It’s not too late to change history
The turmoil of recent months would suggest the world is beyond our control. But there’s cause for hope, writes Pete McKenzie.
It started with the chaos of January – the intensification of Australian bush fires; Indonesian floods; a barely averted war between the United States and Iran. It was, most hoped, just a particularly bad month.
Then February hit. The world braced over Covid-19, US President Donald Trump was acquitted in his impeachment trial, Turkey and Syria intensified their quasi-war. Month by month it got worse. Mass lockdowns froze the world, Covid19’s death toll spiked, the global economy went into a tailspin and police violence sparked American, and then global, protests over structural injustice.
It is tempting to conclude that history is simply speeding up. That in a world more populous, interconnected and educated than ever, more things are happening and more people are aware of it. That would be a grim conclusion, implying that we’re losing control over how history unfolds. Certainly that’s the feeling among many young New Zealanders watching on in horror.
But it only captures part of the story. History is not only speeding up, but in a barely precedented state of flux. Focusing on events alone makes this difficult to understand. The bush fires and flash floods? Tangible markers of the wider, existential threat of climate change. Trump’s acquittal, reliance on police and military violence to quell unrest at home, and American aggression abroad? Indicators of American decline and our departure from the unipolar international order of the past three decades.
A global economic crunch which has had little effect on the world’s richest individuals, and the murder of people of colour at the hands of the authorities? Signals that economic and racial inequality is becoming further entrenched and the world is trending away from the justice we were promised the moral universe would arc towards.
These are fundamental shifts in our social order and global balance of power; change of truly terrifying magnitude. That should inspire us. If we concluded that history is merely speeding up – that more is happening, and faster, without affecting the foundations of our social structure – we would have to resign ourselves to a world we can no longer control or change.
Instead, we can confront these immense challenges knowing that the manner in which we respond to and direct those trends will define the world for generations to come.
That’s not a guarantee of success. Without big, structural change our spiralling cycle of economic and social inequality will continue. In the absence of truly courageous climate action, we will soon run out of time to avoid staggering changes in our environment. If we fail to revitalise multilateral institutions and bind small and middle powers into resilient coalitions, then the change in the global balance of power will lead to potentially uncontrollable conflict. But at least we know we could succeed; that the structures we have lived with for decades are not inevitable.
Importantly, people are taking that challenge to heart. On Monday last week, more than 4000 Kiwis marched in solidarity with hundreds of thousands of protesters in the US and around the world to protest against the brutal suffocation of George Floyd at the hands of an officer who ought to have protected him. Those marchers also drew attention to the grim trial by New Zealand’s police of armed response teams, which have not brought overwhelming force to bear on armed offenders or gangs, but on traffic stops and bail checks.
Last year, 170,000 New Zealanders – a staggering 3.5 per cent of our population – marched with millions of others in cities around the globe in support of courageous climate action. In New Zealand, that undeniable mandate for change led to the passage of the Zero Carbon Act. Elsewhere, it launched ambitious plans like the Green New Deal into the popular imagination.
These immense protests can’t begin to capture the countless individuals and advocacy groups fighting for change. Housing First providers like our City Missions have worked alongside government to practically eliminate homelessness in New Zealand over the past few months; JustSpeak continues to fight for transformation in the area of criminal justice; New Zealand Alternative is charting an independent path on the world stage. The work of these groups gives a glimpse of the vibrant energy for change at a grassroots level.
The world feels frantic. But New Zealanders, and the young in particular, shouldn’t feel discouraged by the chaos of 2020. History isn’t merely speeding up – it’s changing. And we get to choose how.
These are fundamental shifts in our social order and global balance of power ... That should inspire us.