By Colin MacGillivray
ONE of the darkest days in recent American political history provided the inspiration for Kilmore author Bruce Nicholls’ first non-fiction book.
Mr Nicholls’ book, The Plato Prophecy, examines the degradation of democracies under what he termed ‘political toxicity’, and was prompted by the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol by thousands of supporters of former US president Donald Trump after he lost the 2020 election.
Mr Nicholls drew on his experience in politics and role as a foreign diplomat and founder of public policy forum QAFFERs – the Quarterly Assembly of Fine Fellows, Epicureans and Raconteurs – to argue for increased cooperation across the political spectrum.
He said while his previous books had been fictional spy thrillers, public policy had always been his biggest passion and something he felt compelled to write about.
“It’s about the total lack of Western leadership and the loss of democracy because of toxicity and, particularly as we saw in America with Trump, the inability of people to look for fact and science and let that inform public policy instead of political spin,” he said.
“I also examine the impact of political correctness and cyber distortion – I argue in the book that the new electorate is the cyber electorate, which is unedited swill that is moving people’s opinion on public issues and distorting our democracy.”
Mr Nicholls said autocratic nations were outperforming democracies on a global scale.
“I referenced the Kilmore bypass, which we’ve been waiting many for years, and pointed out that in the same time China has been able to build seven bullet trains, three new cities, been able to double its port capacity and become a global superpower while we’ve been sitting on our hands trying to have community consultation,” he said.
“I make the case that autocracy is actually beating democracy at the moment, and if we don’t wake up and deal with that we’ll be in big trouble.”
Mr Nicholls is a former member of the Liberal Party but said he had friends on both side of politics.
He said he was glad both Rob Mitchell, a federal Labor member, and Steph Ryan, a state Nationals member, had agreed to attend his book launch.
“We should be able to have a public contest of ideas. I consider them both friends and they both were fine with it,” he said.
“We’ve got to find a narrative that unites us rather than divides us. Divisions now are so wide and we’ve now got a situation where those on the far right and those on the far left don’t care what the other side has to say, they simply see them as targets that must be attacked.
“There is no intellectual rigour; there is intellectual laziness based on hatred.
“If we let it continue we’ll lose our democracy. I don’t know how we save it, but I think we have to get the message out there that we need to let reason and our humanity rise above political toxicity.”
People can order a copy of The Plato Philosophy online through Amazon or email anniefnicholls@optusnet.com.au for more information.