I was up in Auckland last week and was lucky enough to catch an hour with this lovely human - Max Harris. The conversation was recorded in his living room with snacks and tea.
There's many things I could say to introduce Max. He was born in London and grew up in Wellington. He's a lawyer and an activist. He was a Rhodes Scholar. He almost died once and his brush with death unexpectedly led to him winning a very prestigious fellowship from Oxford University to spend seven years on a research project. His research culminated in him writing a book called The New Zealand Project, which I thoroughly recommend.
It's about rediscovering New Zealand's lost direction and establishing a new foundation for our economic system and culture based on the values of care, community, and creativity.
Max talks about the way the reforms of the 1980s and 90s (commonly known as Rogernomics and Ruthanasia) drained our public life of values and narrowed our collective imagination of what’s possible.
He shares some of his ideas for how we could blow our sense of vision and possibility open again. In particular, he focuses on how our central government could embody the values of care, community and creativity. They could introduce regulations that protect things we hold sacred (like healthcare and education). They could reform the tax system to address inequality and they could steer our collective action towards missions that serve the greater good.
Max shares his vision to reinstate an organisation called the Development Finance Corporation (a government development bank), which could support the growth of new industries and innovative ideas. We briefly talked about how quantum technology and other seemingly random specialities of New Zealand’s scientists could help reinvigorate our economy.
Max also shared why he’s excited about decolonisation and what he feels could be possible if we learn and from Māori perspectives and knowledge that is grounded in this place.
Max is obviously very smart, but what I admire most about him is his optimism about who we are as people and what we could be. He seems to be able to maintain a lack of cynicism while facing up to the stark truths of the world. He speaks up for things like care and kindness, which I think can be hard in our intellectual and outcomes-focused world.
I hope you enjoy the conversation too!
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