Introduction

Who am I and what is the purpose of this blog?

The aim of this blog

The purpose of this blog is pretty simple. I would like to try and get people thinking about how we have conversations. In particular I would like to try and improve the quality of political conversation by asking people and myself to take a small step away from the conversations we are having, take a look at how we are speaking with one another, and hopefully find a way to improve the quality of that conversation.

Happily, there is plenty of information out there on this topic, it isn't complicated and anyone can learn.

I'm hoping that by applying even just a few simple rules when we are talking about politics that together we can have a more productive conversation.

I'm convinced that if we want to improve politics we need to do more than simply expect better from our politicians. I think we need to expect more from ourselves. Our politicians after all are an expression of our political will. The conversations they have are a reflection of the conversations we are having.

To this end, I try my best in life and online to stay in contact with people of all political persuasions. I am trying to find issues common to both the left and right and encourage people to focus on some of the issues they have in common.

I want to find ways to have those conversations between people of different political persuasions without it descending into a slagging match, without retreating behind ideological walls, and hopefully with some sort of agreed outcome at the end of the conversation.

By sweeping away some of the emotion and talking about simple, practical issues I think we could achieve a lot in this country. Even if the left and right can get together and agree on just one issue, that is a hell of a lot of political power, and whenever it happens we get results. We move forward.

As we start to agree on issues and shared values one by one, I'm hoping that will create good will on both sides of the political divide, and start rebuilding a new sense of national identity.

That isn't to say I am aiming for some Utopian vision where we all agree on everything. That would be foolish. I am trying to get people to see that we don't have to agree on everything to agree on some things.

By dividing ourselves along bipartisan lines and refusing to speak to each other except in our own online filter bubbles and friendship circles, I think we have lost a sense of what we agree on. After speaking with people on both the left and right I think we agree on more things than we would like to admit. It is easy and it feels good to feel righteous. But to be to righteous means you close your mind to different ways of thinking.

Where did I get the idea?

This is not my idea. The 'citizen zero' concept was originally conceived by a woman called Kaitlin Byrd (@GothamGirlBlue). You can find her old blog here:

https://citizenzeroblog.politics.blog/

I first heard her talking about the idea on this episode of Harmontown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wuck5Iv6lc

I have since spoken to her about what I am doing here. She has decided to give up on the idea over there, claiming that she wasn't aware how bad the problem was in America, and that she thought the Republicans were too big a threat to have a non-partisan position. She now fights for the left and is a guest writer for the Huffington Post.

I still think her idea has merit though, and I highly recommend checking out some of her videos and blog posts. It's still a great place to start if you want to get thinking about having a better conversation.

So, who am I?

I think it's important that we all feel we have a right to have our say when it comes to politics. I think it's important that we also recognise that with that right comes responsibilities. One of those responsibilities I think is to try and be honest. So in the interest of honesty I would like to point out that I live in public housing, I do not work at the moment, I have mental health issues and I am on a disability pension.

I am in no position in life to be telling people how to live. But I am hoping that by being brave and having my say anyway, that it might show others that it really doesn't matter who you are or what your position is in life, you still have a right to have your say. Citizenship is not a job interview. Your voice counts just as much as a wealthy business owner. You may even be able to bring a new perspective to the table.

If you are worried about whether your contribution will be valid or useful, then there are a few rules you can follow to ensure that your contribution is productive.

I have also worked in the following industries:
-Computer Sales
-Telecommunications (Customer Service)
-Federal Government (ABS)
-Various Call Centres
-Various trades (cleaning, laboring, picture framing)

And I have studied various units in philosophy and computing at the University of Tasmania, without having completed my degree.

As part of my studies, I did cover a lot of material on logic, reasoning skills and boolean algebra. Of the units I passed, the only area of knowledge where I completed all the units were in Mathematics for Computer Science, where they cover boolean algebra. I took those units as far as they would go. There isn't a whole lot of information to cover and the units stop in second year. I passed them all with around a distinction average. This means I'm good with logic. I also studied reasoning skills in philosophy, which enables me to put that logic to use in conversation. Another area where they covered logic in language was information systems, where we learned how to take a request from a client and translate that into practical measures. Both the reasoning units and the information systems units involved breaking down sentences into boolean arithmetic, which is a very useful tool for healthy debate.

So the point is I don't claim to be an expert on anything, but I think I am pretty good at having tricky conversations without having a flame-war. I don't claim to be a saint. I have been trying to get myself back into working shape in the last few years, and in that time I have been reading to keep my mind active.

The things I have been reading about are mainly economics, but I have also read books on certain areas of medicine, certain social, psychological and philosophical issues and history.

Since the field of inequality is a relatively new, a lot of the books I've been reading had to be ordered in, and were released only in the past few years, the information isn't always easy to find. I want to help disseminate some of that information.

I think my position in life doesn't invalidate what I have been learning about and would like to share some of it with others.

At the same time I would like to:

a) Show people anyone can talk about these issues. If I can, anyone can
b) Show people how to talk about these issues in a non-partisan way that both the left and right can agree on
c) Refer people to the information - that's important.

These are not my ideas. I think that one of my responsibilities as a simple citizen is to be honest about where my ideas are coming from. I am not the expert. I am not even a University graduate. Very few of the books I'm reading are written for academics. I am reading books by academics written for the general public.

I am not an expert I am a concerned citizen and I am making a rallying call to all concerned citizens and trying to figure out a way to bring all those voices into the conversation without creating a rabble. And so I am not going to make too much of a big deal about my own opinion. I would like that opinion to be heard, but I am certainly not saying it is more important than anyone else and I'm certainly not claiming to be any kind of expert.

Along the way you fill find I will contradict myself. You'll find spelling errors. Perhaps factual errors. I'm not an editor or a journalist.

But I'm hoping that by having a conversation about having conversations, we can ah...have a better conversation. Say that ten times fast!