Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has been known to play identity politics - which is not a bad thing. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has been known to play identity politics - which is not a bad thing. Photo / Mark Mitchell
OPINION
I’ve become increasingly irritated by people bemoaning “tribalism” in politics and its evident cousin, “identity politics”.
In my view both tribal and identity politics are positive, not negative.
The impulse to dismiss these is driven by hopeless idealism, no matter how “pragmatic” its purveyors may claim to be. Neither can be wished or washed away. Most people live with an identity which is important to them and identify with a tribe which accommodates (ideally which supports) that identity. It is simply part of being human.
As it happens, within a capital-driven society, there is a strong impulse to tear these down. This is called alienation. Just as the drive of capital is to alienate whenua and moana from common enjoyment to private benefit, so people are alienated from each other and from natural process.
Much of the pain in modern societies derives from this attack on identity and tribe which characterises our species. It “works” for many purposes but it separates us. Alienates us. Some of us have been more assimilated to this by our social experience and, often, benefits derived from it.
Much of the pain in modern societies derives from this attack on identity and tribe which characterise our species. It “works” for many purposes but it separates us. Alienates us. Some of us have been more assimilated to this by our social experience and, often, benefits derived from it.
I’m included but not so far assimilated that I can no longer see what happened and continues.
The assimilation impulse was very strong and explicit at one point in our colonial history but a strong fight-back from Māori building on traditional values and te reo has been one of the more positive features of the last half century.
Transgender youth can now feel comfortable about who they are. Photo / Getty Images
Similarly over the same period, feminism and rainbow advances have enabled people to live their identities and their tribes more fully.
It is reasonable to expect and if one looks carefully enough, one can see growth in the wide range of migrant communities being established here with positive identity and tribal identification that sees every reason to maintain and assert those identities.
Still a long way to go for each of these groups and others and it’s not hard to see pushback across many areas, which is part of the impulse against tribe and identity which concerns me.
Who worries about these trends? Not those who find better meaning in them. I can see only two groups:
* People who are not themselves strong and clear in an identity or tribe and feel vaguely threatened by those who have that. This includes many Pākehā who cannot yet see their way to a status as Tangata Tiriti of Aotearoa;
* Capital interests and those who serve or are beneficiaries of them who prefer the population to exist and to experience themselves as units of working and consuming.
The task of those of us who actually prefer diversity and equity and are less concerned about everyone being commoditised into units and then “included” in a dominant culture is to resist the drives from the second group for assimilation and to support those in the first group who need to work through things.
It’s not easy. I know because I come from that group and I am a very slow learner.
Way back in 1969, there was a very popular song called Melting Pot.
You don’t hear it much these days but its theme is really the same as those of today’s advocates against identity and tribal politics.
The idea of the song is that if all the different ethnicities were stirred up and cooked together (maybe this where the term “cooker” comes from) then all our problems would disappear because we would all be “coffee-coloured”.
I guess the planned result was more like a flat white than a long black but you get the idea. The lyrics take you on a disturbing journey through “Latin kinkies” and “yellow Chinkies”, for which it was eventually banned in the UK.
Rob Campbell.
It’s a catchy tune but utterly without substance.
A bit like those telling us we should not be driven by tribe and identity in politics. In other words, that we should ignore who we and others are and how we live and think.
The really interesting, really human and really positive approach is to embrace and respect difference. And in that context to work out what is best for us all not assume we are all the same.
Rob Campbell is a professional director and investor. He is chancellor at AUT, chairman of Ara Ake, chairman of NZ Rural Land, an adviser for Dave Letele’s BBM charity. He is also the former chairman of Te Whatu Ora Health NZ.
