What our leaders believe

That was the title of the latest episode of Compass which aired on ABC television in Australia last Sunday. Compass is a series “devoted to faith, values, ethics, and the religious impulse in today's world” to quote from their home page. This episode consisted of interviews with the leaders of the major political parties in Australia about their values and belief systems, done in the lead-up to the Australian federal election this Saturday (for a complete transcript see here).

I find these (potentially) less formal, less political interviews to be far more useful in uncovering the real men (and yes, they are all male at the moment) behind the media “mask” than any other means.

A few years ago, prior to a previous election, Ray Martin did what were intended to be personal interviews with John Howard and Kim Beazley, the two contenders for Prime Minister at the time. I remember being struck by how “real” Mr Beazley seemed – just “a bloke having a chat”. In contrast, Mr Howard was still very much the “politician” – every word seemed measured and designed to fit in with the “image” his PR people wanted him to portray.

This time, five leaders were interviewed, and again, Mr Howard stood out as the only one who was, to some extent, still being the politician – that was my impression, anyway - he seems to be a very private person when it comes to his personal beliefs and values.

The others were very interesting. One thing that really struck a chord with me was John Anderson saying that one of the things we lack in Australian society is a “story”. I came across this concept of a story or meta-narrative earlier this year – a story which tells us who we are, what our role is, what the universe is and how we should act. The obvious examples come from organised religions such as the Christian story of the creator God.

But as society moves into the post-modern era and tends to shun organised religion, we also leave behind our story. So we find people who feel lost in the world, who don’t know who they are, why they are here or what the world is all about. I wonder whether science can provide us with a story that helps – that goes beyond the Big Bang, evolution from apes, etc, and somehow helps us find our place in the world. I believe that we need a story that incorporates scientific knowledge as well as spirituality in some way.