Matisyahu's Blog

I ordered a pizza online a few minutes ago and normally I’ll grab a few sides but these days I can’t help but look at the sides and sigh with boredom that there is nothing interesting on offer, the same things on offer. The other place I buy my pizza from used to have interesting pizza options such as venison or lamb pizza but it has been ages since the last time something new or innovative has come out. All ‘n all the whole take away scene is getting pretty boring – are companies deciding to play it safe because of the economic uncertainty and thus don’t want to be left with a whole heap of stock they can’t sell?

I’m wondering whether the above example embodies the malaise that has made it’s presence known in New Zealand where everything seems rather ‘meh’ the moment – is it the winter blues of crappy weather and lack of sun or more an example of the mediocre bare minimum that is being pushed by the powers that be with the election giving voters the choice between reactionary populism, mediocre bare minimum or the reheating of old ideas that weren’t very good to begin with but are being marketed as ‘the solution’ to the challenges of today.

I’ve tried to get involved but I can’t help but get the feeling that it is a closed club – you can be a member but you’re never really a member that is taken seriously. People wondering why young people don’t get involved but there is very much a good reason why not – the gatekeepers that patronise and exile those who have ideas that go against the prevailing orthodoxy. In the case of Labour the continued worshipping at the altar of neoliberalism while simultaneously claiming that capitalism has failed with the limit vision beyond just tinkering around the edge to make the system suck slightly less rather than making the investment into rail, public housing etc. that New Zealand sorely needs.

Here we are in 2023 and there is still no long term plan to fully electrify and standardise the rail network, we’re still treating Housing New Zealand like a quasi welfare agency when it should be used as battering ram to decomodify housing by turning it into the primary provider of rental accommodation, to disincentivise property speculation and the development of an entrenched rentier class, along with many other much needed changes. It’s frustrating because it isn’t a though these ideas a radical or even new – we used to have these policies many decades ago which allowed New Zealand to build a thriving society which had its faults but at least was aware that ‘let the market do their thing’ isn’t the solution to solving problems when they arose.