Reconciliation, multiculturalism, sustainability (including confronting human-induced climate change), feminism and economic redistribution are five ‘big ideas’ that, not only excite the passions of The Punch readers, but have characterised Australia’s post-War history.
Each one of these concepts represents a noble goal to be achieved in our society. Let me explain by starting with reconciliation. Reconciliation has little to do with ‘saying sorry’ – though it is an important symbolic act – but more to do with confronting the forced and illegal dispossession of the Australian Indigenous population.
Reconciliation is about reconciling the past with the present, as well as defining the type of future we want – one that recognises and celebrates Indigenous culture and finds a way to compensate for things passed.
Multiculturalism is an idea about the type of society we want: not one that homogenises cultures but one that finds strength in difference. And for the most part, we have grown stronger as a society and are much richer for it.
Promoting sustainability and confronting human induced climate change is not simply about reducing carbon emissions – though this is an important step – but about imagining the type of future we want.
It is about our understanding of ‘progress’. Consequently, even if the 97.5 percent of scientists who support human-induced climate change are wrong and the billions of particles of pollution we produce have (implausibly) no conceivable impact on the earth’s atmosphere, we need to reflect on the best technologies available to provide us with a cleaner and more secure future.
Feminism presents the ideal that men and women should be granted equal political, economic, and social rights as well as equal opportunities. It is about redressing past discriminations against women and finding ways to establish a society that, like multiculturalism, finds strength in diversity.
Finally, redistribution is about promoting a more equal and just society. It is about we, as a society, building and maintaining a safety net for the most vulnerable; paying taxes to establish a decent infrastructure of hospitals, education and transport that is available to all.
This was a form of nation and identity building that is about who we want to be. It involves cross-subsidising railways in rural towns that we may never use, but we felt it appropriate that our fellow citizens should access them.
In return, we all benefit as more equal societies are found to be more stable, have lower crime rates and better standards of living.
The problem is, however, that these lofty human ideals have been undermined in the last few years: Reconciliation has been dismissed; the death of multiculturalism has been announced; sustainability is seeing as potentially too damaging to our ‘economy’; feminists have been re-labelled as ‘feminazis’; and we have promoted a ‘user pays’ system that has undermined our infrastructure.
Despite this, each one of these remains fundamentally important in our society and should be given centre stage in the policy debate.
What has been lacking, however, is a broader philosophy that can promote these and the next wave of big ideas.
In the past, we have relied either on the ‘welfare state’ model in which the government could solve all problems or the rise of neo-liberal globalisation which promotes the ‘free market’ as the all encompassing solution.
So the question is what should be the next driving philosophy? That is, how do we promote these and our next round of big ideas? These are important questions because they can help guide us in confronting both present and future challenges.
There are three fundamental and interrelated big ideas that I think should underpin the coming decade.
The first is kosmos-isation – a word derived from the Greek word ‘kosmos’ meaning both the Earth and its people. This should replace the concept of globalisation that has come to represent a free market ideal that seem to suit the most powerful nations at the expense of the low-income ones.
Kosmo-isation refers to a people-first form globalisation – where we confront global challenges from climate change, failed states, toxic waste to refugees and banking reform in a cooperative manner. This concept returns us to the original ideals of the United Nations, but with a charter that reflects the current global structures, technologies and challenges.
The second one is to promote the ‘commons’. The commons have traditionally been defined as the elements of the environment – forests, atmosphere, fisheries – that we all share.
These are the tangible and intangible aspects of the environment that no one owns but everybody enjoys. Today, the commons need to be understood in a broader context: their airwaves, the Internet, public spaces, public education and health, as well as the infrastructure that allows our society to function (such as electricity or water delivery systems).
Fundamental to the commons is the idea that we are simply holding them in trust for future generations. In this way, we should pass on the world in at least the same shape as we found it: we can no longer ignore the challenge associated with depleting our natural resources.
The third aspect of the commons is that it allows us to define what is best managed cooperatively – as in my point about kosmos-isation – and what should be open to the market: car insurance and gold for example, best organised by the market; our supply of blood or the management of our water resources, cooperatively managed as a ‘commons’.
Finally, there is a need to re-establish our national accounts such as Gross Domestic Product to report on the goods produced, the goods inherited through the commons and then subtract the ‘bads’ created.
For example, we should not only count the number of things produced, but also value of the Great Barrier Reef, then subtract the cost of oil spills (like the one off the coast of Queensland 18 months ago) and the loss of old growth forests. This would give us a more accurate understanding of the ledger.
Though this has been described as ‘putting nature on the balance sheet’ , it goes beyond that: it involves accounting for the commons, including the quality of health and education systems.
The coming decade is undoubtedly going to be fundamental in shaping the future of our civilisation. If we do more of the same the results will be, unsurprisingly, more of the same.
It is time for something much better – and the three ideas proposed should only be the start.
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