Never Go Full Gollum

New Zealand Parliament devolves into something more akin to Lord of the Rings

When you reject Christianity and the brotherhood of men you are left with identity politics.

Identity politics quickly devolves into rank tribalism.

Rank tribalism knows only intimidation and violence.

And before you can say “Did you ever read Lord of the Flies?” people are calling you Piggy.

I often feel like I am watching the unravelling of civil society in real time.

Take the latest incident on Thursday when the New Zealand Parliament had to be suspended after Maori MPs preferred to perform a war dance than debate a principle.

“I’m Maori, that’s all I know,” Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke said of her epic temper tantrum barely disguised as ‘traditional culture’.

Elected officials were supposed to be debating a bill that would ensure New Zealanders were treated equally before the law, and in society.

The bill was brought by the ACT Party who argued that the country’s treaty with Maori should not be used to give special favours to a small group at the expense of the larger population.

ACT leader David Seymour, himself a Maori, wants to treat New Zealanders on the basis of need rather than ancestry.

In other words, he is arguing for equality.

Trust me; in the olden days, equality was considered a thing.

I’m old enough to remember when people understood that God had created men and women in His image; that all men were created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that in Christ there was neither Jew nor Gentile …

Of course, those days now seem a distant memory.

I heard of a major church recently where leaders were told “race matters” before being given a lesson in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Even the church, that great bulwark against tribalism, is descending into tribalism.

Sigh.

David Seymour told the New Zealand Parliament on Thursday that the need to consult different groups based on race before decisions could be made about everything from health to resources was making it difficult to solve practical problems.

We in Australia know he is right.

Just ask a West Australian farmer who wants to put a fence up; or a mining company executive who wants to extract gold from the ground; or a celebrity chef who wants to write a children’s fiction book; or a white couple who want to adopt a black child they have fostered since infancy.

Do I really need to keep going?

ACT Leader David Seymour

Seymour said …

“The division that you are seeing … has been built up over decades, during which New Zealanders have come to regard themselves as based on ancestry or one side of a partnership instead of as New Zealanders.

“And, what’s worse, successive Governments have encouraged that division … and we cannot afford to ignore it any longer.”

This was, apparently, too much for members of the Maori Party.

Treating each other as equals? Pffft.

Regarding ourselves as New Zealanders, rather than as members of an entitled identity group who are owed deference by the majority becasue … oh, I don’t know … skin colour?

An argument about equality was all too much for Maori Party MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke.

She jumped to her feet and, while ripping the proposed equality bill in half and throwing it on the ground, began performing a war dance.

Why listen thoughtfully to the arguments of your opponents when you can instead shut them down with yelling and intimidate them with wild gesticulation?

Other Maori Party MPs joined in, as did Marois in the public gallery who seemed to have been primed for what was going to happen.

Seymour’s speech had to be abandoned. His argument drowned out by the Haka.

No matter. It’s only Parliament - where ideas are freely debated until wisdom, or at least consensus, is attained.

Ka mate, ka mate, ka ora, ka ora!

We're supposed to pretend this infantile tantrum was somehow cool, or powerful, because it was associated with ‘indigenous’ culture.

Give me a break.

Are we to accept this behaviour as inherently virtuous simply because it’s native tradition?

Cannibalism was also native tradition. So, you know.

The display was cringe.

Worse, it was embarrassing.

Some people in New Zealand take Lord of the Rings far too seriously!

How pathetic to use ‘culture’ as a shield to prevent criticism of essentially childish behavior.

While most MPs want to use their God given intellect to make arguments, others prefer to pull faces, as if somehow an intimidating expression trumps a well-argued principle. As if threats are better than respectful debate.

And everyone has to sit through the pointless theatrics out of fear of being called racist.

Maori Party MPs need to choose what they want to do - debate legislation in Parliament, or dance around pulling faces. You can’t do both.

And Western nations need to make a similar choice.

We cannot keep indulging indigenous culture on the basis that indigenous culture is somehow sacrosanct and immune from criticism for no reason other than that it is indigenous.

It’s racist to do that since it infantilises indigenous people whilst pretending respect.

And we cannot keep creating division while pretending righteousness if we still expect to have a society based on equality before the law.

Maori leader David Seymour is correct that a civil society must treat everyone as equals.

Anything less is to return the West to tribalism.

Oh, and one more thing. Do those who love tribalism every pause to do a head count? Minorities insist on their right to tribalism whilst assuming the majority will not follow suit.

What a silly and dangerous game they are playing.