Dr John Hinchcliff on Politics and our Precarious Future

Interviewed by Tim LynchOctober 8, 2014
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What are our politicians doing to ensure that our grandchildren have as comfortable lives as we have? Will there always be enough clean water? How will we survive the results of climate change, food insecurity, rising tides, pollution, war, the nuclear threat, violence and even cybernet crime? These and other threats make our world very precarious indeed.

Yet our politicians are not standing up and attempting to solve these situations. People in government must question the direction in which we are going. Are the political machines just working towards the next elections? What do the labels National and Labour actually mean? Should an MP dare to criticise their own party, they are quickly demoted. Do we need political parties at all if they essentially render all politicians out of integrity with their own beliefs in some areas?

Where is the leadership?
How can we move forward when both power and wealth are concentrated in the hands of the few? We must think critically and connect with the values that go back in history, such as the Golden Rule. Then we must put that theory into practice. Theory and action must connect and people need to join together to take drastic reasonable action if we are to offer future generations a secure future.

Dr. John Hinchcliff was vice chancellor for 20 years of the institution variously called Auckland Technical Institute, Auckland Institute of Technology and Auckland University of Technology. He was responsible for the transformation of AIT to university status. His fields of enquiry are ethics, future studies, peace studies, and the philosophy of sport and education.

He has a long history of working on peace, nationally and internationally. In 1968 he coordinated the Inaugural Conference for Peace Action with 40 international participants including Nobel Prize winners, US and Australian senators and a pioneering nuclear physicist. In 1995 as a protest against nuclear testing he led a team of prominent New Zealanders to France. He was a member of the founding committee of The Peace Foundation in Auckland and has been a speaker at various international conferences on nuclear disarmament.

Locally he has served on the Auckland City Council, community and school boards, and Rotary. John has authored books such as Values Integrating Education, Parihaka, and has written many articles. Currently he is preparing a book on the question - How can we survive our future?

John's work has been recognised with many awards, both in New Zealand and overseas, and in 2003 he became a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. With his PhD Dissertation titled, The Logic of Mystery, you can tell there is some deep creative thinking behind John's point of view.

Listen to this highly accomplished man's concerns for the future, understanding of the interconnectedness of the problems, and why we need to change.

This programme is sponsored by The Awareness Party
www.theawarenessparty.com

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Tim Lynch

Tim Lynch, is a New Zealander, who is fortunate in that he has whakapapa, or a bloodline that connects him to the Aotearoan Maori. He has been involved as an activist for over 40 years - within the ecological, educational, holistic, metaphysical, spiritual & nuclear free movements. He sees the urgency of the full spectrum challenges that are coming to meet us, and is putting his whole life into being an advocate for todays and tomorrows children. 'To Mobilise Consciousness.'

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