Everyone wants a revolution. But who’ll do the dishes? - Jonathan Ayling

True systemic change starts with individual responsibility. Photo / 123RF

THE FACTS

• Protests highlight the demand for systemic change, emphasising the need for individual responsibility.
• The TVNZ Special discussed racism, noting New Zealand’s low ranking but recent troubling incidents.
• Liberal democracy relies on individual dignity and shared human experience, cautioning against overemphasising differences.

Protest is having a moment right now. From major industrial action and recent historical hīkoi to protests outside a minister’s house and clergy chained to MPs’ offices: communities across our society are insisting on change.

Good on them. I agree with some, disagree with others. That’s really not the point.

As “the free speech guy”, I know that democracy is meaningless until those who are not best served by the status quo are able to agitate for better.

But it makes me think of one of my favourite quotes. Dorothy Day, the anarchic-bohemian come radical-Catholic, wrote: “Everyone wants a revolution, but no one wants to do the dishes.”

Long live the hope that systemic change is possible, that protest can still usher in a better society. But until we each take responsibility as individuals for the change in front of us, no systemic change can ever occur. Many only want to engage if it’s for “a whole new world”: a tidier neighbourhood or a full roster at the local shelter just isn’t enough. Clean dishes, allegedly, a worthy cause does not make.

Systemic change was part of the recent TVNZ special I’m Not Racist, But …, to which I was invited to contribute. New Zealand is listed according to some international rankings as one of the least racist countries in the world. Yet, a recent shift in tone and a troubling number of demonstrably racist attacks outline why we must never rest on laurels. The extent to which these are products of systemic features is up for debate, which is exactly what the programme offered us.

What struck me as especially concerning during this conversation though, was not the differences in opinion over the extent to which systemic racism exists in New Zealand. It was the apparent antidotes offered by some to address it.

A protest against anti-Asian discrimination in Auckland. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

In an exchange between conservative commentator, Liam Hehir, and cultural strategist Te Wehi Wright, Wright made the claim that “if we drill down into the detail, we don’t all want the same thing … it’s in those smaller nuances that we really see the divide”.

This premise places cultural identity above the common heritage of humanity, and the humanist claim that ultimately individual humans, when race and creed are put aside, seek after the same things. As the Bard wrote in the Merchant of Venice, commenting directly on the differences between races, “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?” Part of Martin Luther King jnr’s dream was that “one day a man will be judged not by the colour of his skin, but by the content of his character”. MLK dreamed of a day when the responsibility individuals took in their own lives would be the basis on how society would judge them.

Wright was correct that nuance matters. Yet when we overemphasise our differences, we risk forgetting what unites us: that shared human experience Shakespeare and MLK both spoke to.

Liberal democracy is built on the belief in individuals. Common in dignity and worth, common in rights and duties, common in potential (though tragically not in opportunity), and common in our desire to build a more peaceful and prosperous future for our children. This is what has led to the unprecedented peace and global flourishing of the past 80 years; the high-water mark of human commonality. It is narratives that divide us, yet again, that are harbingers of gathering storm clouds over this period of unprecedented human flourishing we have witnessed.

Liberal democracy rests on a radical belief: individuals are the moral foundation of society. It’s written into the American Declaration of Independence: all are created equal. It is echoed in France’s Declaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen. But it’s not merely a Western idea. Centuries earlier, Mencius taught it; in the African philosophy of ubuntu, ‘I am because we are’, we find the same conviction that dignity is shared, not conferred.

Liberal democracy rests on individual dignity and common values. Photo / 123RF

To believe individuals are the base agent of change in society is not the same thing as individualism. It is not the belief that we are entirely independent of one another, indifferent to the plight of others. That wouldn’t be the sort of society I’d want to live in. But neither is one where the conversation is always so abstract, where the entire system must fall and the actions of common people in their everyday lives are rendered meaningless, where our common humanity is challenged because “we don’t all want the same thing”.

As polarisation grows and the need for social action increases, we must reinvigorate the belief in the power of every person: common in their ability and duty to pursue a more just society. Engage your democratic right and duty: protest, take part in mass action, challenge structures of power that divide and oppress. But keep alive the belief in the common condition of man; our common beauty and brokenness. And before you leave the house to join a protest, first, remember to do the dishes.

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