 Political Corrections
with Margo Kingston
Why is vision a four letter word?
Confession of a fruit loop: I love Barry Jones' diagram. Vision aint a word, it's a hard slog. Decisions here bounce onto consequences there, and top-drawer minds are required to visualise the goal and make it happen.
When was the last time a political party produced an unashamedly intellectual document, which dared to use big words and invited public debate and critique before decisions on first priorities and how to pay for them were made? Horrible, isn't it.
No wonder the media didn't have a clue what to do with it, until THAT diagram gave them the excuse to set the thing up for cheap ridicule and lecture Kim Beazley on his shocking tactical blunder in letting Australia's leading public intellectual have a go at engaging the Australian people in a vision for a future.
As Webdiary contributor Tom Moore put it: "The contemporary political imagination is scared of the manifesto. A manifesto holds political parties to things. A manifesto demands that parliamentarians account for their conduct, future as well as past, in terms of political ideals. A manifesto will get you into more trouble than its worth.
"My greatest fear is that its clarity of vision will take second place to the negative politics that goes with the territory of electioneering. Now is the time for Kim Beazley to reanimate public life in Australia by demonstrating that manifestos are still good for something.
"Its definition of `knowledge' is surprisingly broad and expansive. The Knowledge Nation isn't just a country committed to learning or research. The Knowledge Nation emerges in our own self awareness of who we are culturally, as Australians, in our wonderful diversity. Our knowledge resources, in the face of the momentum of globalisation and neo-liberal forces, are the most valuable things we have as a nation.''
In my view, this manifesto seeks to tackle the underlying issue at the next federal election - the role of government - which has become as commodified as every other institution crushed under a ideology which sees nothing of value in values on which it can't put a short-term dollar value.
Another Webdiary contributor, Andrew Elder, puts it this way. "When I think about science/education funding, I think of arguably the greatest scientific discovery in this country: Howard Florey's contribution to the discovery of penicillin.
"Florey was a professor at the University of Adelaide who got a CSIRO grant to study mould growths in citrus fruit. His discoveries took him in a different direction, and the powers that were trusted him and supported him to an end that could not have been foreseen.
"Can you imagine the outcry if that happened today? Radio talkback would blast him as a fraud against taxpayers and citrus growers, and where is the politician who wouldn't take their line? Instead of being supported and trusted, the latter-day Florey would be roused out by a bunch of bureaucrats and probably sued.''
"Then, as some foreign scientist was awarded and rewarded for his work, the latter-day Florey would feebly claim: "Hey, I did that". How would the Aussie media respond? Jeers ('Yeah, right!') or forehead-slapping ('Another Aussie invention ripped off by the Yanks')."
Knowledge Nation talks about the disappearing public intellectual, the need to reassert the value of the humanities, and the need to rebuild great national institutions like the CSIRO, the national library and the ABC.
It talks to people like Elen Seymour, freezing in Ottowa because her scientist husband had to leave Australia to do his research.
Elen wrote: "It didn't seem outrageous to me to use 'big words' in a document that talks about education, the economy and revitalisation of the cultural and intellectual scene of Australia. Especially not when the document took pains to actually explain what these ideas are all about. If a crappy diagram was all the fault people could pick out of the document (and the lack of hard numbers) then maybe just maybe there is sufficient will amongst Australians to do the hard yakka to get back into line."
Since many in the media have chosen the path of anti-intellectualism, let's hope they retire to snigger corner and let people who care have a read and a think and make a contribution to this fundamental national debate.
There's lots to critique in this experiment in intelligent democracy. But really, there's nothing to laugh about.
Thank you, Barry. You've done good.
Email: mkingston@mail.fairfax.com.au
Margo's web diary - www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/webdiary/
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