Your Daily Ten@10 - 2026/065

This is edition 2026/065 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!

1. NEOTRIBAL CAPITALISM AND CO-GOVERNANCE

Elizabeth Rata

• 💰 Capitalism generates prosperity, but its drive to accumulate must be restrained by democratic political regulation.
• ⚠️ “Neotribal corporations” merge economic and political power, making their influence opaque and difficult to challenge.
• ⚖️ Democracy depends on separating politics from both religion and the economy; co-governance is presented as undermining this separation.
• 🧑‍⚖️ Liberalism is identified as the only system that protects this divide by prioritising the individual citizen over tribal or class-based identity.
• 🇳🇿 Neotribal capitalism emerged in New Zealand from Treaty settlement structures, evolving into vehicles for political influence and co-governance demands.
• 📈 Like all elites, leaders of these corporations are driven by accumulation of wealth and power, extending beyond historical reparations.
• 🏛️ Effective capitalism requires regulation through democratic accountability to ensure fair access to shared national resources.
• 🧠 Ideological strategies have been used to justify expanded claims to resources and political authority beyond original settlements.
• 📚 The “culturalist Left” is criticised for enabling this shift through education, including diminished secularism and reinterpretations of history.
• 🏫 Secularism’s decline is seen as enabling tribal-based belief systems to influence public institutions and governance.
• 📖 An “invented history” narrative reframes the Treaty as a partnership and emphasises oppression, sidelining broader historical realities.
• 🤝 The New Left is portrayed as mistakenly aligning with neotribal elites, believing shared goals despite differing interests.
• 🧬 Racial identity is elevated over individual citizenship, conflicting with democratic principles based on universal equality.
• 💸 Neotribal elites are characterised as rent-seekers, benefiting from control of resources rather than productive innovation.
• 🚫 Co-governance between tribal and democratic systems is argued to be fundamentally incompatible.
• ⏳ The text questions whether New Zealand has reached a tipping point in this shift and calls for a return to liberal democratic principles.

Read More

This post is for subscribers only

Become a member to get access to all content

Subscribe now