GUEST BLOG: New Zealand v. Nu Zeelind

GUEST BLOGGER: Martyn Bradbury

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Playing the Deliverance duelling banjo as our new national anthem.

I think we have been damaged. This election wasn't about Tax cuts, it wasn't about silly billboards it was about Whitey.

Whitey lives outside the cities, he doesn't understand why "Maaaaaoris" get so much, he fires up that the fags can get married and wraps anything he doesn't get as bloody poofy political correctness ­ this election was about two different white cultures. One is at home with race and has a liberal social attitude because they actually live and mix with those communities in large cities, the other sees those communities as a threat, a non specific "other" who is out to destroy the social hierarchy Whitey has enjoyed uncontested since 1840.

What no one is wanting to point out is that our country cousins have actually taken a step backwards. National's policy was based on a racial fallacy, aimed at NZers intrinsic egalitarian nature. Don twisted the "why should 15% of the population get 50% of the say" garden variety pub argument and turned it into a full blown attack on the values of liberal urban New Zealand. National legitimised the chip on Whitey's shoulder into racism.  These liberal urban values have been about broadening the franchise of democracy to many groups in NZ Society who had previously had no say whatsoever. This in turn has created a tension within the white community and a fear that their values and views were no longer relevant.

The response by National voters was an attempt to re-assure themselves and re-assert their conservative social values upon the rest of us. The election result suggests that they failed; but the righteousness created in the heat of this debate has turned into a deep anger. From the cities is a genuine surprise and hurt that our country cousins would attack so viciously, and from our country cousins the embarrassed angry reaction of someone who has just spent 20 minutes raving about "bloody Maaaaoris" only to be greeted by horrified silence.

The insecurity of identity that snowballed this ugly display of race baiting is something white New Zealanders need to confront; but that's something most simply can't do. Until some resolution, the rest of us can just thank our lucky stars that we live in the city, because there really is something very wrong and very bitter wandering the countryside.
     
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