{"id":88234,"date":"2025-12-06T09:37:52","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T09:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=88234"},"modified":"2025-12-06T12:30:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T12:30:42","slug":"where-are-we","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/12\/06\/where-are-we\/","title":{"rendered":"Where are we?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is <a href=\"https:\/\/quoteinvestigator.com\/2017\/08\/13\/stages\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">often claimed<\/a> that Mahatma Ghandi said:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"entry-title\">First, they ignore you<\/li>\n<li class=\"entry-title\">Then they laugh at you<\/li>\n<li class=\"entry-title\">Then they attack you<\/li>\n<li class=\"entry-title\">Then you win.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No one can be sure Ghandi did say that. In any case, I prefer the Schopenhauer version:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, it appears laughable;<\/li>\n<li>Second, it is fought against;<\/li>\n<li>Third, it is considered self-evident.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And Tony Benn's is pretty good as well:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, they ignore you.<\/li>\n<li>Then they say you\u2019re mad.<\/li>\n<li>Then dangerous.<\/li>\n<li>Then there\u2019s a pause, and then you can\u2019t find anyone who disagrees with you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, where are we with MMT?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No one is ignoring us now.<\/li>\n<li>And the laughing stage is definitely over.<\/li>\n<li>The mad\/dangerous\/attacking\/fighting stage seems to be in full swing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I'm looking forward to the next bit, when:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No one disagrees with modern monetary theory.<\/li>\n<li>They do, in fact, say they believed in it all along.<\/li>\n<li>And they use it, because it is self-evident.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Are we going to get there? I think so.<\/p>\n<p>Why am I so confident? Three reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This process is underway.<\/li>\n<li>The direction of travel is as predicted: the conclusion is inescapable.<\/li>\n<li>And you are helping that happen by talking about it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And for the last, I offer my thanks.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Comments\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>When commenting, please take note of this blog\u2019s comment policy,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/about\/comments\/\">which is available here<\/a>. Contravening this policy will result in comments being deleted before or after initial publication at the editor\u2019s sole discretion and without explanation being required or offered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is often claimed that Mahatma Ghandi said: First, they ignore you Then they laugh at you Then they attack you Then you win. No<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/12\/06\/where-are-we\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,35,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economic-justice","category-economics","category-modern-monetary-theory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88234"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88236,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88234\/revisions\/88236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}