John Ready – The Stark Choice

The stark choice was put to John Ready in cross-examination during the recent Gloriavale Employment Hearing Feb 2022. He responded:

“So I think of a boat and there’s a whole lot of layers and there is a whole lot of oarsmen, on those layers in the boat. And you are told, well you are born at the bottom of that boat, on the bottom floor and you work hard to progress up those floors. And you are told that this boat is the best boat in the world, I mean it is the best place in the world and you believe it, because when you look out through your porthole, you see the ocean and they say, you go out there and you are going to drown. And as a kid mate, as a kid you are like, that makes sense, that makes sense, and so you work hard and work up that layer. But what you are not told is that water outside the boat, it is only knee deep. But you think if you leave that boat, if you leave Gloriavale you are going to drown, you are going to die. And so you row hard. There is no choice; you can’t leave that boat. You are in a system where you have to work hard to work up that layer. I hope that kind of gives you a picture of what the psychological trap is that you are born into, you don’t have a choice.”