There is one word that I have encountered many times over the last week or so. It is revolution.
I decided to write a video script on this theme, and we have now recorded it. It will be out next week.
John Christensen also used the word when we began discussions on recording our next podcast, which will also see the light of day very soon.
And then I was in discussion with an old friend, Guy Standing, the creator of the term “precariat”, who will be a podcast guest fairly soon. He too used the word.
None of us is talking about the barricades. That is not what we imply by the use of the word. What we all seem to think in common is that we have now, beyond doubt, reached the point where the current economic system is utterly unsustainable.
The neoliberal process Thatcher and Reagan put in place, based on the thinking of Hayek and Friedman, promoted the idea that ever-increasing financial wealth mattered more than meeting people's real needs, and this was always bound to fail. You can increase a house price as many times as you like, but you create no new wealth for society as a result. At some point, the financial claims based upon this false understanding of wealth were bound to collapse, and I think John, Guy and I all think that this moment is arriving.
Over the next week or so, there will be quite a lot of discussion of this issue, and I suspect that this will increase as this autumn progresses, and the obvious nature of the financial predicament in which we find ourselves becomes ever more apparent.
We do need a revolution, but one that means turning our backs on all the things we have got wrong and instead facing the opposite direction to appreciate the challenges we face and the people the economy must serve.
For too long we have, like those in Plato's allegory of the cave, looked at the shadows created by the fire of destruction that our neoliberal economy has created. The revolution we need is about turning to look at reality, appreciating what is required, and facing the responsibilities we have to ourselves and all those who come after us.
In that sense, John, Guy and I all seem to share one theme, which is that this is the moment when duty and care must replace the utter recklessness that we have witnessed for decades, and which our politicians have been all too willing to go along with.
My title brought this song to mind, from my favourite Dylan album:
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Ernst Schumacher wrote ‘Small is Beautiful’ as alternative to the ‘bigger is bes’t philosophy. The timing was right as the mid 1970s saw the oil price quadruple and the Club of Rome report ( mentioned by Richard earlier this year) was published.
He was accused of being a crank -someone who firmly holds strange beliefs. His reply was that a crank was a useful tool for causing revolutions (as in a bicycle crank)
Not all revolutionaries wear berets and carry AK-47s.
KUTGW
I read it in about 1975. Along with the Club of Rome report. I have never looked back.
Are we talking about revolution or repentance?
certainly the devotees of Thatcher need to repent!
love the work of Guy Standing; he’s been to Keele twice, like you.
Well, you will get us together.
We have spent many hours talking in our time.
Things need to change, really.
Just now I’ve read a news article about the sudden flood in Nepal / Tibet.
That article pointed, once again, out, that the one’s most affected by climate change are those, that contribute the least to it.
It’s the same story as you’re writing about, time and again, concerning the e.g. FT’s neoliberal view on economy.
Those least responsible have to bare most of the cost of neoliberalism failing incessantly.
Yet the answers to all that are fairly easy:
Understand and use MMT.
Be a courageous government.
Make a Politics of Care.
I’d really like to have a fast change, literally lives are depending on it.
But I don’t know of any of those kind of revolutions having ever turned out the way they were intended and they also were unnecessarily bloody as well.
It’s very easy to despair with this going on, but I refuse to think it’s unchangeable.
I’m really curious for your book / manual for politicians.
If nothing else I will at least make sure parties and politicians will know about it.
I won’t let them get away with their whining of: “Oh, but I didn’t know it any better!”
As I’ve already written somewhere else on your blog:
Those people, that are very often bigheaded about their degrees and stuff, aren’t stupid enough to not getting that!
This also makes them completely responsible for their doing.
There are two kinds of revolution: public uprising like the French Revolution, or complete societal collapse like the Bronze Age Revolution. We’re looking down the barrels of the latter kind. It won’t be a matter of choosing to rebel.
Or the Copernicus revolution – a change in understanding
Society had over a century to slowly debate, absorb, and adapt to the Copernican model before it fundamentally reordered the world. With climate change and the collapse of neoliberalism, the physical consequences of ignoring the science and economics manifest in real-time. Society does not have generations to debate the paradigm shift; the window to structurally adapt has been compressed into a few decades and time has now run out. The parallels with the late Bronze Age are striking. But this time, it’s global.
Agreed
Perhaps the end of the feudal system is a better comparison -though I hope more quickly.
Headline in the Guardian the other day
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/02/global-heating-warming-1-8c-best-case-scenario-un-united-nations-environment-programme-report?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
would make me think a revolution is urgent.
We agree
“duty and care must replace the utter recklessness that we have witnessed for decades, and which our politicians have been all too willing to go along with.” <p>
We really do have to face what we are up against. The security services have probably got us all on their databases, we can be arrested as ‘terrorists’ for expressing opposition to our govt’s complicity in war crimes in Gaza – we don’t need to be charged – our laptops and phones can be confiscated – which would effectively ruin our careers and personal lives<p>
Our parties are funded directly or indirectly by big business, oligarchs, and foreign lobbyists. There is little or no membership influence over policy – – and political leaders seem much happier dealing with their rich donors, than with party members or even voters.<p>
BBC and the media are almost self confessed propaganda institutions – doing ‘opinion’ and ‘reporting’ rather ‘journalism’ and operating under heavy censorship. The official narrative that there is no alternative to ‘welfare’ cuts and there is certainly no money to invest in public services cannot be queried..<p>
Labour shows no sign of wanting to roll back the host of anti protest laws the Conservatives enacted. Police have unfettered powers, and some judges are showing little interest in defending freedom under the law – people can be foudn guilty of a a non terrorist offence and yet be sentenced as terrorists.>
We really are up against it .
You are right we are.
So we have a choice. Give in. Or be defiant. I have made my choice.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/sep/05/black-clad-protesters-balaclavas-block-road-port-of-dover-kent
Fart-rage & co at their conference – the climate disaster is a hoax etc. As things get worse & worse, if Deform were ever in power, they will use this reality (fear coupled to growing societal problems) to consolidate their power further (= no possibility of regime change). The Stephen Yaxley Lennon organised protest is an indicator of where things are going. Had these been protestors wrt Palestine they would now be, mostly, arrested. But Yaxley lennon is a zionist. So the plods turned a blind eye: “there’s nufink we can do” – style of.
The novel “Two Tribes” (Chris Beckett) outlines what happened in a post-Brexit/climate disaster UK. The right whinge feature prominently. Not pretty. Listen to Anderson & education @ the Deform conf’ – apparently lots of teachers are left-wing activists/agitators (one wonders how they find the time – given work loads etc). On & on it goes, spivs & liars with a brainless, witless populace.
I did a tweet in which I asked if you can get a sentence as a terrorist for holding up a piece of cardboard, what do you get for holding up the port of Dover? I’m sure that the answer is a slap on the wrist, because these are right wing thugs and we can tolerate them, after all.
But, thinking back to your recent podcast with Thomas on Third Places, how will there be “music in the cafes at night” when they all close by 6-7PM?!
🙂
So agree; we need to find our Civil Courage, face the reality, resist all violence including standing up to these degenerates see link. How low can we sink?
https://www.thenational.scot/news/26524735.protester-assaulted-reform-conference-police-issue-plea/
Agreed.
And good for my National colleagues.
Discordant note. I remember 70 years ago when the talk was of nuclear winter. We focus on climate change because we can see it happening before our eyes (unless we are politicians or billionaires). But if you look at world leaders with access to nuclear weapons, several are sufficiently deranged to start a nuclear holocaust at any time. Because this would be a sudden catastrophic event, it is harder for us to incorporate it into our thinking. I suggest that in 10 years time billions may still be dead, but there is an equal chance the world will be too cold rather than too hot.
I think your odds are very wrong.
Physicist Carlo Rovelli – suggests the odds of a nuclear catastrophe are very high – and not only because of deranged leaders – but by accident. In his book ’85 seconds to midnight’
I cannot exclude it of course.
I also think it unlikely.
I’m afraid that the threat of a nuclear winter will grow alongside a collapsing climate, with AI adding another layer to the threat. We will have a chance to better understand what the future holds this winter with the increased cost of food and energy that is in the pipeline due to imperialist wars in Asia and Europe, as well as the drought over Europe, causing global shortages, increasing prices.
Richard, didn’t you like my comment saying what I thought we were up against?
I have been out for much of the day after a heavy week. Long comments take time to moderate. Give me a chance.
I have just found that “The Canary” has been de-banked for the second time. It might be worth making contingency plans.
We have several
“For too long we have, like those in Plato’s allegory of the cave, looked at the shadows created by thefire of destruction that our neoliberal economy has created.” – Exactly. Appropriatissimo!
In response to your earlier post re Revolution, space didn’t allow me to drop a quote from a great man, a hero for me. From one of his shorter speeches:
“A Revolution Can Only Be the child of Culture and Ideas”
Your’e in the vanguard amongst UK media in supplying the right culture and ideas. Thank you.
Thank you
[…] wonder I am saying now is the time for a revolution that requires government to turn around and stop facing neoliberal market rules, and instead face […]
Might the concept-phrase “Hinge Point” and the word-concept “Polycrisis” also be appropriate/useful in current concerning contexts?
I do not recognise the use of the term hinge point here.