IT’S always interesting to read Pat Kane’s articles and his ideas on democracy and his piece in Saturday’s National was no exception (Progressive policy ideas are now more necessary because of Covid, April 17). He argues that building security and individual resilience is not just about “alleviating economic need”.
To put this another way, it is more than just putting our marks on a ballot paper and then sitting back for the next four or five years while professional politicians and governments get on with the day job, or don’t, depending on your viewpoint.
Kane argues that we need to develop our capacity for learning, relationships, exploration of what it is to be human in the wider world, and then says that “this won’t happen overnight”. I couldn’t agree more, but how do you create a system in which all people do engage. Darren McGarvey has said that if you believed a system was rigged against you, why would you engage?