision and our moral mindset that requires tweaking.

That can only occur outside the parameters of the ruling neoliberal agenda " because fairness, equality, and social and environmental justice are not part of that agenda. And never will be.

Setting up an effective left-wing think tank to provide robust social research that influences policy in ways that truly include community values is no small task, and will require significant and sustained funding to make a difference.

Sue Bradford may not be everyone's cup of tea, but she is at least attempting to address this major gap in our political landscape.

That's the right of it.

Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet.