WSS Presents – It’s Not You, It’s Me: Seeing the Real Problems in New Zealand Politics

For our last educational event of 2023, the Wellington Socialist Society are happy to host Danyl McLauchlan, one of Aotearoa’s most thought-provoking writers, for the talk ‘It’s Not You, It’s Me: Seeing the Real Problems in New Zealand Politics’.

As Danyl explains:
“There’s an Ursula le Guin quote that I often come up in online left-wing discourse: “We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”

It always makes me think of Richard II, an early Shakespeare play, which is literally about the divine right of kings – the system Shakespeare lives under, rather than an abstract historical notion. And for the first half of the play the author does exactly what le Guin thinks writers should do. He’s critiquing power. He’s showing what a terrible system divine right of kings is. But the second half of the play takes another step. It asks: what happens when we get rid of divine right of kings? And it shows that despite its flaws that political structure was doing something useful. It was solving a political problem.

Most politics is presented to us as a conflict. For le Guin it’s a conflict of ideas. Often it’s a conflict between political parties, or ethnicities. Or genders or classes. Sometimes that’s the right way to see things. But beneath the conflicts there’s usually a formal problem, and I’m convinced that a more useful role for a writer is to try and see the problems rather than take sides in the conflicts. So what are the problems we have in New Zealand politics, and where do we look for solutions?”

Danyl McLauchlan writes about politics, economics, science and philosophy – mostly for the Listener. He is also the author of two novels and a recent essay collection, Tranquillity and Ruin.

Proceedings:
6:00 pm – Doors Open
6:30 pm – Introductions
6:40 pm – Talk Begins
7:20 pm – Intermission
7:30 pm – Audience Q & A

For those unable to attend we will have a live stream on the Wellington Socialist Society Facebook page.

Drinks and food will be available to order from the bar. As always, we are thankful to Bedlam & Squalor for hosting us.