John Anderson has urged young Australians to recover a sense of purpose and shared values, telling Melbourne Catholic Lawyers Association guests that Australia’s future depends on rebuilding social trust and finding causes worth fighting for.
Former deputy prime minister and now podcaster John Anderson has told guests at the Melbourne Catholic Lawyers Association annual dinner that Australia’s future depends on rebuilding social trust, understanding our history and finding causes worth fighting for.
In a wide-ranging talk on Western values, and drawing on liberal thinkers like Os Guinness, Arnold Toynbee and Thomas Sowell, Mr Anderson told around 180 lawyers and law students that civilisations flourish when they share common values and decline when social cohesion is lost.
John Anderson on the decline of shared values
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 numbers of people for whom family and faith were of paramount importance had halved from around 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.’
John Anderson encourages young Australians to find purpose
Younger Australians could find their own sense of purpose by finding meaningful causes and opportunities to serve, Mr Anderson suggested. He pointed to the famous Oxford Union resolution of 1933, in which students declared they would not fight for ‘King and Country’, as an example of a generation that appeared to have lost confidence in its own civilisation.
Just a few years later, the same students were in the thick of World War II, ‘risking and often accepting their fate, lives cut short, fiercely defending freedom with everything that they could find,’ Mr Anderson said.
‘Those young people, when they saw clearly that they needed to step up, they did so.’
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.’
Faith, responsibility and the future of Australia
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.
‘But I think that’s a lie, and I think it’s insulting and an extraordinary misery. It saddens me hugely, it really does, to see that in this most fortunate country, so many people have been marked with sadness and misery and miscommunication. What more could society offer? It’s not material things.’
Societal division and decline happened ‘on our watch’, Mr Anderson said. ‘And it happened because we’ve hollowed out our own culture.’ He said there was a need ‘take the temperature down’ and move forward with calm reason.
Mr Anderson’s message was ultimately one of responsibility and hope. The future, he suggested, would be bright if Australians could recover a shared sense of purpose, renew the relationships and traditions that sustain communities, and find reasons to contribute to something larger than themselves.
Former National Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister i the Howard government, John Anderson, at the Melbourne Catholic Lawyers Association annual dinner.
This article was first published by Melbourne Catholic and has been adapted and republished by EWTN Australia.
