13/09/2026
Some very philosophical conversations happening in my house this weekend. Hubby and I have very differing opinions on society, politics, among other things. Let’s see if I can articulate the main points of our conversational theories.
When did humans change? We used to be social, live in groups, group responsibility. We would share, trade and learn from each other. We would hold each other accountable, have strong values of survival and collective advancement. We cherished our children, cared for elderly, contributed to our communities. We did manual labour, loved thy neighbour and supported each other. There was longevity in things and things were made to last. We grew our own Kai and cooked our own meals.
Fast forward to today - everything is individualised or our own little immediate whānau. Striving to own everything, succeed, money, taken from others, entitled and everything is everyone else’s fault. We are insular, selfish and private. We do very little volunteering, contribute little and care not for our children and elderly. We expect everything to be taught at school and the responsibility of someone else. We are so busy we have no time for other things. We are instantaneous and expectant.
Some of the things we discussed were religion and the fear of god. Corporatisation, control, and money focused. Made so busy we are too tired to complain. Family dynamics torn apart with mums having to go to work. Morals values and beliefs changed. Societal expectations and conditioning shifted to more patriarchal structure. The haves and have nots. The obliteration of culture and indigenous knowledge. Colonisation and assimilation. The opening up to the rest of the world and accessing to much older societies.
As you can imagine some of the ‘debates’ we had were pretty hearty. Of course we came to no conclusive way forward however!!
Why do we wait for government to fix things? Why don’t we sort our own communities out? Why don’t we look after each other and help each other? Why don’t we grow our Kai? Preserve our Kai, cook our meals? Put some tradition back into our families? Connect and learn about whatever your culture is? Take responsibility for ourselves? What if we went and had a yarn with the neighbour or introduced ourselves to new people in our street?
We can go around and around in a circle and absolutely the impacts of trauma, colonisation, war, technology is very real and impacts everything however what if we stood up and did our own s**t? What if we opted out of corporate money led systems? What if we went without some things that we actually can’t afford? What if we lived within our means?
Seriously we walk around with $1000+ phones, drive flash cars, have several cars, have 5 of something, sooooo much waste and hoarding of ‘things’. We wear things once, have massive wardrobes and 20 pairs of shoes.
We don’t buy houses, lots don’t work unless it meets everything on the tick list. We are complacent and moving in a big lump and not on our own paths. We expect and protect our wee bubble.
In our tiny little community we raised $38k for daffodil day. People donated stuff to auction and we had a quiz. We have lions and balage competition made like $35k+, a golf club thing raised heaps as well. For the betterment of our community!!
What can we do in our own bubbles to change our society to one of collective growth and support? How do we get involved? How are we contributing? What are we doing?
Everything is accessible to teach ourselves the skills. To cook, grow food, minimise of lives. To learn to fish or dive, to help others, to join with others and trade resources etc etc
Or we can sit back and let others decide what’s best for us!!
Serena
