Australia’s future depends on rebuilding social trust, understanding our history and finding causes worth fighting for, according to former deputy prime minister John Anderson. Source: Melbourne Catholic.
Mr Anderson, who is now a podcaster, made the comments at the Melbourne Catholic Lawyers Association annual dinner last week.
In a wide-ranging talk on Western values, and drawing on liberal thinkers such as Os Guinness, Arnold Toynbee and Thomas Sowell, Mr Anderson told about 180 lawyers and law students that civilisations flourish when they share common values and decline when social cohesion is lost.
Referencing Toynbee’s study of civilisations, he said that when they inevitably fail, it is because of “internal decay”. That was happening in Western societies, he suggested, because they increasingly despised their history.
“We no longer believe in it,” Mr Anderson said. “We have come to demonise all that has been good in giving us the things that we have taken for granted.”
The loss of the “story” of Western civilisation arose from what Mr Anderson called a revolution of values, citing American research showing the number of people for whom family and faith were of paramount importance had halved from about 80 per cent in 2005. This was a move away from concepts of cooperation, loving your neighbour and being part of the community, he said.
Mr Anderson spoke with optimism to the young people in the room, many of whom were sponsored to attend the dinner. He said the “best” of Generation Z were “the most remarkable Australians I’ve ever met”, while acknowledging the particular issues that affect them more than earlier generations. He also appealed to older people, asking them to be role models.
“They need your encouragement, and they need your mentoring, and they’re eager to learn at your feet.”
Mr Anderson said Australia is a “good country that has lost its way”, at least in part, because the decline of faith had left people less able to acknowledge their limitations, seek forgiveness or draw on a moral framework.
“We are, in the end, spiritual beings. We have souls that need to be given meaning and purpose and direction.”
He said churches had traditionally confronted people with the need for confession – the recognition that “we haven’t got it all right” – whereas modern culture increasingly encouraged people to see themselves as the final authority over their own lives.
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Young Australians urged to recover a sense of purpose and shared values (Melbourne Catholic)
