What a Flock of Starlings Can Teach Us About How to Change New Zealand for The Better
- Gary Moller
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
Nobody Is Actually in Charge
I enjoy the study of birds (ornithology): when living in Putaruru, our family had chickens, doves, pigeons and an aviary full of exotic birds. They were my responsibility. How a flock of birds, such as one with a thousand starlings in it can sweep and swoop without collisions galore happening has always fascinated me. No bird is in charge - the flock behaves as if it were a single organism. We see the same phenomenon with shoals of fish. The study of the dynamics of a flock of starlings (a "murmuration") helps us understand how just one or two individual outliers can bring about dynmaic change in human society.
Let me explain why I choose to stay on the fringes of politics rather than at its core. I am following this path because I want to effect positive change. My aim is for New Zealand to be the best place to live and raise a family. Changing the direction of a flock of birds requires the influence of one or two individuals on the outer left or right edges, not those at the front or center. As I will demonstrate, the birds at the front or center lack the power to initiate change. The same principles apply to human society.
Let's begin with the spectacle itself. Thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of starlings sweep across the evening sky, apparently behaving like a single organism. The remarkable thing is that there is no commander at the front issuing instructions. Each bird is responding primarily to the birds immediately around it, such that it appears that the individual birds that make up the whole appear to be cells within a living dynamic organism.
This leads us to the main proposition of the article: we might be mistaken in thinking that social change must originate with those at the center of power—our political leaders. I contend, much like the way a flock moves in unison, that the leaders at the forefront, such as those governing our country, actually hold little power. Additionally, those in opposition parties who pledge significant change also become powerless when they take the lead. It could be said that we are governed by a "Uni-Party," offering more of the same regardless of who is steering.
The flock has direction without having a commander.
How the Flock Changes Its Direction
A starling does not need to know what every other bird in the flock is doing. It needs sufficient information from its neighbours to maintain spacing, direction and cohesion. These local interactions, multiplied thousands of times, produce something that looks remarkably like central organisation.
This is where we introduce the social analogy. A functioning society is much the same. Most of us are not taking daily instructions from Parliament, a chief executive, a newspaper editor or an academic. I have observed that the country seems to run better, and people are more relaxed when Parliament is on its extended summer break, when most politicians fly off to luxury resorts (But I am being far too cynical!). New Zealand, like a murmur of starlings, seems to run better when placed on autodrive!
Much of what we regard as normal behaviour comes from observing the people around us. Families influence families. Farmers watch other farmers. Health practitioners learn from colleagues. Businesses observe competitors. Children imitate other children and, hopefully, their parents (Dream on, Gary!).
Something Changes at the Edge
This is where things become particularly interesting. Imagine one bird on the outer edge detects something the others have not yet responded to. Perhaps there is a predator, an obstacle, a food opportunity, or simply a slight change in the movement of nearby birds. It alters course by just a few degrees. The bird does not hold a meeting. It does not write a policy paper. It does not hire a team of consultants. It does not persuade a thousand starlings to vote for a change of direction. It simply changes what it is doing. By just a little.
Change can start with just a few birds or people on the periphery who are willing to act differently.
The Neighbours Respond
Even if minimal, the initial bird's movement influences those nearby. To prevent collisions, or to keep with the flok, they need to alter their flight path. This adjustment, in turn, impacts their neighbors. What started as a single bird's action has now evolved into the collective behavior of many birds, eventually affecting the entire flock.
There is a useful human lesson here. We often think changing society requires persuading millions of people. Perhaps it does not. Perhaps the more realistic task is to influence the handful of people around us through example, competence and results. If one family begins buying food directly from a regenerative farmer and finds the food better, their friends become interested. If one seventy-year-old remains strong, adventurous and physically capable, other older people begin questioning whether frailty really is inevitable. If one community solves a problem without waiting for Wellington to solve it for them, another community may copy them.
The original bird has changed direction. Perhaps five or ten neighbouring birds are now beginning the same turn. The great majority of the flock continues straight ahead, but not for long.
The Change Travels Through the Flock
Now we see something extraordinary. The information propagates. Bird number One does not communicate directly with bird number 8,000. Instead, movement passes through countless local relationships. Each bird influences a few others and is simultaneously influenced by them. The result is a travelling wave of information - a sweeping, flowing change of direction!
This may be one of the most useful lessons for FreeRangers - people who want New Zealand to be the best place to live, and to raise a family. We do not need every New Zealander to hear directly from us. Nor should we want that kind of control. The objective should be to develop ideas sufficiently useful that people adopt them, demonstrate them and pass them onwards.
That is quite different from propaganda. Propaganda says, "Believe what we tell you." A healthy grassroots movement says, "Here is an idea. Examine it. Try it. See whether it works. Improve it if you can, and pass it on if it proves worthwhile."
The Centre Eventually Moves
Eventually the birds occupying the middle of the murmuration must respond because their neighbours have changed. They have no choice. Nor do those in the lead. All must change course.
We tend to assume leaders change society and everyone else follows. Sometimes they do. But frequently political leaders are themselves responding to changes that have already taken place among the population. Politicians must remain sufficiently connected with the electorate to survive. Businesses must retain customers. Institutions require public legitimacy.
The centre therefore possesses considerable authority, but it is also constrained.
Perhaps this helps explain why genuinely new ideas so often struggle to originate from large institutions, and why political parties tend to keep doing the same old, same old. The people at the centre, and those in the lead, have more relationships, obligations and pressures holding them in their existing flight path. Those nearer the edges may have greater freedom to experiment.
A New Direction Becomes Normal
Eventually the entire flock is travelling in the new direction. If we had arrived at this moment without seeing what happened beforehand, we might assume that somebody at the front had led everybody there. But we would be wrong. The change began somewhere else.
What if changing New Zealand works more like this?
The Lesson for FreeRangers
We have spent decades looking towards the centre, and to our leaders for solutions. We elect another government. We appoint another commissioner. We create another ministry, working group, strategy or five-year plan. We even have Royal Commissions of Inquiry - Lessons learned - yeah-right! Sometimes these things achieve worthwhile results, but perhaps we place far too much faith in changing society from the centre, and from the lead.
FreeRangers proposes something rather different. Start with ourselves. Build stronger families. Raise capable children. Support good farmers. Produce better food. Keep older people strong and useful. Help neighbours. Build businesses that contribute something worthwhile. Question ideas respectfully. Take responsibility where we can and demonstrate better alternatives rather than merely complaining about what others are doing.
This is consistent with the FreeRangers principle that freedom must be balanced by responsibility and that lasting change begins with people, families, neighbourhoods and communities. We do not need to command the flock. We may not even need to convince the flock.
Perhaps our job is simply to be one of those birds towards the edge that sees another possibility, changes direction slightly, and demonstrates through our actions that there is another way to go. If enough neighbouring birds notice, the movement takes care of itself.
And one day the people occupying the centre may discover that New Zealand has already changed around them.
What is FreeRangers?
I am putting our money where my mouth is by creating the FreeRangers movement. We are well underway with our first task, which is to create the Freerangers Marketplace. The Marketplace will increasingly feature the best products and services by small to medium businesses that best align with the FreeRangers vision of New Zealand being the best place to live and to raise a family.
Incidentally, this is also the platform where my PrecisionHealthTesting.com clients buy their supplements. As a result, the marketplace might currently seem focused on supplements, but this will shift as we gradually introduce more producers who share the free-rangers philosophy. As the marketplace evolves, the community aspect will slowly gain traction.
Meanwhile, we encourage you to support us by joining our FreeRangers subscribers list. Signing up is free. Scroll down the page here to become a Free Ranger.
The marketplace will support the FreeRangers Community, representing the social and community aspects that embody the vision of FreeRangers. This marketplace guarantees that the FreeRangers community remains free from political, ideological, and donor influences.
We may be on the outside margins of the flock, but that's exactly where we want to be!
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