Paul Johnson in New Zealand

Paul Johnson

1995

Preface

These addresses were delivered in response to an invitation by the New Zealand Business Roundtable to pay a visit to New Zealand in November 1995 and talk to a variety of audiences-business, academic, political, media and religious. They were prepared quite separately but, in conjunction, they cover most of the great questions which perplex us in these last years before the turn of the century and the coming of the new millenium. These include the future of politics, and not least the future of the old Left/Right party system; the future of individual economies and of international trade; the future of education and especially of the universities; the future of the media; and the future of religion. They have, moreover, a unifying theme: the need to approach these great questions, and indeed all the problems which face the turn-of-the-century world, in a spirit of moderation and reason, shorn of the ideology and extremism which has devastated much of the 20th century, but, at the same time, within a firm moral framework based upon absolute standards of right and wrong, and guided by the great Judaeo-Christian system of ethics.

I present these addresses in the spirit in which they were delivered: as a personal interpretation of the contemporary world, aimed not to lay down the law but to stimulate and to contribute to debate.

Paul Johnson

Auckland

November 1995