The trouble with pessimism

patrickcallioni | August 4, 2011

We are now in our third decade of uninterrupted economic expansion; we live in a stable and generally tolerant society; our political system works as well as any and our politicians and public servants are generally uncorrupted and incorruptible; personal incomes are rising, as is personal wealth and most social indicators are trending in the right direction; after years of drought we now seem to be doing more or less ok with rainfall; our national debt remains low and our collective investment in superannuation is rising every year; interest rates are historically relatively low and show no sign of rising soon and house prices have declined a little…but not crashed; we came through the global financial crisis largely unscathed, thanks to what Mr Abbott calls the worst government in our history – his knowledge of history must be limited to the last four years  – it seems; we (not the mining companies) own more minerals than the world can use in the next few decades; we have clean water, clean food and clean air;  we are finally acting to abate our contribution to global warming, which is almost as large as that of the United Kingdom, a country that has three times our population; and our neighbourhood is relatively peaceful.

Does this describe a country that is in trouble, financial or otherwise, let alone a country in crisis, as some (especially the Murdoch press) would have us believe? I think not.

The beginning of the end of the Great Depression in the USA was the statement by then President Franklin D. Roosevelt that all there is to be feared is fear itself. We are not in a depression, but we seem to be depressed, focused on piddling negatives, rather that on the positives I have listed here. We are allowing ourselves to be frightened by those who would benefit by having us live in fear, by the vested interests that benefit from no change and that fear losing their grip on power, resources and money that belong to us all and not to the few who seek to monopolise them.
 
Most of them seem to work for Rupert Murdoch, that paragon of honesty, good journalism and sound ethics – a mere coincidence, perhaps, or perhaps not. Murdoch has done this before, after all, here and in other places; he has sown discord, fear and discontent, to make money for himself and for his mates, often in cahoots with those who will sell their soul for power, like Tony Blair, for example.

We are at a crossroads now. If we give in to the pessimists, we risk creating the future we fear, the economic trouble we have so far avoided, thanks to good governance, China and a bit of luck – in that order. Is that what you want, fellow Australians, for yourself and for your children?
 
If it is not, stop believing the prophets of gloom, who glory in spreading their pestilence and benefit from it. We live in a great country, we are a generally fair-minded, tolerant and innovative people, we have governments as good as our democratic system will allow, we have wealth in the ground, and courage in our hearts – and most of all, we have the imagination to create the bright future our children deserve. 

Let’s believe in ourselves, rather than the third-rate scribblers who seem to dominate the world of print and the television news. If we do this, we will soon see that we have nothing to fear, but fear itself.