Soft Power - 10 June 2010
I've just been listening to a radio program about soft power. The term soft power was coined in the US during the Clinton administration to describe the opposite of hard power, the power of fear inspired by wealth and military might. Some examples of US soft power – the things that have gone all over the world and have people eagerly participating– include Coca Cola, Hollywood and McDonalds. At the other end of the gravitas scale, the US also has Harvard University, with young people from around the world desperate to get in.
The Background Briefing report on ABC radio explored the idea that soft power needs a story, a narrative, that people like and identify with. With soft power, you attract people seemingly effortlessly – they come to you, they want to share what you have. China, is, as we speak, working on its soft power.
In the discussions flowing from the economic forum the other day, it's worth pondering this idea. If it works for a nation, it can work for a town. What is the story of Bathurst? Wherein lies our soft power? Most outsiders immediately associate Bathurst with the car race and, depending on how they stand vis a vis the V8, this gives them a thrill or a shudder. Look more closely, and there are many stories of Bathurst: grand colonial town, home of the warrior Windradyne; railway town that produced a prime minister; a university town that churns out Andrew Dentons and Brendan Cowells.
I might be drawing a long bow, but I feel the common thread in all of these stories is about how Bathurst has always been smart and ahead of the game. Today we need to respond – and be seen to be responding – to the great challenge of climate change. It's a problem that seems too big, too hard to engage with in any sensible way, and yet scientists are telling us that in coming decades we'll all have to deal with it whether we like it or not. The most successful places will be those that see what's coming and respond creatively and with vigour. As local architect Tony McBurney said at a small gathering at the Hub Café the other day to ponder the issue of sustainability, "History is about the next hundred years."