It is sad to say that I can look back to 1997 and wish we could once again sing 'Things can only get better'. Right now there is little prospect of that and each week seems to provide ever clearer indication that this is the case. Or does it? I was asked by a couple of members of my audience in Saturday why I am a relentless optimist, which slightly surprised me; I was not aware I was. But I do, I admit, look for signs of hope amongst despair.
The despair is easy to find right now. If Brexit was ever going to succeed that looks increasingly unlikely, and David Davis has now confirmed that the government has done no planning for that option.
The Union is at risk, and many in the country as a whole can now understand why.
The government is so weak it cannot deliver its only tax reform of the budget. It's dogma is so poor it looks possible that it's education plans - one of just two other policies announced less than a fortnight ago - may also fail. This might be rightly so, but it still suggests it to be without any authority at all.
The pound is weak.
Underemployment and low pay remain as chronic problems.
Debt - domestic but not government - remains out of control.
And the Labour Party shows no sign at all of becoming an effective opposition with Corbyn and his cohort clinging to power in ways wholly destructive to the democracy of this country.
And then there's Trump.
And African famine, to really bring matters into focus.
The despair is, then, justified.
So why the optimism? This one is harder to explain, but amidst my anger that the above situations are allowed to prevail (because they are not necessities or foregone facts) I always presume that we humans are capable of solving problems. I am uncomfortably aware that this might be a characteristic I share with market fundamentalists. They believe, without a shred of evidence to support their dogma, that whatever the problem the profit motive will solve it. I value business, and what it can achieve, but this assumption is utterly naive. It presumes the desire of one person can solve the problems of another to whom the person with desire is entirely indifferent: of course it can't. I do therefore make use of a wholly different assumption. I presume people do care about others.
I am, of course, aware that some think is is as naive as the belief of the market fundamentalist and in a sense I have to agree: of course it is, barring one thing. That exception is that the evidence shows that it not only really happens, but that it works.
All successful religions have, as far as I know, been built on this foundation. I am not saying their followers have always lived by the maxim, but the prescription is clear.
It is also the basis for most charity. Again, I know there are exceptions where self aggrandisement is the goal, but that does not defeat my argument or the fact that the continued existence of charity proves it works.
And it is the foundation of most modern political thought, from one-nation Toryism onwards, even if (yet again) lip service can result.
So this idea exists. And although some adherents fail, many succeed. And when they do succeed they quietly change the world. And because that happens so often - whereas trickle down economics has never worked - we do not notice it. But I suggest we should. It is the basis for my optimism.
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Bravo, Richard, for saying what you have so loud and clear. I share your view that most people do care about their neighbours even if many do not. Is it naive to suggest that this belief ought to be the first line of any political manifesto, the underpinning on which any such manifesto is built?
I wish that it might be
Does this mean that those of us who think it is time for another Ice Age can now be rated as optimists?
Many people react with surprise when I say I am more optimistic today than I was two years ago. Before 2015, 7 years on from our first Global financial crisis, few people were even discussing the real level of change needed in our societies. Of course the populist leaders gaining power today have even less idea what to do, but underneath the politics I hear a wiser, more informed and more forward looking discussion going on about our future than ever before.
The neo-liberal order which shaped our economy ever since the late 1970s failed spectacularly in the 2008 financial crisis. Yet in the following years almost nothing has changed in political thinking. In many ways we can view this as part of the grieving process for the failure of the neo-liberal order. The first 7 years were mainly characterised by denial of the need for change, but few would doubt that we are now seriously into the age of anger. The stages still to come therefore include bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance, and we can expect to move back and forth between all these stages in the coming years.
What matters ultimately is that we move the debate on to the ideas that really matter for our Global future. These include universal basic income / tax justice ( one will not be achieved without the other ) and renewable energy / the circular economy to halt the devastating damage now being done to our planet by unsustainable Global consumption.
As the anonymous quote, incorrectly attributed to Ghandi, says “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” A victory for ordinary people around the World may be closer than we think.
Robert P Bruce – author http://www.TheGlobalRace.net
Please read my article on UBI in Morning Star: http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-7d58-Universial-basic-income-best-choice-for-the-job#.WNEC6MmkLgw
UBI, LVT and the other things you mention in your article could be complementary rather than mutually exclusive.
Keep up the good work. Concern for others is a very potent force and inspires most of the co-operative endeavours that can and do enhance our ability to cope with adversity. Ztarting with concern for family and extending beyond that to friends and neighbours and out to the wider community. Your efforts and the efforts of those associated with you have educated a lot of us in the basic facts of how money works and how it is subverted to selfish ends. You are appreciated.
Thank you
I agree with everything you say. Although the neoliberal view is not that problems are solved when the profit motive is set free, but that the problem exists in the first place because of government.
The trickle down economics as practiced by the EU is an example – if EU leaders did not endorse and apply this discredited theory then a majority would not have voted to Leave 9 months ago.
In a perverse way you are right to be optimistic.
This is because we have seen a hardening of neo-lib attitudes recently as well as a ‘land grab’ for more resources and opportunities to acquire public assets.
These behaviours are reactive and seem to indicate that the neo-lib orthodoxy we have been living with now feels under pressure because thanks to people like you – and those whom you share this blog with – reifying the workings and consequences of these orthodoxies. Exposing them for what they are.
It could very well be that the long decent into the decline of neo-liberalism has already begun.
I’d agree with you and it can feel at times like the last thrashings of a mortally wounded wild beast, that is at its most dangerous.
On my way back from a session on Article 50 with Nick Clegg, Charlie Faulkner and Gina Miller. Nick Clegg excoriating on how this is less about Brexit and more about a take over by the neoliberal ideologues of the Tories who really want a low regulation, minimal public services tax haven. Hence they are not people who can in anyway be compromised with. And he is in a better position to know than most having seen them at first hand
A harsh reminder that this is no time for carping about perceived past sins. Clegg is unequivocally on-side (as are others). The Corbyn faction are sadly, unequivocally not. There will need to be alliances and comprises to fight this. Or we will all assuredly hang separately