Australia – the Lucky Country?

Australia had a reputation for being a relaxed, fun-loving, sun-kissed, egalitarian (everyone is equal, no one is more or less important) and harmonious culture. This was a great place to live, we were proud to be Australian, and you were lucky to live here.

According to research (the Scanlon Foundation Mapping Social Cohesion survey), our sense of social cohesion, national pride, and hope for the future is at the lowest since the report commenced in 2007. Why?

Before answering that question, we need to ask what makes for a cohesive society. When people (or citizens) feel like they belong to something, they are valued and connected, they and everyone else is (economically speaking) comfortable, we are safe, the rules of law is just, and our government can be trusted to lead us into the future – then we have a cohesive society.

Several ingredients go into a cohesive society. Good government, a growing economy that benefits everyone, an accessible education, medical, welfare and housing system, a shared set of beliefs and a legal system that restrains evil and encourages good, citizens who all share a common set of values and ideals, a shared narrative about why we are here and where we are going – all of which engenders goodwill between all people.

If our sense of social cohesion declines, what is going wrong? Much of the above. The rich are getting richer, while many struggle to afford basic necessities, housing, and access to medicine. Increasingly, we have a two-tiered education system. Drug use and mental illness rates are climbing. Politics is binary and divisive, and trust in our political leaders is low. And underneath all this, we are losing our shared sense of being a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Joni Mitchell sings: you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Much of the West has celebrated the shift away from Christendom as escaping from a legalistic, hypocritical, controlling, bland, suppressive era of our history. And being liberated into a self-expressive, open-minded, sky-is-the-limit new era.

It turns out the new emperor is wearing no clothes, and we all feel a little exposed.

By Rev. David Rietveld