Your Daily Ten@10 - 2026/021

This is edition 2026/021 of the Ten@10 newsletter.

Hi all,

This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.

Enjoy!

• 📅 Waitangi Day & Election Year: We're at a crucial moment in New Zealand's politics, with leaders offering outdated solutions for modern problems.
• 🌍 Global Context: Mark Carney warns of a global rupture, not a transition. Middle powers must prioritize strategic interests, not pretend shared values exist.
• 🇳🇿 Luxon vs. Hipkins: Luxon’s "State of the Nation" feels like a middle manager’s report; Hipkins offers nostalgic, outdated political rhetoric about unity and shared values.
• 💡 Dangerous Disconnect: The gap between Carney’s realism and the leaders' nostalgia highlights their failure to understand the world they govern.
• 🔍 Oversimplification Threat: The real danger lies in leaders who oversimplify governance by pretending New Zealand still has shared values. This ignores the diversity and tensions within the society.
• 🧠 Political Incompetence: Luxon and Hipkins are campaigning as if the country is united when it's deeply divided and struggling with complex global and domestic issues.
• 🌐 AI & Fragmentation: Technology is accelerating the collapse of any shared reality, and political institutions are failing to adapt.
• 🧳 Managing Diversity: True social cohesion isn't about unity, but about managing profound disagreement in a diverse society.
• 💬 Carney’s Leadership: Carney promotes "value-based realism," urging leaders to be pragmatic and build coalitions based on shared interests, not imagined unity.
• ⚖️ Institutional Capacity: Real governance requires institutions that manage conflict and acknowledge the tensions in society, rather than suppress them.
• 🚨 Election Implications: We’re choosing leaders who understand the fractured reality we live in or those who are stuck in the past, offering nostalgia instead of the leadership required to navigate today’s challenges.