2020 in Hindsight

Well without going too much into detail (as that has already been done in numerous places) I found most of the resolutions coming out of 2020 to be quite predictable. The ALS provides a nice round up of key points, and Senator Andrew Bartlett’s blog provides a good compilation of the various opinions found around the blogosphere. Views range from highly unimpressed (those on the extreme left and extreme right) to more supportive (generally the “moderate” [populist?] commentators). Most suggestions involved the government “fixing” some kind of problem (real or perceived) so naturally the LDP opposes most of the measures suggested. It isn’t that the ideas were without merit (though some- such as banning smoking for people born in 2008 or later and revoking citizenship for those unable to pass a “climate test”- fall into this category) but rather that the entire weekend seemed to be focused on encouraging the government to engage in social engineering.

Take an example that is close to my heart- that is the study of Asian Languages. The final goal was listed as being “To ensure that the major languages and cultures of our region are no longer foreign to Australians but are familiar and mainstreamed into Australian society.” Now this statement in itself is fairly innocent, I guess. And broadly I am supportive of it. But how exactly will Kevin and his government go about achieving this goal? Compulsory subjects and centralised curriculum come to mind…

Now, I’ve studied Japanese for a number of years, I’m now studying Chinese. I was frustrated that in grade 5-6 I studied Indonesian, 7-8 studied German and 11-12 studied Japanese. I have wished that languages could be taught in Australia at a less superficial and more immersive level. But I definitely don’t think that a centralised curriculum is the way to do it. Forcing compulsory subjects onto schools and students isn’t the best way to ensure Australians gain a greater understanding of Asian languages. For a start I don’t trust the government to pick the right language winners (should we teach Mandarin? Indonesian? Japanese? Cantonese? Which Asian language should be learnt?) and secondly I don’t think that a centralised government curriculum is going to care about teaching languages so much as providing voting parents with warm fuzzy feelings that their children are learning through stricter assessment based “learning”. Currently Australian high schools might as well not even be teaching foreign languages for the fluency it gives students- I feel a freer education market would be far more likely to solve this problem than government intervention.

A number of the other suggestions are valuable in so far as they are things I find “ethical” (companies should consider environmental and human concerns, not just profits) but not things I think the government should be enforcing. The government is hardly the way to solve all the world’s ills. Individuals free from government coercion will, in time, solve a lot of their own problems. While values such as tolerance, eco-friendliness and compassion are things I hold in high-regard I believe eventually that they will prosper in the free-market of ideas. Most of the time the government is just following social trends rather than leading anyway.