The Gospel of Empathy at the Sydney Opera House

When former heads of state relocate to academic sinecures and ascend the stages of cultural landmarks, the resulting speeches rarely lack ambition. Speaking at the Sydney Opera House alongside author Anna Funder, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern offered a sweeping diagnosis of democratic decay. Her thesis is as familiar as it is comforting to public intellectuals: voters are anxious, politicians are opportunistic, and social media has poisoned the well of public discourse.

Now lecturing at the University of Sydney after settling on the city’s northern beaches, the forty-six-year-old former leader argued that the antidote to political polarisation lies in financial security rather than divisive rhetoric. In her view, decades of globalisation left citizens feeling economically vulnerable. When institutions like the World Trade Organization drew public ire, political leaders responded not by fixing core insecurities, but by peddling simplistic exits such as Brexit, which subsequently enabled the rise of figures like Donald Trump.

What followed, Ardern suggested, was a systemic breakdown in public trust and a profound crisis of political leadership. Rather than fostering debate, politicians weaponised grievances. Modern discourse has become trapped in absolute moral clarity, where opponents are no longer seen as interlocutors with differing views, but as morally compromised actors unworthy of engagement.

The online sphere naturally bore its share of blame. Ardern recalled entering the New Zealand parliament in 2008 as its youngest member, brimming with optimism about social media as an unmediated link to voters. That early naivety dissolved entirely on 15 March 2019, when a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch was radicalised on YouTube and broadcast on Facebook. The event highlighted how easily digital platforms could be weaponised to incite violence.

While Ardern’s plea for humility, curiosity, and empathy in public life sounds appealing, it reveals a curious blind spot common among modern political elites. Diagnosing polarisation as a mere byproduct of economic insecurity and online algorithms conveniently excuses the political class from its own role in fostering ideological conformity. When leaders frame policy choices as black-and-white moral imperatives, they should hardly be surprised when citizens respond in kind.

Written by Freya Stensrud freya.stensrud@alpineweekly.com