A question of character
When asked why he thought Reacher struck such a chord with readers in Aotearoa, Child said: "He's got a good moral compass, and I think New Zealanders see themselves like that. Quiet, tough, strong, but they will do the right thing if they can.”
Opinion
Anneleise Hall
Does Lee Child know us better than David Seymour?
That’s the question I’ve been pondering over the holidays. Apparently Aotearoa’s library goers are crazy for Child’s Jack Reacher books, which have consistently topped regional borrowing lists for over two decades, including in 2024.
New Zealand was even the first country to propel Jack Reacher to number one on the bestseller lists, in 1998.
“Author of popular Jack Reacher novels Lee Child says New Zealand is the "world capital of Reacher madness”,” said a Stuff article.
When asked why he thought Reacher struck such a chord with readers in Aotearoa, Child said:
"He's got a good moral compass, and I think New Zealanders see themselves like that. Quiet, tough, strong, but they will do the right thing if they can.” - Lee Child
So are we like Reacher?
Built like a ‘brick shithouse’, Reacher goes after the big guys who hurt the little ones, routinely makes friends with crusader types and metes justice out to idiots and bullies. He likes a bit of biffo and a challenge. When he uncovers the really bad guys, as he always does, he’ll methodically deal to them with brutal efficiency
Despite his capacity for extreme violence he still has ‘lines’ and a moral code. The archetype of the stoic farmer, the rugged hunter, the rugby player, your uncle… 'old school’, a hard man. It’s not hard to see where that resonates in the Kiwi psyche.
Despite being a one man wrecking ball, he’s also a defender of the vulnerable who respects women; a practical thinker and planner, with a bone dry sense of humour. He hates using an iron. Aside from the books being ripping yarns, Reacher, is a complex, interesting character, and that appeals to a wide range of people.
I too reckon that New Zealanders tend to cruise along, get on with things and operate with a degree of good faith.
If something is a community problem it’s pretty normal for people to just pitch in and just do what needs to be done. Indeed it seems, broadly speaking, there is an innate, decent practicality to our national demeanour. We like ‘sorting things out’.
At its best that quality manifested as the ‘team of five million’ during covid. After the Christchurch earthquakes. After March 15. Like Reacher we are resourceful and practical. We have a code too.
As a colonised country we’ve also come a long way with our race relations. Over several decades we have made efforts to to restore and recommit to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the agreement negotiated between Māori and the Crown in the early days of New Zealand’s colonisation by the British Crown.
After many years of Te Tiriti being all but ignored this has not been a straight line. After many years of protest and pressure by Māori the Waitangi Tribunal was established to hear all the claims, evidence and testimony.
It’s been messy, uncomfortable, painful, aspirational, and legally has required the research, commitment, testimony, debate and consideration of many academics, activists, politicians. lawyers, judges and contributors.
This process has woven together a container of legal precedents and guidelines, settlements and ongoing advice. We have persisted with this process as a nation, for several decade now in good faith.
As Māori tribes had land returned and compensation paid, culture and language were increasingly revived and resourced within Māori.
Tikanga, kapa haka and te reo naturally began to weave more widely through our organisations, institutions and communities. The more people learned and engaged, the more people were willing to get a bit uncomfortable and work in good faith to move forward together.
We took steps toward growing as a nation, recognising our history, the impacts of colonisation, our relationship with Māori and our shared future through the lens of Te Tiriti, both socially and through policy and legislation. We, for the most part, elected people who had the moral courage to do the right thing and move our country forward.
Yay us, we were the world’s poster children for being the least worst to our colonised indigenous populace.
But Aotearoa also has a shadow side we prefer to pretend doesn’t exist.
We can be cruel, racist, misogynist, bigoted and violent. The human embodiments of these qualities often seek out positions of power where they can make other people’s lives miserable as much as they may warm metal-legged stools in bars with sticky floors, dominate boards and groups and troll comments sections like dogs cocking their legs on trees at the dog park.
Evidence of the same kinds of institutionalised racism we see in other countries is right through our system too, no more evident than in the chilling testimony from state care abuse survivors. Our version of the ‘school to prison pipeline’. Language bans, segregation, dawn raids… The self-anointed ruling class reserved the right to bully, dominate, disenfranchise and subjugate brown people to reinforce the supremacy of colonial whiteness.
We elect high numbers of women but we also subject them to a deluge of rape and death threats. Of 14 OECD countries New Zealand has the highest rate of domestic violence. In 2020, police responded to a domestic violence call every 4 minutes.
A World Health Organisation study found that in NZ around 1 in 4 women were sexually abused as children and 1 in 6 men. This was higher than any of the other 10 countries in the multi-country study.
Key findings from a 2021 Ministry of Justice Crime and Victims survey reveal that almost 30 percent of New Zealand adults experienced intimate partner violence, or sexual violence, at some point in their life.
About 35 percent of females and 12 percent of males had experienced sexual assault in their lifetime. The proportion of those who experienced sexual assault was high in young people, with 18 percent of adults aged 15-19 already victimised in their lifetime.
While some Reacher readers probably enjoy a bit of vicarious violence, maybe there’s more than a few fantasising of someone dealing to their predators and bullies which strikes an even deeper chord than Child recognised.
David Seymour is courting our racist, violent shadow with his Treaty Bill.
The narrative has been crafted to appear sensible, and neutral, he is offering slick lines that tell a parallel white supremacist narrative to the one established in the long, inclusive, decades-long process outlined above.
It seems this bill was meant to be both divisive and distracting while the Regulatory Standards bill, which the ‘Coalition Agreement’ agreed to pass, can write Te Tiriti o Waitangi out of lawmaking by stealth.
It’s a cynical, cruel and destabilising act of bad faith against the people of Aotearoa. Seymour and the Government are counting on weaponising racism and courting our cruelty to stay in power.
We have a Government that hasn’t delivered what it promised and is abusing power and process to undermine the long term good of Aotearoa in favour of vested interests.
David Seymour is counting on being able to weaponise the ignorance, fear and anger of supporters to fan racism and spread disinformation in his bid to erase Te Tiriti as any sort of meaningful constitutional legal document. We can count on a systemic wide reaching online campaign.
So many of us started paying attention, making efforts, showing up, sharing information and building relationships in 2024. People mobilised like never before.
It’s up to us to keep pressure on this Government to ditch these destructive bills.
We need to do the right thing.
And see ourselves in Jack Reacher.
Notes:
Submissions for the consultation round to inform the bill’s wording can be made via email until 11.59pm Monday 13 Jan: RSBconsultation@regulation.govt.nz.
Regulatory Standards Bill submission by Jane Kelsey: https://substack.com/home/post/p-154566053?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://toah-nnest.org.nz/prevalence/
https://www.justice.govt.nz/about/news-and-media/news/2021-new-zealand-crime-and-victims-survey-nzcvs/