Australia Day and the Fibonacci Sequence.

(Apologies to the Dalai Lama, who’s way ahead of me).Here’s what I’m thinking. I’m thinking the human soul is influenced by the Fibonacci sequence as much as Mother nature is. An order, a pattern, an innate beauty that flows. A sequence that is as intrinsic to our souls as breathing. The Fibonacci sequence is an arbiter of truth. Not truth that is ethical. Or even considers morality. Morality is complex. This truth is simple. It’s the truth of beauty. Even when beauty is ugly. It’s life existing in a complete state of ‘authenticity’. The Fibonacci sequence is pure and intransigent. The sequence is a part of nature — as we are a part of nature — and its design allows life to flow and continue through balance. Except when we get ourselves out of balance. Which can happen in all kinds of ways. Maybe when we argue with someone. Vehemently. Personally. There’s fault on both sides even if we don’t want to admit it. We’re angry. We carry around that anger – even though the only way to stop grinding our teeth is to let it go. It’s even worse when the guilt is entirely ours and those we are arguing with bear no anger, no animosity – only confusion – because they offended us simply by existing. Like the new guy at work who’s smarter and younger. It’s not their anger and resentment and fear distorting the sequence it’s ours. Pretty soon we’re so angry we start to hate ourselves. Only we’ll never admit we hate ourselves because we’re too busy being angry AND hating ourselves. (Which is very time consuming). The only way to stop the hurt is to admit our regret, our mistakes and move on. Return to balance and authenticity. But of course, we live in the real world. A world where life isn’t simple. Situations are complex. All over the world. Situations become extremely complex when confused by hatred, fear and the actions that stem from these. It’s difficult to stop being angry, to stop acting out of fear and find a way to forgive. Forgiveness is the most effective remedy there is to restore balance. But by the time we realize this – there’s often too much hateful water flowing under the bridge. The most effective solution is now the naïve one. But I don’t think any of this alters the Fibonacci sequence wired into our souls. It’s a force that calls us back to balance through action, regardless of the circumstances. Balance makes us happy. It allows us to be at peace with ourselves. Which is why — when we act against the flow of Fibonacci we inevitably start lying to ourselves. And those lies damage us. Even if we’re a very skilful liar. Even if we’re so good at lying we can manufacture something that looks and smells almost like the truth. But it’s not the truth. Because the truth wired into the Fibonacci sequence is unchanging. And I reckon it reveals our lies to us over and again. If we’re brave enough to go looking. It’s pretty obvious when we’re hurting ourselves. When we’re hurting ourselves, the problems we have face never resolve they just get worse and worse. If it’s not broken don’t fix it. If it keeps breaking, maybe we keep making the same mistake. The funny thing is – that facing the truth – while terrifying – is never as bad as it seems. It’s inevitably a relief. We cry. We mourn our own failings. We are forgiven. We even forgive ourselves. And return to beauty and balance.

Okay. Now I come to the point of all this. The Fibonacci sequence and Australia Day. Australia. We spent billions upon billions of dollars trying to stop people from putting themselves and their children in danger by riding in leaky boats to come here.

— “Putting themselves in danger”.

And let’s not forget these people are being aided and abetted by criminals who must be stopped.

— “Prevent these people putting themselves in danger”.

— “Criminals who must be stopped”.

— “They’re taking advantage of vulnerable people”.

Okay. Pause. Rewind.

Wise leaders can focus on putting people smugglers in jail as long as the dinner party lasts. But let’s consider what’s most relevant to notion of “there but for the grace of God go all of us”.

— “Vulnerable people”.

Let’s pin to the board what we know to be true. No human being puts themselves in danger unless they are an adrenalin junkie. Now — putting those loveable freaks to one side. The only time people put themselves – or their family in danger – is if the danger behind them is greater than the danger in front of them.

Necessity.

Any rational human being knows — in their heart of hearts –- in the very DNA of their Fibonacci sequence -– that to argue anything else is a lie. And yet here we are.
Spending billions. And billions. In the perpetuation of a lie — and the lie becomes more complex and entrenched as we become more entrenched in the rhetoric required to fabricate it.

I don’t think lies are solely the realm of evil people. Lies are mostly constructed by good, weak people, so they can keep their job – and wake up each day able to look themselves in the eye. The very same people who will be saying – “you don’t know what you’re talking about — it’s complicated, it’s about people’s lives, it’s about sovereignty, it’s about…

Here’s something I’ve noticed.

Wise leaders who know they are living a lie – get indignant when confronted by the truth.
Wise leaders who are too arrogant or ignorant to consider any view than their own – become smug. Wise leaders who like hearing the sound of their own voice convincing themselves of the lie – get louder. And wise leaders who are sick to death of the lie – talk a kind of weary double-speak – aimed to put everyone, especially themselves — to sleep.

The truth is the situation we face isn’t new and it wasn’t always this complicated.
We’ve dealt with the challenge before. Fraser and Whitlam dealt with the challenge in the 1970’s. It’s not unique. The lie tells us the challenge is unique. We’re spending multi-billions, we’re suffering as a country, and we’re even hiding behind the Navy to fly in the face of common-sense and everything that our Fibonacci sequence is telling us.

If someone is hurting, and they’re asking for help. You help them.

Authenticity. Balance. Communities survive through collaboration. It’s called commerce. It’s called economics. It’s called necessity. Unless we are under attack.

Then the lie allows the Navy to be involved. It allows a government to hide information from those who elected it. You must defend yourself if you’re under attack. You hurt other people – or they’ll hurt you. There’s a reason. Even a nobility. Except it’s not true. A reality has been constructed that has no resemblance to the truth, and the longer we deny the lunacy of what we’re doing, the more it’s going to hurt us. And hurt us. And hurt us. Not to mention what it’s already doing to thousands of men, women and children who have done nothing but exist – and whose very existence threatens us – just like the new guy at work. You can apply the aforementioned just as easily to our loathing of indigenous issues.

Here’s the thing. These people that are trying to come here. This situation that exists. It won’t go away. Ever. The way we’re reacting to the problem now, will echo long after we ship people back to where they came from. Because that’s how it works when you go against the Fibonacci sequence. It hurts.

So wise leaders — here’s what I’m thinking. Remember Fraser and Whitlam.
Remember that we have a shrinking workforce, a shrinking tax base and an ageing population. Consider that if something doesn’t drastically change, we’re going to need people to work until they’re seventy-five. But with every challenge there is a reward.
We have an extraordinary human resource who are risking life and limb to come here.
And, Oh Lord – if anyone thinks people desperate to jump onto these boats — are going to come here and just sit on the dole — then we don’t need to be teaching the ANZAC legend in schools, we need to be instilling the history of immigrants and the economic engine they provide to an economy.One wise leader summed up exactly what this situation is about. The phrase he coined went something like – we will decide who comes to this country and the manner in which they come. We’re going against the Fibonacci sequence and we’re paying the price because we want control.As if we had it in the first place.