Part of being a child is being self-centred.  Developmental psychologists tell us that in the early years of normal development a child sees and interprets things entirely through their own eyes.  They are the centre of their universe, the whole world exists just for them, and reality ‘out there’ is merely an extension of me. But then we’re supposed to grow up! And when we don’t, such arrested development is referred to as infantilism. Freud used the term in reference to sexual problems, but then again his whole developmental theory was obsessed with sexuality and was known as ‘psych-sexual development’. More recently we have come to use the term to refer to the immaturity experienced when a child never grows up.

In a recent article by Fatima Measham she speaks of the need for Australia as a nation to grow up.  She says that the parochial nature of Australian society shows we’re in need of some maturity that will cause us to look beyond ourselves and our own interests to the needs of that big world beyond our shores.  Yes Australia, there is a world that we belong to and no, it’s not merely an extension of ourselves.  It really is quite infantile to suggest anything other than this.

Measham helpfully puts the questions of policy related to refugees and asylum seekers in the broader framework of Australia’s foreign policy and it sadly comes up lacking.  She says: “What passes for foreign policy thus far is ‘stop the boats’, ‘you will not be settled in Australia’ and ‘aid for trade’”. She notes that Harvard University’s Niall Ferguson observed “One listens to the contenders for the Australian premiership discussing in the most oblique and mealy-mouthed way issues about immigration and infrastructure that really, you know, sound more like Strathclyde Regional Council than a debate for the leadership of a major power in Asia-Pacific”. And she reports Dr Michael Fullilove of the Lowy Institute saying, “Australia is not a small, isolated country. We should not conduct our election campaigns as though we are.”  She comments that Fullilove “emphasises that we are the 13th largest economy with a seat at two of the most important international forums, the G20 and the UN Security Council. We are definitely at the big people’s table, but we don’t seem to have worked out what that means”.

The Federal election is just around the corner and history is repeating itself.  Campaigns are being run on local issues in marginal electorates.  Local issues are important but they are much more the domain of local and state governments than they are vote grabbers for desperate federal political parties.  Australia’s foreign policy needs to be front and centre of a Federal campaign, for where else do we get to have a say on what we want our country to be as a global entity and a regional neighbour?  As Fatima Measham says, the Prime Minister’s office is more than just housekeeping.  To be self-absorbed as a nation is to be lost in a national infantilism.

The Bible has some wisdom that speaks into this.  In his letter to Christians in Corinth, Paul reflects on the place of childish behavior. He states that children speak, think, and reason like children, and that’s OK—they’re children! But, he says, when we grow up we put away childish things.  The implication is, that’s we then start to speak and think and reason as adults (1 Corinthians 13:11). So, what characterizes adult speech, and thought, and reasoning? This reflection of Paul’s is in the context of the greatest passage on love the world has known. The implication is that grown up thinking and speaking is based on love. He lays out clearly what such love looks like.  Among other things, it’s not characterised by self-seeking, but by self-giving, as it expresses itself in kindness and patience (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).  Paul seems to be agreeing that when an adult never matures, infantilism is expressed in self-centred ways while true adult (mature) behaviour is self-giving.

Is it too much of a stretch to apply this to a Nation as well as an individual?  Can we conclude from this that as a nation, if we are locked into a self-centred approach to our place in the global community, that we are experiencing a problem of national infantilism and that we need to grow up?  How would growing up into being a self-giving nation give direction to foreign policies such as asylum seekers, refugees, foreign aid and economic management?  I love being an Australian.  I’m deeply proud of so much of who we are as a Nation, but I think we have some growing up to do in some areas.

David Wilson is the Director of Sophia Think Tank, a Bible Society project.

Feature image, used under CC License from here.

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