Dialogue: Only way up is to release our repressed potential

MICHAEL SMYTHE* says our combined passion acts as a compass to show us the direction we should take, individually and collectively, towards a new sense of nationhood.

Our common core can be expressed in a single word - compassion - but there is more to that word than first meets the eye.

Before expanding that thought, we should consider the prerequisite for compassion - confidence. We don't need to reinvent ourselves, we just need the guts to release our repressed potential.

New Zealand lacks collective confidence. That is strange considering our rich heritage of rangatira, mountaineers, scientists, artists, writers, film-makers, chefs, educators, athletes, sailors and others who have confidently made their mark on the world.

I used to suggest that it was the three i's - our isolation, ignorance and ingenuity - that were both the source of our sense of inferiority and the seeds of our success.

Being isolated allowed us to observe trends in Europe, the United States and Asia with detachment.

In our ignorance of overseas norms we thought that the best and brightest that we heard and read about were daily fare over there, so when we aimed for world class we tried harder and did better.

Our ignorance also meant that we did not understand that certain things were just not possible, so we went ahead and did them anyway, often employing the ingenuity that had become a tool of survival.

Now we can see that electronic communications and more accessible travel have ended that phase.

Globalisation is both a threat and an opportunity. The danger is that we could become completely Coca-Cola(nised), global-blanded and Microsoft-centred. If we allowed that to happen, we would end up offering the ludicrous proposition that the rest of the world should come to the ends of the Earth for more of the same.

We need the courage to stand tall, find our own voices, tell our own stories and show our own faces.

That leads me to the pluralist paradox: the more unique and individual our stories, the more universal the humanity we express. The confidence required is more about inner strength than outward strut. After all, one of our most observant and articulate artists, Janet Frame, lives with overwhelming shyness.

A year after her election, during a radio interview, Helen Clark expressed her vision of a country which has a lot more self-confidence ... stands tall and is proud ... celebrates the achievements of its talented people no matter what field it's in ... a country where we consciously drag ourselves upmarket in what we do. It has to have innovation, new products and be driven by skilled, talented, educated people.

Helen Clark has been most astute in identifying our arts and creative industries as undervalued but essential ingredients in the recipe for parallel social, cultural and economic growth.

Picking up on the need to enjoy and share in the achievements of our talented people, Peter Biggs, the chairman of Creative New Zealand, has said: "A creative New Zealand is not a firmament of shining stars surrounded in darkness. It is a compassionate community with a heart and an intricate network of enduring relationships."

There is that word again. We can find evidence from telethons to Christmas to show that we care, but my etymological take on compassion is that it is derived from com (meaning together) and passion (meaning enthusiasm).

Are we passionless as Gordon McLauchlan continues (affectionately) to assert? Passion is an interesting word to check in the dictionary:

1. The suffering of pain. Perhaps a significant dose of British stiff upper lip combined with pioneer resilience has made Pakeha culture more stoical than some others, but the Parihaka exhibition and our Treaty of Waitangi resolution processes are just two examples of how we as a nation can feel, express and deal with pain in a constructive way.

2. Being passive. Now rare or obsolete, but it is worth considering that the passive resistance presented at Parihaka was an expression of courage and conviction rather than submission.

3. An affection of the mind. We may happily disown what the dictionary describes as any mode in which the mind is affected or acted upon as avarice, anger or revenge. We would be happier about expressing ambition, desire, hope, fear, love, joy and grief though many would say we could be better at it.

But we do experience these emotions. To suggest, as McLauchlan does, that we are blessed with a powerful mediocrity of mind is to misinterpret our reticence. We do care, deeply. We demonstrate that long and loud from the sidelines. It is when we let it surface on the field that we will no longer be outpassioned by the French in a World Cup semifinal.

Embedded in compassion is a direction finder/compass. Strategic planning and mapping have become popular pastimes in business, Government and community organisations, but you can't draw a map of uncharted territory. A compass is more useful. It can tell you where you are in relation to the direction you wish to travel. John Edgar's handcrafted compass deserves to become an icon of identity and direction for all New Zealanders.

Rather than embarking upon what strategic managers call a determinist strategy, it may make more sense to create the best possible conditions for our culture to find itself - that is, allow an emergent strategy to develop.

Implicit in compassion is the notion that were are all in the same waka. As a contribution to this Common Core Debate, I offer something that emerged while writing my master of design management thesis. I call it the universal declaration of interdependence: we are human beings who intend to grow by making valued contributions to other human beings.

Readers should consider the key words in that statement and to align it with their own direction. It is who we are being that conditions what we do.

What I hope we have here is common ground upon which left-brainers and right-brainers, left-wingers and right-wingers, bean-counters and navel-gazers, introverts and extroverts, short-term firefighters and long-term visionaries can stand individually and together.

* Michael Smythe is a partner in design consultancy Creationz Consultants.

Herald Online feature: Common core values

We invite to you to contribute to the debate on core values. E-mail dialogue@herald.co.nz.