The movement for truth in labelling reached another milestone in my state recently. Supermarkets are now required to itemize the unit cost of goods rather than just the total—so that, when faced with a 437g pack of Weaties for $4.23 and the super-bonus-jumbo-econo-family 714g pack for $6.41, consumers don’t have to do the maths for themselves. Each price label will tell you how much it is per 100g.
This is an excellent idea, I suppose, although it does rather spoil the most enjoyable aspect of grocery shopping, which is forcing your children to do arithmetic in return for treats. (“Come on, you’re not getting the chocolate bar until you tell me which one represents the better value!”).
However, I would certainly be in favour of more truth in labelling in other areas. I’ve long been dissatisfied, for example, with the labels ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ as a description of political viewpoint because I find myself in fundamental opposition to the core beliefs of both, especially on the nature of humanity.
According to the Bible, there is much that is good and admirable in humanity (we are God’s creatures after all). But there is also a deep, abiding, unconquerable selfishness in the human heart—an unwavering rebelliousness against God and his ways, leading to greed, immorality, perversity and all manner of anti-social behaviour.
The socialist Left lives in the aspiration that this isn’t true. It’s a dream we might all wish to share if it wasn’t so patently false. They believe that the problems of humanity are not intractable or personal, but economic and social, and therefore can be solved by mass education and other benevolent state actions.
The capitalist Right, on the other hand, does recognize the truth of human selfishness, but seems content to exploit that knowledge for the purpose of gain. Our entire western economy runs (and then collapses) on the insatiable personal desire for more, and if people get hurt in the process, more’s the pity.
So I find myself sharing the Right’s acknowledgement of the selfishness of individuals and the Left’s desire for a world in which it is no longer the case, while rejecting what each of them does with that.
Does that make me a pragmatic, believe-nothing ‘Centrist’? Not by conviction. About the best thing you can say about centrists is that they are likely to do the least damage (and the least good).
I think I’ll stick with ‘Christian’.
Tony, technically-speaking (at least in Australian politico-speak) this makes you a small’l’ liberal – loathed by many, loved by few and lost in political limbo-land. Ah, the serenity!
Incidentally, I looove those new supermarket labelling rules. Now I can leave with the weekly shopping and only a minor headache!
Tony, I think these days that there are some on the left of the ideological debate who are aware of human greed and sin. The old socialist left ideology is no longer an accurate desription of many of those who oppose right wing individualism, in my opinion.
These days, the debate is over the extent to which government should foster collective approaches to solving economic problems and moral questions. Some would argue that individual rights and successes should come first over and against interventionist policies of government. This is the new right wing, quite different from that of the Menzies era. Others argue that society and individuals are better served by more interventionist policies of govt that will sometimes restrict individual choices, moral choices and the financial successes of individuals.
This gives us as evangelicals the opportunity to contribute to the discussion. We ought to talk about Community, not collectivism or individualism. Community picks up the biblical concerns for just government, care for the disadvantaged in society, and mutual responsibilities. This will mean that we will have some things in common with the so called right and some in common with the left.
So then, in engaging with politicians I’d be talking about all this as a way to connect with and engage them, and seek opportunities to share the gospel with them.
You take your teenage children grocery shopping? Why? Are you MAD?
Philip,
Thanks for those very insightful comments. It seems like you may have come up with a label that could rescue me from the solitude of Lee’s small ‘l’ liberal moniker. Could it be I’m a ‘Communitarian’ or perhaps a ‘Mutualist’?
Em, you don’t understand. Grocery shopping night in our house is a once a month treat. I take one kid only (on a strictly monitored roster!), we have take-away dinner together on the way, and then fill two trolleys completely to the brim at our local Woolies, before finishing with a chocolate bar from the tempting array at the checkout. It’s excellent father-teenager time (it really is!).
TP