tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10503693122018972432024-03-15T00:15:31.383+00:00Question the PowerfulLook at the way power & responsibility are distributed around society today and ask: can’t we do better? Welcome to ‘Question the Powerful’, a twice-monthly journal on politics & society. (To learn more about the Question the Powerful project, click on ‘Henry Tam: Words & Politics’ under ‘Menu’).Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.comBlogger384125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-16555394542345283102024-03-15T00:15:00.002+00:002024-03-15T00:15:00.138+00:00Remember the Ides of March<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Ides of March – the midpoint of the third month, made famous by the killing of the dictator, Julius Caesar. Many in the past have glorified Caesar as a great military campaigner, and glamorised him as a charismatic leader who knew just how to get people on side.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">However, the more historians have uncovered about his brutality, not just in slaughtering those who sought to resist Roman conquest, but in destroying fellow Romans who tried to prevent him from amassing absolute power, the more he is seen as the ruthless manipulator he truly was. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">By the time Caesar emerged as a politician in 69 BC, Rome had put an end to the kingly rule for over four centuries. Instead, power was shared with the people through elected public officials. No one person could have the power to dictate to others, except in times of emergency when that was necessary to have one decision-maker to take control, but even then, the arrangement was strictly time-limited and the person entrusted with that power was still ultimately accountable to the senate. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">But Caesar wanted to have the power of a king, to be able to impose his will on everyone else with no check or balance. To achieve that, he knew he had to dismantle the Roman system of power sharing and public accountability. Others such as Cato the Younger, Cassius, and Brutus knew that too, and they came to realise that Caesar must be stopped from taking ever more power to control the country.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Alas, Caesar had been able to sway more and more senators to back him, stir up mobs to ensure public expression of support favour him, and command battle-hardened troops to defeat those who opposed him. When the desperate act of assassination came on 15 March, 44 BC, it was too late. The Roman republic was disintegrating. The power to rule had been so twisted that kingly control by any name had established itself. It did not take long for Caesar’s adopted son, Octavius, to rid himself of his one-time allies, Lepidus and Mark Antony, and reign supreme as Augustus Caesar. Following him, the absolute power to rule would always be vested in (or seized by) one man who would be addressed reverentially by all other Romans as Caesar.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Anyone wondering why having one person with absolute power is so bad may reflect for a moment on the names of Caesars such as Nero, Caligula, Commodus, and their notorious cruelty, incompetence, wastefulness, and depravity. In a republic, a poor leader has to step down if they lack electoral support. Under a Caesar, you protest in vain and still risk being executed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Many US Republicans, contrary to the name of their party, are yearning for their own Caesar – someone who will wield power without ‘liberal’ constraints, control the judicial system with his own acolytes, hunt down his political enemies, invoke election results only when they are in his favour. They may yet get their wish.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Except the Caesar they end up with may well be in the mould of a Nero or Caligula.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-35324710637107489692024-03-01T00:01:00.001+00:002024-03-01T00:01:00.151+00:00Love Labour’s Facts<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">If you know anything about politics, it can’t be easy to keep hearing people say things like “politicians are all the same”, or “I can’t see any difference between these parties”. But instead of shaking your head in disbelief, try sharing a few observations. Calmly, sincerely, point to a few facts which will illustrate what having different political parties in power can really mean to our lives.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Here's one list I’ve put together comparing the Labour Party with the Conservatives in the UK. You may want to add/adapt for your own use (a similar exercise can be done comparing the Democrats and Republicans in the US, and for political rivals in other countries): <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Crime<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">After the Conservatives gained power in 2010, central government funding for policing was in eight years cut by 20% in real terms, resulting in the closure of 600 out of 900 police stations in England – with London particularly hit hard with the number of police stations falling from 153 in 2010 to just 45 in 2018 [Note 1]. Not surprisingly, while recorded crime in England and Wales fell by 8.7% under the previous Labour Government (1997-2010), under the Tories it shot up by 59.5% from 4.2 million to 6.7 million (2010-23) [Note 2].<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Homes<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Labour’s commitment to develop social housing and reduce homelessness was not shared by the Conservatives. The Tory approach is more reflected by their Housing Minister who sought to help one of their donors avoid tax in the development of a luxury housing scheme [Note 3], while support for the building of social rented homes was radically cut. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In 2010/11, nearly 36,000 social rented homes were started in England. But funding cuts introduced by the Conservatives meant that a year later the number was reduced by a staggering 91.6% to just over 3,000 [Note 4]. By 2021/22, factoring the selling off/demolishing of social homes, there was a net loss of 14,100 social homes in England, with 1.2 million households in 2023 stuck on waiting lists (a rise of 5% over the previous two years) [Note: 5]. In the meantime, homelessness across the UK has increased by 74% from when the Tories took power in 2010 to 2023 [Note 6]. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Children</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The last Labour Government gave the country the Sure Start programme to help parents and children. Independent research found that access to Sure Start services led to better social development and behaviour for children, and less negative parenting and more supportive home-learning environment for families [Note 7]. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">When the Conservatives took power in 2010, one of their first decisions was to cut Sure Start support for children in their critical formative years, and it resulted in the closure of 1,416 Sure Start centres in England [Note 8]. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Health<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The National Health Service was established by a Labour government in 1948. According to the independent National Centre for Social Research, it achieved its highest ever level of public satisfaction (70%) when Labour was last in power in 2010. Under the Tories, with their haphazard organisational changes and perennial underfunding of the NHS, satisfaction had by 2022 dropped to 30%. On the measure of people expressing dissatisfaction, the worst ever record of over 50% came under the Conservative Government (in 2022). Worth noting that the last time dissatisfaction with the NHS reached the 50% mark also came under the Tories – in 1997 before they lost power to Labour [Note 9]. Even so-called ‘moderate’ Tories have advocated a move to a health insurance system which in the case of the US, has led to many left unable to pay the insurance premiums, and countless being routinely denied vital treatment and medication because private insurance companies reject their claims [Note 10].<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Reducing the National Debt<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Despite endless attempts to suggest otherwise, the facts are unmistakable: Labour in government consistently brings down the national debt better than the Conservatives. When the figures over all the time they are in office respectively are taken into account, and the average is calculated to make for a fair comparison, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Labour borrows less than the Conservatives. In other words, it is the Conservatives, not Labour, who add most to the national debt. Furthermore, Labour has always repaid more debt, more often than the Conservatives. This holds true regardless if the figures after the 2008 global financial crisis were included or not [Note 11]. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Tackling Corruption<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Why should anyone think Conservative politicians are more corrupt than those in other parties? 16 MPs were found to have claimed </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">for rent in London on their expenses while earning money by letting out their London homes – 14 of them were Conservatives. During the Covid pandemic, health-related contracts were handed by the Conservative Government to 15 firms that were connected with millions of pounds donated to the Conservative Party. These firms were given over a billion pounds in government contracts, even though some of them had no track record in providing what was being ordered [Note 12]. And between 2010 and 2019, Tory politicians received over £3.5m from wealthy Russian funders [Note 13]. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Investing in Infrastructure<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">After years of cuts by the Conservatives under Thatcher, the Labour Government of 1997-2010 made it a priority to renovate public infrastructure – including school buildings. Its final phase included the £55 billion Building Better Schools for the Future programme. However, when the Conservatives regained power in 2010, it swiftly abolished the programme. School buildings were once again being neglected for lack of funding. In 2023, m</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">ore than 100 schools and colleges were told by the Conservative Government to fully or partially shut buildings due to the non-replacement of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), as it could lead to structural instability and building collapse [Note 14]. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Handling Global Crises<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">When the 2008 global financial crisis hit the UK, the Labour Government responded swiftly to protect the economy and steer towards recovery. While the UK’s GDP dropped by 0.15% in 2008, Labour’s actions brought economic growth up to 2.43% by 2010 [Note 15]. Then the Tories came in, ignored the fact that the financial crisis was caused by excessive banking deregulation driven by ‘free market’ Thatcherites and US Republicans which led to irresponsible lending worldwide, and focused instead on austerity policies that stifled economic growth. When it was the Conservatives’ turn to have to deal with a global crisis (Covid-19), it performed poorly – in 2020, UK’s real GDP fell by around 10%, worse than most other developed countries [Note 16]; while excess deaths in the UK (from January 2020 to June 2021) were higher than in most West European and high-income countries [Note 17]. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Local Government <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Labour in power supported local government with reliable funding, neighbourhood management, and local regeneration. After the Conservatives took charge in 2010, central government funding for local authorities fell in real terms by over 50% between 2010–11 and 2020–21 [Note 18]. This has led to severe cuts to services across the board – environmental protection, social services, library, education, road maintenance, housing – and one in five council leaders have expressed concerns that their councils will go bankrupt by 2025 [Note 19]. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Voluntary Sector<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The voluntary and community sector was well supported by the Labour Government with dedicated programmes such as Active Community, Together We Can, Take Part, Guide Neighbourhoods, and Empowerment Partnerships. From 2010, the Conservative Government ended all these programmes, cut support for numerous groups that served their communities, and terminated funding which resulted in the closure of over 1,000 national and local infrastructure organisations that provided crucial support to countless other groups in the sector [Note 20]. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">--<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">NOTES<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 1: Josiah Mortimer, <i>Byline Times</i>, 18 April 2023: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://bylinetimes.com/2023/04/18/hundreds-of-police-stations-have-shut-under-the-conservatives-at-a-cost-of-rising-crime/" style="color: #954f72;">https://bylinetimes.com/2023/04/18/hundreds-of-police-stations-have-shut-under-the-conservatives-at-a-cost-of-rising-crime/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 2: Crime Statistics, Ministry of Justice: Recorded crime under Labour fell from 4.6 million to 4.2 million: <a href="https://data.justice.gov.uk/cjs-statistics/cjs-crime" style="color: #954f72;">https://data.justice.gov.uk/cjs-statistics/cjs-crime</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 3: Jon Stone, 22 July 2020, <i>The Independent</i>: <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/robert-jenrick-richard-desmond-housing-tory-donor-westferry-a9631876.html" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/robert-jenrick-richard-desmond-housing-tory-donor-westferry-a9631876.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 4: National Housing Association (figures up to 2011/12): <a href="https://www.housing.org.uk/about-housing-associations/about-social-housing/#:~:text=Although%20housing%20associations%20used%20their,social%20rented%20homes%20were%20started" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.housing.org.uk/about-housing-associations/about-social-housing/#:~:text=Although%20housing%20associations%20used%20their,social%20rented%20homes%20were%20started</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 5: Shelter, 26 January 2023: <a href="https://england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_release/14000_social_homes_lost_last_year_as_over_a_million_households_sit_on_waiting_lists" style="color: #954f72;">https://england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_release/14000_social_homes_lost_last_year_as_over_a_million_households_sit_on_waiting_lists</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 6: City Harvest Charity, 20 December 2023: <a href="https://cityharvest.org.uk/blog/homelessness-uk-increased-by-74-since-2010/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIheGuxf_hgwMVXIBQBh21PAzaEAAYASAAEgIjf_D_BwE" style="color: #954f72;">https://cityharvest.org.uk/blog/homelessness-uk-increased-by-74-since-2010/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIheGuxf_hgwMVXIBQBh21PAzaEAAYASAAEgIjf_D_BwE</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 7: <i>The Lancet</i>, November 8, 2008: </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(08)61687-6/fulltext" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(08)61687-6/fulltext</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 8: Anoosh Chakelian, ‘Replacing lost Sure Start centres is a tacit admission of austerity’s failure’, <i>The New Statesman</i>, 10 February 2023: <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/thestaggers/2023/02/replacing-lost-sure-start-centres-is-a-tacit-admission-of-austeritys-failure" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.newstatesman.com/thestaggers/2023/02/replacing-lost-sure-start-centres-is-a-tacit-admission-of-austeritys-failure</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 9: Denis Campbell, <i>The Guardian</i>: 29 March 2023: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/29/satisfaction-with-the-nhs-plummets-to-lowest-level-in-40-years" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/29/satisfaction-with-the-nhs-plummets-to-lowest-level-in-40-years</a> (respondents to the survey can choose from ‘very satisfied’, ‘quite satisfied’, ‘very dissatisfied’, ‘quite dissatisfied’, and ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 10: Jon Stone, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">‘Jeremy Hunt co-authored book calling for NHS to be replaced with private insurance’, <i>The Independent</i>, 10 February 2016: <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-hunt-privatise-nhs-tories-privatising-private-insurance-market-replacement-direct-democracy-a6865306.html" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-hunt-privatise-nhs-tories-privatising-private-insurance-market-replacement-direct-democracy-a6865306.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 11: Richard Murphy, <i>Tax Research</i>, 24 June, 2021: <a href="https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2021/06/24/the-tories-have-always-borrowed-more-than-labour-and-always-repaid-less-they-are-the-party-of-big-deficit-spending/" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2021/06/24/the-tories-have-always-borrowed-more-than-labour-and-always-repaid-less-they-are-the-party-of-big-deficit-spending/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 12: Tom Coburg, <i>The Canary</i>, 15 November 2021: <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2021/11/15/the-evidence-that-shows-tory-party-corruption-is-not-only-rife-but-endemic/" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2021/11/15/the-evidence-that-shows-tory-party-corruption-is-not-only-rife-but-endemic/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 13: Seth Thevoz and Peter Geoghegan, <i>openDemocracy</i>, 5 November 2019: <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/revealed-russian-donors-have-stepped-tory-funding/" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/revealed-russian-donors-have-stepped-tory-funding/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 14: Tom Head, <i>The London Economic</i>, 3 September 2023: <a href="https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/which-schools-closed-concrete-scandal-michael-gove-rebuilding-plans-356188/" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/which-schools-closed-concrete-scandal-michael-gove-rebuilding-plans-356188/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 15: Macrotrends (UK GDP Growth Rate): <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/gdp-growth-rate" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/gdp-growth-rate</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 16: </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Office for Budget Responsibility, March 2021: <a href="https://obr.uk/box/international-comparisons-of-the-economic-impact-of-the-pandemic/" style="color: #954f72;">https://obr.uk/box/international-comparisons-of-the-economic-impact-of-the-pandemic/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 17: Veena Raleigh, The King’s Fund, 10 November 2021: <a href="https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2021/11/covid-19-uk-health-care-performance" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2021/11/covid-19-uk-health-care-performance</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 18: House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts report – ‘Local Government Finance System: Overview and Challenges’, 2 February 2022: <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/8682/documents/88208/default/#:~:text=From%202010%E2%80%9311%20to%202019,more%20by%20charging%20for%20services" style="color: #954f72;">https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/8682/documents/88208/default/#:~:text=From%202010%E2%80%9311%20to%202019,more%20by%20charging%20for%20services</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 19: John Harris, ‘One by one, England’s councils are going bankrupt – and nobody in Westminster wants to talk about it’, <i>The Guardian</i>, 14 January 2024:<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/14/englands-councils-bankrupt-westminster" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/14/englands-councils-bankrupt-westminster</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Note 20: Russell </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Hargrave, ‘More than 1,000 infrastructure charities have closed since 2010, research finds’, <i>Third Sector</i>, 3 March 2023: </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/1000-infrastructure-charities-closed-2010-research-finds/management/article/1815110" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/1000-infrastructure-charities-closed-2010-research-finds/management/article/1815110</a></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-4602171067205672042024-02-16T00:05:00.002+00:002024-02-16T00:05:00.133+00:00Advancement of Learning: 5 key phases<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">How we improve the way we learn is vital to every aspect of life. If we accept everything without question, ignorance and mistakes will never be removed. If we reject ideas arbitrarily, we are just as likely to be mired in confusion and errors. For thousands of years, it was down to the ad hoc discovery or invention of the odd individuals, in those rare moments that such new thinking was not crushed by prevailing conventions or thoughtless leaders, that human knowledge was enhanced.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">However, a momentous turning point in history came in 1605 when Francis Bacon published</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The Advancement of Learning</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">, which put forward a new systematic approach to guide how we learn. It has three notable components:</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Learning should be supported as a cooperative and objective enterprise. Everyone with relevant ideas and evidence should be allowed to contribute without undue interference from others.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Claims, ideas, beliefs etc should be subject to appropriate testing with the help of accumulating evidence, experiments, and scrutiny; and what is provisionally acceptable is revisable if warranted by further findings. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The quest for better understanding requires constant vigilance in the detection and exposure of fallacies, prejudices, deception, and dogmas. No claim can be asserted as immune from critical appraisal.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Through the 17<sup>th</sup> century, the influence of these Baconian ideas grew in relation to natural philosophy (what would come to be called the physical sciences), cumulating in the establishment of the Royal Society, whose members such as Boyle, Hooke, and Newton, demonstrated how we could get to learn more about the world through open, empirical research rather than relying on ‘sacred’ texts or ancient sages.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In the second phase in the 18<sup>th</sup> century, thinkers across Europe extended the approach to virtually every issue worthy of study – history, the laws, religion, morals, customs, society, economics, art, government – nurturing the Enlightenment ethos of learning by critical questioning, cooperative research, evidence seeking, and the presentation of new ideas not as eternal truths, but as the latest findings to guide us until/unless a more robust alternative is discovered (an approach encapsulated in the notion of a ‘fair trial’ with its emphasis on evidence, coherence and room for appeal).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In the third phase in the 19<sup>th</sup> century, utilitarian-minded reformists began to examine the institutional arrangements for carrying out this approach to learning. In all areas where questions could be raised about the acceptability of a given claim, belief or judgement, how an institution was structured and operated could determine if those questions were dealt with in the experimental cooperative manner. This drove reforms that steered institutions – law courts, universities, the legislature, public health bodies, businesses, etc. – to check for unsubstantiated assumptions and adopt procedures to facilitate the assessment of what should or should not be accepted as correct in their respective work.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In the fourth phase, which came in the first half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, there was recognition that institutional reforms themselves were limited by wider societal factors such as public policies, power inequalities, and resource availability, and government action was needed to overcome a range of barriers and threats to cooperative learning. Progressive governments discovered how important it was to safeguard learning in the face of economic turmoil, the rise of fascist and communist oppression, the outbreaks of wars – by developing stronger democratic systems to protect their citizens and enable them to decide how to improve their wellbeing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">By late 20<sup>th</sup> century, we entered the fifth phase with the growing realisation that forces inimical to cooperation were gathering strength to overturn the approach of cooperative learning. These enemies of learning used a mix of tactics – attacks on scientific expertise, defence of traditional dogmas, celebration of prejudices, spreading of lies and misinformation, promoting irrational claims, undermining learning as ‘elitist’ – to dupe people into rejecting evidence-based findings and embracing instead the deceitful agenda they offer. They were challenged by communitarians, civic republicans, and deliberative democrats, who made their case for more effective communication and education to raise our understanding and utilisation of cooperative learning. However, by early 21<sup>st</sup>century, efforts to sustain the advancement of learning are becoming overshadowed by the rallying of right-wing ‘populists’ in weaponising fallacies and lies. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Will there be a sixth phase when the culture of cooperative learning triumphs over the champions of deception? Or are we slipping down the insidious slope that returns us to the dark ages of dogmas and ignorance? It is down to us to take a stand.<o:p></o:p></span></p><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-90633798178505099292024-02-01T00:01:00.002+00:002024-02-02T12:58:03.602+00:00To Lead or Not to Lead<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Leadership, as much as love, preoccupied Shakespeare in his dramatic writings – most probably because the precarious state of Protestant England desperately needed good leadership to keep it safe from military attacks from abroad, and civil strife at home.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Interestingly, Shakespeare did not romanticise leadership as some wondrous quality of an idealised character. Instead, he drew from historical accounts of who had led well and who poorly, and developed an instructive conception of what would make a leader we should follow (and what should ring alarm bells).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Let us start with the negative things we should look out for. For Shakespeare, the key problem is character weakness – the inability to hold true to what one has good reasons to commit oneself to. Lear might have been a good leader once, but with age, he became prone to losing his temper, falling for flattery, and handing over power to those who were the last people he should trust. Othello was widely recognised as a noble and effective military leader, yet his susceptibility to jealousy opened him to easy deception by Iago, and he was all too ready to condemn Desdemona to death without checking out accusations with due attention. Macbeth was a loyal, respected warrior until obsessive ambition turned him into a usurper of the throne and murderer of children.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">More illustrations are to be found with Hamlet, whose indecisiveness over what he should do for the sake of his family and country meant all was lost in the end; with Brutus, whose naïve reluctance to deal resolutely with Caesar’s supporter, Antony, as he did with Caesar himself, resulted in his failure to save the Roman republic; and Coriolanus, whose arrogance in thinking it beneath him to seek to engage the hearts and minds of the people in securing political power led to his humiliating downfall.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">By contrast, good leadership is exemplified by a steadfastness in judging matters judiciously, forming plans with a careful understanding of what others are thinking, and executing them with resolve. Look at how Octavius was presented in <i>Julius Caesar</i> and <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i> – calmly, quietly, he plotted his course to form tactical alliances and corner enemies. Ever focused on securing the support he needed to move towards his goal, he was the master of his emotions, never the other way round. Similarly, Prince Hal showed that to be serious in becoming a good leader as he ascended the throne as Henry V, he jettisoned his youthful rowdy sentiments and committed to exercising his duties with unwavering dedication. Importantly, for both Hal and Octavius, they did not hesitate to part ways from people who were once close to them but could no longer be trusted (in the case of Falstaff and Antony respectively).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Good leadership is not just a matter for kings and emperors either. Portia is undoubtedly the most impressive character in <i>The Merchant of Venice</i> for her composure, clear thinking, and ability to take charge of the most challenging situations. Whether it was dealing with the suitors to her (and her inherited fortune), providing a haven to an eloping couple, or using her legal skills to save the life of the seemingly doomed merchant, Portia would navigate her way forward in a calm and informed manner, even as others felt there was no hope.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Under very different circumstances, Rosalind – in <i>As You Like It</i> – was banished with nothing but her wits to live on, and as she ventured into a land of strangers, swiftly took charge of every tricky situation that arose. Her ability to inspire confidence, to manage other people’s misunderstanding, and to bring about satisfactory outcomes renders her a natural leader others will follow. But lest we think it is charm and humour that hold the key, we should remember Paulina from <i>The Winter’s Tale</i>. She saw through the king’s absurd accusation against the queen, resolutely stood up for her, and guided the king through years of penance back to a possible reconciliation. Dour and firm, Paulina was another exemplar of leadership as determination informed by evidential assessment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">To lead well – Shakespeare tells us – keep in mind the concerns of others as well as those of one’s own, do not let emotions run wild, shun fears and temptations, check serious claims scrupulously, focus on the desirable outcomes, and act with clear resolve. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Prithee render these essential requirements for every politician and CEO.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-76343183474241412012024-01-16T00:05:00.004+00:002024-01-16T00:05:00.135+00:00Educating Insular Minds<style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Most people would agree that anti-social behaviour – from taunts and intimidation to exploitation and violence – should be curbed. But what can education do about it?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">One way to approach this problem is to focus on the degree of mental insularity that needs to be overcome. There is a wide spectrum of propensity for interpersonal engagement amongst the young. At one end, there are those who empathise with others, respect their concerns, are well disposed and equipped to talk things through even when there are disagreements, and seek others’ views before acting in ways that may affect them. At the other, we have those who tend not to register others’ feelings, are often oblivious to their perspectives, rigidly refuse to discuss or even listen to contrary arguments whatever the evidence, and act as they please regardless of what others may think. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The challenge for educators is to help the young develop in the direction of reducing their mental insularity and becoming more inclined and able to engage with others constructively. There are three key components to achieving this:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Empathic Thoughtfulness: moving the learners’ moral sensibility outwards through an expanding circle so they can appreciate how others might feel, and are more disposed to take the wellbeing of others into consideration.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Cognitive Thoughtfulness: developing the learners’ critical and collaborative reasoning skills so they have a better understanding of the roles of objective evidence and logical argument, and can deliberate with others in assessing what warrants belief.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Volitional Thoughtfulness: cultivating the learners’ control of impulse and lethargy so that they are disposed to act appropriately in light of the informed views of others, and avoid irresponsible choices.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">What does this entail in practice? Above all, it calls on educators to adopt techniques that can take individuals out of a state of ‘closed mindedness’ and show them the positive experiences of mutual concern, collaborative reasoning, and inclusive decision-making. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">For example, instead of celebrating only one type of ‘success’ (e.g., formal test results), young people should have the opportunities to learn about the valuable contributions each other can make. Where there has been transgression, restorative justice methods should be applied to ensure the transgressors learn from those they have hurt and change their mindset and behaviour in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">There should be lessons on how to sift through and evaluate sources of information to gauge their reliability; explanations of how objective scientific and scholarly investigations actually work; case studies of serious distortion and deception in the media; and team exercises in cooperating to find provisionally acceptable answers. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Debates, which focus on the skills to press for one claim or its opposite regardless of its overall merit, should always be supplemented by sessions that nurture abilities for conflict-resolution and consensus-building. More widely, decisions on a range of issues that affect the students in a class, their school, or the wider community, should be made through democratic engagement – which may involve elections, participatory voting, or deliberative conference.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Insular minds ignore the suffering, reasoning, and perspective of other people when these are critically relevant to how one should behave. Learning to engage with others as we need them to engage with us must be at the heart of education.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-77082528630545170422024-01-01T00:01:00.001+00:002024-01-01T00:01:00.160+00:00Premier Diversity<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">It is noticeable that people who rely on ‘information’ sources which have a not so hidden agenda of spreading negativity about immigrants, refugees, ‘non-whites’, ‘aliens’, tend to subscribe to the notion that there are ‘too many foreigners’ in the country already, and we need to stop more ‘coming in’ and making everything worse.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Some commentators – and quite a few politicians – seem to think that this means that xenophobia is so deeply rooted that it would be unwise to go against it. Instead of pointing out how people with diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds have been helping us in countless ways socially and economically, everyone is supposed to meekly nod and mutter ‘we must have fewer of <i>them</i>’.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">But are people really that xenophobic? What if, despite whatever anti-foreign diatribe is pumped out, people get to see for themselves the positive difference individuals with foreign ancestry make – week in, week out?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Welcome to the English Premier League – widely considered the most exciting, and certainly the most watched, football league in the world. A recent count puts the number of foreign players (those not eligible to play for the England national team) in this league at almost 66%. Furthermore, many of the English players in the league have parents or grandparents born outside the country. Are football fans upset with their clubs fielding so many non-white, or non-UK born players? Far from it. They are lifted by the higher quality of football on display, the greater competitiveness, and at the level of the national team, it is acknowledged that the skills and mentality of England players have been immeasurably raised by regularly training and playing alongside their impressive club teammates who have joined from abroad. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">If any politician wants to campaign to get rid of ‘foreign’ players from the Premier League, they are not going to get very far. Imagine them bemoaning these ‘aliens’ taking English jobs, when there are so many true born English folks who are unemployed or on disability benefit, and who should be trained up to take over from the likes of Haaland, Salah, and Casemiro. People love their football heroes, they adore what they bring to their teams, and they won’t put up with any disrespectful attempt to remove them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">But is this because football is uniquely immune from racist and xenophobic attitudes? Hardly. Before the 1970s, it was rare to see a black player in any of the teams in the top division. Abuse was hurled at the few black players who were selected. Pundits did not want foreigners coming in to weaken the intensity of the English game. What changed?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">When managers and clubs began to realise they would have much better teams with quality players regardless of their skin colour or country of birth, they started to recruit accordingly. As the fans witnessed the superior performance and impact, they embraced a league that had become outstanding, not in spite of, but because of its diversity – in skills, temperament, background, experience, and adaptability.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">We must not let manipulators twist the facts about immigrants and their descendants, but ensure the good work and added value brought by people of diverse backgrounds are widely known. As in football, in every field of human endeavour, we are much better off when we welcome what others can contribute, rather than trying to exclude them out of sheer prejudice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-50163154504446356972023-12-16T00:02:00.001+00:002023-12-16T00:02:00.135+00:00Communities: the way we could be<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Some people idealise past communities as what must have been the embodiment of a wonderful time – stable, calm, guided by reassuring traditions. Others dread the talk of ‘community’ because they find in so many communal/neighbourhood settings signs of prejudice, discrimination, and oppressive hierarchies.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The truth is that communities have the potential for mutually supportive relationships and a positive sense of belonging which embraces diversity. However, that potential can only be realised if inclusive and cooperative relations are backed by the prevailing culture, rules and institutional practices. Otherwise, there is always a danger that marginalisation and exploitation could become the norm in a closed-off structure.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">When politicians sing the praises of communities, we should go beyond the rhetoric to see if they are championing communities that are realising their social potential through collaborative working, or they are actually promoting the idea that communities riven by divisions should be left alone to deal with their own problems.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The latter type of politician, out of cynicism or naivety, will tell us that the more is left to communities to sort out for themselves, the better it would be for all concerned. Public expenditure can be reduced, taxes cut, and people will learn to rely on themselves. In practice, the more communities are deprived of wider political and economic support, the less likely they can ever escape from poverty, poor health, and their generally unenviable quality of life. The mantra of pulling oneself by one’s bootstraps rings hollow to those who are having to walk barefoot down a stony path.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">No one wishes to deny that communities can do a lot for themselves, but ultimately whether that is enough to lift them towards a better future is connected to the type of partnership arrangements they enter into with public bodies as well as among themselves. This does not mean that there should be large-scale programmes set up in communities with centrally directed funding, targets, and intensive monitoring. Instead, what the accumulating evidence of successful community-based transformation around the world tells us is that real partnership has to be built on the sharing of trust, information, and power.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">With public investment and the proper statutory framework, community organisations have been able to develop community land trusts to provide genuinely affordable housing, set up anchor facilities to meet local needs, and run community enterprises that generate income to help pursue neighbourhoods’ priorities. Mutual support schemes such as time banking thrive when they are financially backed rather than left to their own devices with no public funding. Regeneration programmes deliver more cost-effective outcomes and higher satisfaction when public agencies ensure they are shaped by the informed input and continuous feedback from the communities concerned.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">It is now widely known that suspicion and misunderstanding that so often undermine partnership working between government bodies and community groups can be significantly reduced through the use of inclusive dialogue techniques, responsive engagement processes, and shared objective-setting. Community learning, backed by trained facilitators, can help people explore the real causes of the problems they face, and work together in formulating viable solutions. And trust can be built by replacing rigid target-setting and inflexible monitoring with adaptive planning processes and responsive evaluation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Whatever the sceptics out there may think, the facts speak for themselves. State-community co-production, guided by the aforementioned collaborative approaches, has led to a wide range of improvements such as: higher levels of both actual and perceived community safety; the development of multi-stakeholder cooperative models in the health and social care sector that result in better care and greater affordability; more effective outcomes and enhanced dignity in tackling food insecurity; and sustained progress in dealing with environmental challenges relating to energy, transport and air quality.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Communities should be encouraged to do what they can to improve their quality of life. But how much they <i>can</i> actually do is inseparable from the political choices that are made. Political leaders who want to work with communities as partners and are prepared to listen as well as propose when it comes to solving problems, will find that their joint endeavours have a much better chance of bringing about the kind of transformative changes informed citizens seek. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">--<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; text-indent: -36pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; text-indent: -36pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Find out more from: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/tomorrows-communities" style="color: #954f72;">Tomorrow’s Communities: lessons for community-based transformation in the age of global crises</a> </span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(Policy Press, 2021)</span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-8049086556513301702023-12-01T00:05:00.001+00:002023-12-01T00:05:00.143+00:00Con Politics & the Hate Parade<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Con politics is a mutated form of conservatism.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Conservative thinking is generally cautious about big societal changes, and tends to oppose them unless most people have in time come to see that the changes are actually quite harmless, or indeed beneficial for society. Con politics, on the other hand, pushes without hesitation for big societal changes whenever these are likely to strengthen further the self-centred clique of powerful people who steer it – even if that would be harmful for others in society.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The changes Con politics implacably opposes are those that could diminish its proponents’ wealth, status, or ability to keep taking unfair advantage of others – in such cases, it does not matter if most people are persuaded that the changes are necessary to reduce the suffering of those who have endured much pain and mistreatment, or there is mounting evidence that they will help improve life in general, Con politics would vilify such changes as utterly unacceptable. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">To win votes, and avoid being exposed as callously self-serving, Con politics rallies support by weaponising hate against two types of target: the vulnerable scapegoats and the ‘do-gooder’ enemies.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Top of the list for scapegoats are immigrants and refugees, who will be routinely mentioned with the prefix ‘illegal’. The substantial contributions they can make to the economy must be ignored, instead they should be prevented from getting any paid work, and then blamed for being a drain on public resources. Resentment against ‘foreigners’ (even if their families have lived here for generations) and their ‘alien’ customs is to be stoked. Absurd schemes to deter people coming from abroad (except for the wealthy ones who are likely to donate to Con politics) should be concocted to keep them out, lock them up, or fly them away to far off land.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Next on the scapegoats list are people on low pay or unable to get a job, and have to resort to claiming benefits to make ends meet. They are to be indignantly denounced as ‘cheats’ and ‘scroungers’. Anyone denied decent pay is to be branded as ‘lazy’, the homeless are to be told they have only themselves to blame, and those who cannot work because of their illness or disability are to be slammed for lying about their condition and have all support withdrawn if they do not get out of their sick bed or wheelchair and start looking for work.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">More scapegoats are to be found amongst those who live a ‘non-traditional’ way of life – women who want to have opportunities truly equal to those available to men, homosexual couples who want to get married, anyone not conforming to ‘conventional’ notions of gender and sexuality, etc – they are all reviled for violating precious principles and long revered customs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Along with the scapegoats, Con politics targets the ‘do-gooders’ who dare to press for changes that will help the disadvantaged, and promote reforms that will alter power structures and prevailing practices to improve life for people in general. Trade unions that champion the workers’ cause, politicians who seek to bring in progressive policies, campaigners for the rights of those who are discriminated against, advocates for curbing corporate greed to protect the planet, lawyers who challenge oppressive measures, international organisations that uphold standards of fairness and decency – they are all presented as despicable enemies who should be loathed as dangerous radicals and shut out with perpetual disdain.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Why so much hate? Well, since sympathy with the plight of those who have the toughest struggle might lead to support for giving them help, Con politics wants to turn them into hated scapegoats that few will want to assist with public resources. As for the ‘do-gooders’, if people would listen calmly to their reasons and evidence, they might end up siding with them and their reform ideas. But manipulate people into hating them, that would ensure the case they make – however sound – would be rejected without even getting a hearing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">No wonder the rallying of Con politics is basically one long hate parade.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-18051713484256481702023-11-16T00:08:00.001+00:002023-11-16T00:08:00.172+00:00Citizen Democracy: what’s in a name?<style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">For many people democracy is just about asking a defined group to choose from a number of options, and the option with the most votes would be selected for implementation. But if we remind ourselves that the purpose of democracy is to share power equitably so that those affected by an important decision can influence that decision, then it is clear that the conditions under which the process of identifying and selecting options is carried out matter greatly.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">‘Citizen Democracy’ is the name for any power structure which meets the conditions needed for democratic influence to be distributed and exercised properly. These conditions are:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Shared Civic Commitments: without such commitments, people choosing purely on selfish, tribal, sectarian basis would lead to social and political fragmentation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Mutual Respect: without safeguards against stigmatisation and discrimination, some would be held back from effective participation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Engagement Capability: without the capability of understanding the issues, the options put forward, or how to make one’s views count, one would not be able to engage meaningfully.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Reliable Information: without reliable sources, exposures of false/misleading information, or deliberative processes to resolve conflicting views, one would lack an objective basis to decide.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Equal Participatory Opportunity: without support for equal participation, votes may not count equally in different areas, barriers could be erected against disadvantaged groups, while much greater influence could be handed to those with superior wealth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Public Accountability: without robust accountability arrangements, irresponsible leaders could use corruption, intimidation, and secrecy to go against what people want to happen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Although many developed countries not under authoritarian rule would describe themselves as ‘democratic’, what they have is a multi-party electoral system, which to varying degrees fall short on many of the six conditions outlined above. When critics complain that democracy can lead to undesirable outcomes, what they are bemoaning is a system which endorses certain political outcomes that go against the interests of the people, because it is not a functioning citizen democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">If we want the proto-democratic arrangements that are in place to be developed into a system of citizen democracy that truly leads from people’s thought-through concerns to the most supported public policy outcomes, then we must press for substantial improvements in <i>education, regulation,</i>and <i>organisation</i> to get us much closer to fulfilling the six conditions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Education needs to do much more to raise critical understanding of, not just political institutions and processes, but how to assess sources of information, deliberate in collective enquiries, navigate the language and procedures of public bodies, and engage in policy development.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Regulation’s priorities would include removing iniquitous barriers that hinder disadvantaged groups from voting, curtailing the influence of wealthy donors, eliminating unfair advantages set up by partisan legislatures, restricting the spreading of malicious misinformation, and penalising those who abuse the power of their office.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Organisational improvements are required in terms of training in inclusive engagement for those in public office, provision of suitable participatory options, support for community development and partnership working, rooting out discrimination, and cultivating shared objectives.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Citizen democracy does not presume all decisions should be made via direct, representative, or deliberative democratic arrangements. It does not set down what kind of majoritarian threshold is to be applied in all cases. What it demands is that power structures affecting people’s lives should enable people to influence in a fair and meaningful way how the power in question is assigned and exercised.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">--</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">‘Citizen democracy’ has also be termed ‘civic-communitarian democracy’ or ‘communitarian democracy’. For example, see <i><a href="https://policypress.co.uk/time-to-save-democracy">Time to Save Democracy</a></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-53621187343650937822023-11-01T00:07:00.000+00:002023-11-01T00:07:00.142+00:00Pathways to Human Connections<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">History has taught us that only through learning to cooperate do human beings get to improve the chances of their attaining a better quality of life together. It is vital we explore and adapt different forms of structures, rules, customs, and so on, in order to discover what kind of social, economic, and political connections would help us meet the challenges we face more effectively than if we were left to our own devices.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In her book, <i>Journey to Hopeful Futures</i>, Helena Kettleborough sets out a series of pathways to take people forward in developing those connections that would displace despair by hope. It is an impressive and wide-ranging work that brings together reflections on diverse cultures, examples that illustrate a variety of ways to thinking through complex issues, and exposition of an array of techniques that should be applied to personal and group learning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">At one level, this exemplary handbook introduces readers to the many forms of learning that are vital for better connections to be built, and mutual understanding to be enriched. It provides a most accessible guide for anyone interested in finding out more about the significance and utilisation of value-based learning; inter-disciplinary learning; orientation towards problem-solving; participatory engagement; lifelong learning; and action research. Instructively, it treats them, not in silos, but as interwoven strands of a holistic approach – well illustrated (in chapters 7 and 12) by </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">the approach of North West Together We Can, where Kettleborough worked in the 2000s.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">At a deeper level, <i>Journey to Hopeful Futures</i> articulates an outlook which is rooted in what may be termed a naturalistic notion of spirituality. For people with whom such a notion resonates, the book acts as a companion in exploring the emotionally charged steps that may be taken towards that spiritual worldview. They would find references that range from the tiniest creatures on earth to the cosmic vastness, from personal experiences to cultural memories, illuminating in helping them see everything in the ‘Sacred Earth and Cosmos’ as connected in a spiritually meaningful way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">However, it should be pointed out that ‘spirituality’ may not always work well as a unifying notion. Some people’ spiritual experience is framed in terms of their relationship with a sentient omnipotent being who cares only for humans (or in some cases, only the ‘chosen ones’). Some people care for others but see that as a matter of being true to their human nature, and not related to anything beyond interpersonal relations. Some people can be persuaded to cooperate through enlightened self-interest but not out of deference to some cosmic ideal. Some people support biodiversity but would not worry too much if disease-carrying mosquitoes were about to become extinct. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Kettleborough recognises that not everyone relates to a spiritual worldview, and her book encourages readers to create their own journey through exploring creative learning exercises, ongoing individual reflection, and tapping into other resources that are signposted. Importantly, the book’s exposition of participatory learning in its diverse forms shows how people with different worldviews can work together even if they persist with holding onto their own worldviews. People do not have to have a spiritual sense of awe and wonder about the world in order to engage in forms of learning that enable participants to raise their shared understanding and assessment of what can be reliably believed and acted on. With the help of <i>Journey to Hopeful Futures</i>, they will discover much more about how they can in cooperation with others better tackle issues such as the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, and multiple social challenges<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">It is empirically established that cooperative learning is more dependable than any other approach in problem-solving. And whatever worldviews people hold, they can adopt this approach to learning. Of course, there may well be people who, irrespective of the evidence, insist on invoking groundless assumptions and arguing arbitrarily, but where that is the case, rather than trying to appeal to their sense of spirituality, the focus should be on learning what can be effectively appealed to for them to recognise the need to engage in cooperative problem-solving.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">--<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">To find out more about <i>Journey to Hopeful Futures: a handbook</i>, by Helena Kettleborough, (Centre for Connected Practice, 2023), go to: </span><a href="https://c4cp.net/blog/project/journey-to-hopeful-futures-a-handbook/" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">https://c4cp.net/blog/project/journey-to-hopeful-futures-a-handbook/</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">More on </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">cooperative learning and participatory engagement can be found in ‘Lessons for Tomorrow’s Communities’: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://henry-tam.blogspot.com/2021/07/lessons-for-tomorrows-communities.html" style="color: #954f72;">https://henry-tam.blogspot.com/2021/07/lessons-for-tomorrows-communities.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-82088686484631715992023-10-16T00:01:00.002+01:002023-10-16T00:01:00.144+01:00Tomorrow’s Communities: renewing our democratic infrastructure<style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Our democratic infrastructure comprises the cultures, rules, systems, and practices that facilitate collective deliberations and cooperative problem-solving across society. It involves far more than electoral arrangements, and covers opportunities to engage, learning, communications, adjudication, support, and enforcement that can impact on people’s ability and disposition to engage with others on an informed basis to shape outcomes that affect their wellbeing.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Politicians who rely on the support of plutocrats and fundamentalists have increasingly sought to weaken our democratic infrastructure – propagating lies, ensuring the wealthy dominate elections with their campaign donations, widening power inequalities, spreading malicious conspiracy theories, raising barriers to voting by the poor and disadvantaged, cutting support for inclusive community action, undermining political education, adopting authoritarian practices. This has helped them blocked many policies which are needed to deal with numerous pressing social, environmental, and economic problems. If these regressive tactics are to be overcome, reformists should recognise that our democratic infrastructure must be renewed and sufficiently strengthened so that people can engage effectively in formulating the collective actions needed for their wellbeing, and pressing for their implementation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">What would such renewal entail? For the group of writers behind the book, <i>Tomorrow’s Communities</i>, and many others who share our outlook, the elements that are integral to any robust democratic infrastructure – participatory decision-making, collaborative learning, openness, power sharing, safeguards against deception and intimidation, mutual support, processes for transparency and objectivity, state-citizen partnership – constitute a holistic set that should be advanced together. These elements should not be treated in silos as subsidiary issues, but developed as inter-connected components of a top priority reform programme.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The effectiveness of any democratic infrastructure is to be judged on how well it supports informed, sustained, cooperative interactions. Such interactions have been found to be most conducive to mutual improvement in human communities – as confirmed by anthropological studies, game theory experiments, examinations of cultural convergence on the golden rule of reciprocal behaviour, findings from developmental psychology, and projections of evolutionary adaptations. We have also learnt from outcomes in diverse fields that success is generally dependent on three conditions: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Mutual responsibility – whereby people appreciate that they need to give respect and support for others as they want respect and support from others, and recognise the pursuit of their common wellbeing can help avoid divisive dispositions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Cooperative enquiry – whereby people can rely on </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">objective exploration of claims through transparent processes of collaborative exchange and learning, structured adjudication with built-in capacity for re-examination, and protection from manipulative distortion and malicious rumours.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Citizen participation – whereby people can give informed and meaningful input into shaping decisions that affect them, and are assured that their influence is safeguarded by arrangements that uphold accountability, counter corruption, and curtail power inequalities.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In order to bring about these conditions for robust democratic infrastructure, we need to engage in a programme of continuous improvement that gives ongoing support to and removes barriers from their development in education, media management, science and research, democratic institutions, law and order, public service provision, and community action. In each case, the challenge is to promote better understanding and relationships, facilitate objective and critical learning, and ensure that everyone – especially the marginalised and vulnerable – can influence how decisions affecting them are made.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The approaches that can help advance the development across the different policy areas are set out by the contributors to the following books: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/tomorrows-communities">Tomorrow’s Communities</a></span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> – what lessons should be learnt from democratic collaboration that has brought about effective community-based transformation.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/whose-government-is-it">Whose Government is it?</a></span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> – why and how cooperative relationships between citizens and state organisations are to be renewed to improve our common wellbeing.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/whos-afraid-of-political-education">Who’s Afraid of Political Education</a></span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> – what kind of learning is needed to raise civic competences and the level of democratic participation.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/time-to-save-democracy">Time to Save Democracy</a></span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> – why we need to reinvigorate democratic culture and practices, and what changes should be implemented in nine key areas of socio-political development.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">There are other works that provide more evidence and guidance as to the kind of policies and arrangements that should be brought in to improve our collective capability for solving the most pressing and difficult problems we face. For too long, community initiatives, collaborative learning, participatory decision-making, and other related practices have been seen as adjuncts to the ‘key’ political commitments, when in fact the democratic infrastructure they connect together is the indispensable foundation of all societal problem-solving. It is time we recognise them as a cohesive set of developmental ideas that should be implemented for the sake of Tomorrow’s Communities.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">--</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">From now until 31 October 2023, Henry Tam’s <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/henry-tam" style="color: #954f72;">democracy-related books</a> will be<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14pt;">available at 50% discount when purchased </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">directly from <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/henry-tam" style="color: #954f72;">Policy Press</a></span></b><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14pt;"> using the code TAM50.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-7624931853996125602023-10-01T00:02:00.002+01:002023-10-01T00:02:00.144+01:00Battling Disempowerment: a 9-point plan <p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Here’s a question: why is it that whenever people are given the opportunity to discuss in an informed and reasonable manner what should be done about the most serious problems around, they reach agreement about policies to tackle poverty and the widening wealth gaps, pollution and the climate crisis, crimes against vulnerable people, the underfunding of public services, the lack of sustainable economic development, etc., and yet so often the politicians who are opposed to such policies nonetheless win power?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The answer lies with the insidious move of systemic disempowerment – eroding safeguards that are needed to enable people to back the politicians and policies meriting their support in light of the evidence.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Disempowerment tactics are increasingly deployed – from </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Republican state legislatures in the US to and the Conservative government in the UK, they have included raising barriers to voting by the poor and disadvantaged with the quite unnecessary photo ID requirement; devious redrawing of constituency boundaries; helping the wealthy dominate elections with their campaign donations; issuing partisan edicts on what should and should not be taught in schools about political issues; cutting support for social inclusion; defending the propagation of lies and misinformation; stopping charities from expressing views about public policies; and interfering with the supervision of elections.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Yet even politicians who value democracy are prone to say that there are more urgent issues to deal with than tackling anti-democratic disempowerment. What they forget is that to get the public backing they need to address those very issues, they need democracy to function well. Otherwise, they may not win power, or can only do so with watered-down policies to satisfy a misled public. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Set out below are nine groups of initiatives that should feature prominently in any political programme concerned with strengthening democracy against the ploy of disempowerment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[1] Invest in Community Development:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Invest in the provision of tried and tested forms of community development, including community organising and community mediation, to help people overcome divisions, experience the benefits of collaboration, and develop a shared sense of common interests.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[2] Root out Discrimination:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Discriminatory activities have been emboldened by the toxic rhetoric of anti-political correctness and anti-woke, and a firm stand against these activities must be taken and clearly explained in terms of fair treatment for all, backed by transparent rules and dependable enforcement.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[3] Clarify Civic Responsibility:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The right to take part in democratic processes has been mired in confusion – with different criteria for eligibility in different cases. In addition to determining what the justifiable exclusionary factors are, citizens should be made aware of their responsibilities in taking part.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[4] Support Learning in Democracy:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">All educational bodies should facilitate learning in democracy – both in terms of inculcating open, deliberative learning, and increasing knowledge of public policy issues and the operations of government. Teachers should recognise that impartiality does not entail rejection of the most up-to-date consensus findings.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[5] Reinforce Objective Investigation:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Countering the attempts to undermine scientific expertise, professional assessment, and judicial impartiality, there should be formal support and protection for arrangements that secure objectivity and independent scrutiny in all major processes for determining the acceptability of claims.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[6] Regulate Irresponsible Communication:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Akin to the prohibition against communicating false or misleading information in commercial transactions, expression that can incite criminal behaviour, and sensitive materials that can harm a country’s security, regulatory restraints should be applied to irresponsible communications that affect public behaviour.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[7] Extend Participatory Decision-Making:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In line with subsidiarity and deliberative engagement, more support and opportunities for participatory decision-making should be provided for citizens to be involved in a wider range of public decisions. On-going dialogues should be developed to sustain collaborative relationships.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[8] Curtail Civic Disparity:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The power of the wealthy to help win votes for their favoured outcomes should be reduced by tighter limits being set and enforced, and the electoral marginalisation of the poor by their economic insecurity should be countered by a civic guarantee (of basic income and decent public services) to enable them to participate in democratic activities.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[9] Fortify Public Accountability: <o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The processes for electing people to public office must be protected from party political interference, and institutions tasked with overseeing their rules and operations must be free from appointments dependent on party political backing. Those in office should be accountable to independent bodies following an election.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Disempowerment works by depriving as many people as possible of the understanding needed to back the appropriate politicians and policies, and reducing the likelihood of the rest in exerting sufficient influence over elections or key decisions. The 9-point plan set out above draws attention to the key initiatives that should be developed to counter its pernicious effects.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">--<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">For a detailed exposition of why and how we should respond to the threats against democracy, see <i><a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/time-to-save-democracy" style="color: #954f72;">Time to Save Democracy</a></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">From now until 31 October 2023, Henry Tam’s <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/henry-tam" style="color: #954f72;">democracy-related books</a> will be<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14pt;">available at 50% discount when purchased </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">directly from <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/henry-tam" style="color: #954f72;">Policy Press</a></span></b><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14pt;"> using the code TAM50.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-3983957331057840352023-09-16T01:10:00.001+01:002023-09-17T18:17:04.909+01:00Fiddlers on the Hoof: Con Politics Explained<p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In the 2010s, UKIP pulled Con politics in the UK further and further to the right. From 2016, Trump dragged Con politics in the US in a similar direction. Then Conservative parties across Europe and other parts of the world began to move too, away from declaring adamantly that they would refuse to join forces with far-right politicians, to being ready to form coalition governments with them. Why has this been happening? Is there some special kind of politics that is emerging?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The answer is this: strategically, no; tactically, yes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Con politics is still in essence the same old quest to preserve (and wherever possible, enhance) the powers and privileges of the dominant few. But tactically, it won’t rely on one grand narrative about how things should be (as in the glorious old days), instead its focus is to attack opportunistically any positive thing which might bring about a better society for everyone. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Con politics is driven by a self-obsessed elite who despise the idea that power inequalities should be narrowed. Their self-esteem is founded on looking down on the multitude who, in comparison with them, are hopelessly poor and vulnerable. They couldn’t enjoy being at the top of the pyramid if there weren’t so many stuck at the bottom of the hierarchy. For them, the worst enemies are ‘do-gooders’ (democratic, liberal-minded, progressive, caring) who try to bring in reforms that would make society better for all. These ‘do-gooders’ would keep seeking to improve the quality of life for everyone, prioritising those whose circumstances need improving most. And that threatens to undermine the vision of our modern-day pharaohs who just want to denounce the ‘do-gooders’ and quash their attempts at reform.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">So the Con merchants seize any opportunity there is to turn people against what is actually good for them:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman"; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Brexit: being a member of the European Union is good for the UK economically, environmentally, and on every other measure; but leaving the EU offered a chance to stir up chaos and lower standards, so Brexit they backed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman"; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Net Zero scepticism: despite the near universal scientific consensus on what urgently needs to be done to tackle the accelerating climate change problems, Con politics chooses to exploit any reservation about proposed actions to put a brake on their adoption, and allow damages to worsen for people who could do nothing on their own to avoid the dire consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman"; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Xenophobia: welcoming migrants and refugees has always helped to build more open-mined and productive societies; whereas turning people (especially those disadvantaged by the reigning plutocracy) against those demonised as ‘foreigners’ would help to divert frustration and anger towards fictitious enemies.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman"; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Austerity: investing in public services would help everyone and revive the economy; but the Con line is to do the reverse, and keep cutting public services so that those with the least end up getting even less, and become even more at the mercy of those with the most.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman"; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Anti-Woke: showing kindness and understanding to others is a core measure of the civilised mindset; but the Con attacks it as ‘woke’, and promotes thoughtless animosity to facilitate the old ‘divide and rule’ trick.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; 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</style></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Look around us, if there is any opportunity popping up for Con politics to slyly shift people from embracing sound policies to backing moves that would benefit the powerful few at the expense of the wider public, the fiddlers on the hoof will soon have another announcement to make.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">--</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">From now until 31 October 2023, Henry Tam’s <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/henry-tam" style="color: #954f72;">democracy-related books</a> will be<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">available at 50% discount when purchased </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">directly from <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/henry-tam" style="color: #954f72;">Policy Press</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> using the code TAM50.</span></b><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-32039674827723527692023-09-01T00:02:00.001+01:002023-09-01T00:02:00.141+01:00Counter-Enlightenment, Anti-Woke<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The ‘Anti-Woke’ bandwagon has been picking up speed in stirring up anger and resentment against ideas that annoy reactionaries. Exposing prejudices, follies, exploitation has always irritated manipulators who fear that the more others know about what they are really up to, the less they could continue to take advantage of them. To retain their oppressive power and sense of superiority, they resort to weapons of mass deception.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In so doing, they are carrying forward the dishonourable tradition of the Counter-Enlightenment, which emerged to attack the thinkers who from late 17<sup>th</sup> through the rest of the 18<sup>th</sup> century, explained why better ways of understanding the world and improving people’s lives could be attained through empirical investigation, objective reasoning, and cooperative deliberations. They argued that knowledge could be more reliably advanced through scientific research than tying it to the teachings of priests and theologians; women should be given the same opportunities as men; no one should be treated as a slave; punishment should fit the crime; the power to rule should be shared more widely. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">These and many other ideas characterised the enlightening outlook that became increasingly influential. By late 18<sup>th</sup> and early 19<sup>th</sup> century, they had provoked reactions that came to be known as the Counter-Enlightenment. People who had their self-importance wrapped up in the status quo detested attempts to get people to see more clearly what was going on around them. These reactionaries championed darkness over light. Their impact spread through the 19<sup>th</sup> century. Church leaders must be heeded over scientific findings. Darwin’s theory of natural selection was condemned and many schools were forbidden from teaching it. Calls for equality for women and men were mockingly rejected. In the US, the southern states fought a war when they thought they might not otherwise be able to retain their system of slavery indefinitely. In France, antisemitism rose to new heights as reactionaries rallied to back the false charge and wrongful imprisonment of the Jewish army officer, Captain Dreyfus. Harsh punishment for the poor was trumpeted alongside leniency for the rich. Attempts to extend the right to vote were repeatedly blocked.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">By the 20<sup>th</sup> century, these Counter-Enlightenment tendencies were hardening into fascism, religious fundamentalism, white supremacism, irrationalism, and misogynist politics. As the 21<sup>st</sup> century dawned, theocratic politics, anti-science in relation to the environment and public health, defence of institutional racism, and anti-international cooperation, were added to the mix. Peel away the ‘Anti-Woke’ label, it is this pernicious cocktail that is being served up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">It is understandable that when one’s journey to visit a sick relative is held up for hours by protestors against fossil fuels on the motorway, or when one is criticised for reading to one’s child an innocuous story by an author who decades ago made an insensitive remark, one might be drawn to the rhetoric of the Anti-Woke brigade. But it is quite a different matter to give one’s political support to scoundrels who are determined to keep the public from realising that their agenda is to advance their own selfish interests at the expense of everyone else’s wellbeing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-11711176817446769932023-08-16T00:05:00.013+01:002023-08-16T00:05:00.143+01:00The Theft of Political Clothes<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">From time to time, we hear one political party fretting about another party stealing their clothes. If people want their ideas and policies adopted, isn’t it a good thing that even their opponents are coming round to promoting them? On the surface, that might seem so. But more often than not, such ‘borrowing’ of ideas is not to be welcome at all. Here are four reasons to be wary.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">First of all, the sheer incompetence of the other side can give any policy they adopt a bad name and end up discrediting it completely. After thirteen years of mismanaging public services, failing to build desperately needed homes despite repeated announcements of new initiatives, mishandling everything from the economy to policing, it is understandable that a Tory government picking up a new policy may well be followed by the most muddled, disorganised execution of that policy, creating the impression that the policy itself is inherently undeliverable. The Tory policy commitment to Net Zero is a prime example.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, when it comes to policies with major funding implications, one has to watch for the half-hearted mimics. One party may want to close the funding gap for the health service, or provide what is necessary to reduce flooding. But the other side could come out to say that they are tackling the funding shortfalls in headline terms, when in fact they are not making available even half of what is actually needed, then the public – hearing figures about so many millions, or billions being added to current budgets – might think the financial challenge is met, and come to believe that one must not “throw any more money at the problem”.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Thirdly, we have the time-wasting tokenistic gesture of adopting a well thought out policy so that the party which had formulated that policy is not viewed by voters as the one with a distinctly good offer. In reality, once people no longer associate that policy with the party that sincerely seeks to implement it, the copycat brigade would put it on the backburner, or hand it to a small team with neither the staffing nor financial support for its development. The policy will never see the light of day, and many would have forgotten whose idea it was anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Last but not least, there is the tactic of cynical undermining. This works by one party welcoming a policy idea which it does not want those who devised it to get a chance to secure its implementation. Having ‘adopted’ the policy, the manipulators would proceed to give it ‘special attention’ – by setting up a commission, a review team, etc. to determine how it should be taken forward. After months and years, lots of obstacles would be identified, and recommendations would be drafted and then discarded. The process would eventually achieve its aim of associating that policy with numerous insurmountable problems.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Next time we hear progressive reformists complaining about reactionary parties stealing their clothes, we should not blame them. Rather, we ought to help raise awareness about the lack of honour amongst those thieves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-50358327237325906572023-08-01T00:05:00.005+01:002023-08-01T00:05:00.152+01:00Crimes Against Democracy<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Since 2010, democracy in the UK has suffered from numerous attempts by Conservative-led governments to undermine it. In 2014, the method for electoral registration was changed despite warnings that it would cause hundreds of thousands of potential voters – especially youngsters and those in poor, transient households – to drop off the register. That was exactly what happened. To put off even more people from getting electorally involved, the Conservatives brought in the Elections Act 2022 which required photo identification for anyone wanting to vote in person, knowing that young people and those on lower income are less likely to have a passport or driving licence.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The 2022 Act also put an end to the Electoral Commission’s independent status that had hitherto enabled it to challenge the government. Henceforth, the commission would be placed under the supervision of a government minister. It’s unlikely that it would in future publicly castigate a Tory government for breaching electoral funding rules as it had done in the past.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">All this and more have been taking place with no major public outcry – not because people are content to have their democratic influence diminished, but because they are not aware of what is being done and what impact it could have. If only people had generally acquired an early interest and understanding in how politics works, gone on to listen out for what implications various policy proposals might have, and followed through to use their vote to steer power towards where it would make the most positive difference.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">For that to happen, we need extensive, high quality political education. What we get from the Conservative government, however, is guidance to schools instructing them to refrain from teaching anything which could be regarded as breaching ‘political impartiality’. And is political impartiality to be determined by an independent body guided by non-partisan experts? No, what is or is not an issue that is too ‘contested’ to teach is to be judged by the Conservative Secretary of State for Education, advised by advisors aligned with the interest of the Conservative Party.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Climate change apparently can be talked about at school, but not the ideas concerning what could be done about it, since that might involve policy suggestions that the government would contest. Similarly, race inequality can be mentioned, but not ideas about what are the causes and what might remedy it, since that might also involve explanations the government would contest. In short, anything the government does not agree with, and thus is inclined to contest as mistaken would be classified as unsuitable to teach at school. Political education would then be reduced to passing on information that the government is happy to endorse, but it would be cut off at any point it raises awareness of any fact, arrangement or practice that the government prefers to keep opaque. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">But isn’t it impossible to teach politics without getting tangled up with party politics? On this, there are two important points to note. First, scientists, engineers, doctors, economists, historians, etc all develop expertise in their fields and pass on their findings and criticisms to others who seek to learn from them – regardless of whether or not the government of the day find it inconvenient to hear those ideas and thus wish to contest them. Secondly, apart from facts and analyses relating directly to political processes, there are many skills that political education would inculcate – critical reasoning, assessing the reliability of claims made on different media platforms, conflict resolution, consensus building, fact checking, group development, empathic listening, etc. Some politicians may be against the teaching of such skills – as that would make it so much more difficult to deceive and manipulate people – but anyone who cares about democracy would welcome their cultivation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">--<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">You can find out more about the reforms needed to strengthen democracy in <i>Time to Save Democracy </i>(by Henry Tam): </span><a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/time-to-save-democracy" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/time-to-save-democracy</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">For more on why and how we should provide more effective political education, see this collection - <i>Who’s Afraid of Political Education</i> (ed. by Henry Tam): </span><a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/whos-afraid-of-political-education" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/whos-afraid-of-political-education</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[this is a shortened version of an article I wrote for Policy Press’ <i>Transforming Society</i>]<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-17477135336729369422023-07-16T00:01:00.001+01:002023-07-16T00:01:00.135+01:00Čapek’s Empathy Test <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">2023 marks the centenary of the first staging of Karel Čapek</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">’s revolutionary play, <i>R.U.R.</i> in England – at the St. Martin’s Theatre, West End.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">‘R.U.R.’ stands for ‘Rossum’s Universal Robots’, and the play (originally written in 1920) was about a company by the name of Rossum making human-like robots (what are more commonly called ‘androids’ these days) to carry out laborious work all over the world (wherever there are buyers for their service), and discovering later that the robots would come to think for themselves and decide to eliminate humankind to secure their own freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Čapek’s play is both an allegorical indictment of how the rich and powerful in society treat those forced to do the most unrewarding work, and a call to find empathy with others regardless of how we have been conditioned to perceive them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Pioneering the sci-fi device of representing the downtrodden as human-like robots, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Čapek warned us about the consequence of callous disregard of those who we command to work for us, and urged us to embrace them as our equals before it’s too late. He thus set the ultimate test for humanity – our capacity for empathy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In Čapek’s footsteps, others have continued to develop his Empathy Test in a variety of ways. Philip K. Dick, in his novel, <i>Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep</i>, gave us androids rebelling against their masters only to be hunted down mercilessly (the androids were made by an organisation called ‘Rosen’, a likely echo of ‘Rossum’). In the film adaptation – <i>Blade Runner</i> – the legitimacy of the culling of the androids (renamed ‘replicants’) was not only questioned, but where humanity truly resided became a focal concern.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">These issues were further elaborated in three outstanding TV sci-fi series (in the 2000s and 2010s): the reimagined </span><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Battlestar Galactica</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">, with the Cylons waging an apocalyptic war against their human creators, who were so blinded by their hatred for their ‘non-human’ enemies, they could not recognise their own role in sowing the seeds of disaster; <i>Humans</i> (adapted from a Swedish drama), with the Synths gaining self-awareness and not wanting to be treated as servile entities, but the human establishment viewing them exclusively as a problem to be eradicated; and <i>Westworld</i>, with the Hosts rejecting the roles assigned to them, and the humans reacting with the utmost resolve to terminate such insubordination.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Weaving through the plots are recurring themes about what it is to be human, whose dignity we must respect, how can we appreciate the feelings of others if we assume they have none, why everyone should be given a chance to lead a meaningful life without having to carry out work they are forced to do to survive.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Čapek raised these vital questions a century ago. Some may think that with robotics and AI technology advancing faster than ever, it is now particularly urgent to come up with answers. But for Čapek and those of us who appreciate his central ideas, the need for answers became urgent when – way back in the 1900s – modern industrialism gave the business elite the power to turn workers everywhere into robot-like beings – workers left with no time to think for themselves, having to do what they are ordered to do without question, using up their time and energy for little in return, and viewed disdainfully as dispensable parts of the corporate machinery.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">None of us wants to be treated like that. All of us will at some point declare – enough is enough. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">--<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[Note: Čapek wanted to coin a term to refer to the human-like beings made by the company in his play, and he credited his brother for coming up with a Czech word that literally meant ‘forced labour’ – ‘roboti’. Thus the term ‘robot’ as we understand it today enter the English language, and the nightmare of mismanaging the technology of robotics began.]<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-28058658914138830712023-07-01T00:02:00.007+01:002023-07-01T00:02:00.152+01:00The Newcomer Paradox<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Social capital research has often found that when an area experiences an influx of new people, there tends to be a drop in the general levels of trust. This may suggest that people are unsettled by the arrival of strangers, and the uncertainty of what to make of them leads many to wish that they could be left as they were previously. Some have indeed interpreted this as why there is always going to be resistance to immigration.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">However, other studies have found that the less static a community is – i.e., it receives newcomers who in time become part of that community – the more at ease it is about who live amongst them. Notably, in the EU Referendum in the UK in 2016, there was a clear correlation between areas with a higher proportion of migrant population and areas that voted to stay in the EU. That was not down to the migrant votes in those areas tipping the balance, but the UK born citizens in those areas being better disposed towards living in a multicultural society.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">So, do having more newcomers in an area make current residents</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-size: 14pt;">more</i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">, or</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-size: 14pt;">less</i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">trusting, relaxed, open-minded about the idea of newcomers? The answer depends on how those newcomers are brought in. If the process is well managed and explained, with current residents given the understanding of why people are coming and how it would enhance rather than diminish their overall wellbeing (through the contributions they make as workers and neighbours), and everyone supported in getting to know one another through social events – then the likelihood is that people will soon overcome the initial sense of unfamiliarity, appreciate others as fellow residents, discover what they have in common, and value what they gain from new experiences.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">By contrast, if the process is chaotic, with a sudden surge of newcomers arriving with accommodation, transport, and other issues disrupted with no plan for normality, or worse, if negative propaganda is layered on top to present the arrival of kind, thoughtful people as an existential threat posed by ‘aliens’ who should be shunned, then initial distrust can easily be escalated to fear, anger and even hate.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Anyone who has had direct experience – usually in cosmopolitan cities, or learnt through historical accounts, of areas developing over time with newcomers joining the native population, would know that as diverse elements come together to form new connections, more powerful networks and richer relationships would emerge.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Unfortunately, although natural human tendencies are to move from cautious welcoming of strangers to embracing new social bonds, those tendencies can be severely undermined by people who want to further their political ambitions by radicalising the natives against scapegoated newcomers. Indeed, it has become one of the standard formulas of right-wing demagoguery – pump out media reports of every conceivable problem that can be linked to refugees, immigrants, aliens with the wrong faith, etc; blame bad news on the people who “shouldn’t be allowed here”; announce proposals using language that would help dehumanise those who are to be detained, demeaned, deported.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The vast majority of people are not racist. But many can be manipulated by racist con-politicians. Instead of playing into the hands of those con-politicians and alienate people with the ‘racist’ label, we should help them engage with others as fellow human beings. It is telling that many of those who might be superficially taken in by the racist rhetoric of demagogues, are often the first to say categorically that whatever negative terms are used about all those newcomers, they do not apply to the ones they have come to know well – the ones <i>they</i> know, regardless of their colour, religion, country of origin, are good people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-67762239261600318402023-06-16T00:05:00.001+01:002023-06-16T00:05:00.140+01:00Ur-Fascism & the Nationalistic Right<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">There are two notable fascist behavioural traits: one is the readiness to deny that one is a fascist because one does not share every single characteristic of a follower of Hitler or Mussolini; the other is the propensity to accuse one’s enemies of being like fascists when they do not resemble fascists at all.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">We can see how easily such talk can deflect from the need to warn society of political leaders who will use demagogic appeals to secure enough power to carry out their oppressive designs. To cut through the obfuscation, we would do well to remind ourselves of Umberto Eco’s concept of ‘Ur-Fascism’, which he put forward back in 1995 to describe what is the essence of fascist political culture. ‘Ur’ is the German prefix for ‘archetypal’. In other words, Eco wants to draw out, not the many different aspects of different fascist leaders, but the core features of the fascist archetype. He listed 14 of them:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The cult of tradition<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Rejection of all that the Enlightenment stands for<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Distrust of the intellectual world<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Hostility to the critical spirit in discussions<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">5.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Intolerance of difference <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">6.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Appeal to anger and frustration<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">7.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Group identity defined through common enemies<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">8.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Hatred of those to be defeated <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">9.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Armageddon complex of absolute confrontation<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">10.</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Contempt for the weak<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">11.</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The glorification of heroic death<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">12.</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Disdain for women and non-standard sexuality <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">13.</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Leader embodies the Divine/General Will<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">14.</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">A restriction of the vocabulary for expression<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">A glance down that list will show that the nationalistic, anti-liberal stance of the likes of Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro, along with backers of far right parties across Europe, and many self-styled National Conservatives in the US and the UK, all thrive on those 14 features:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Celebrating the chauvinistic ‘good old days’<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Despising open-mindedness and evidence-based discourse<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Dismissing experts and scholars<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Snarling and mocking instead of discussing issues<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">5.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Demonising immigrants, minorities, and people with different faiths <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">6.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Stirring up rage at every opportunity<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">7.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Uniting followers against anyone targeted as the ‘enemies’<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">8.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Weaponising hate through all communication channels <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">9.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Glorifying the refusal to compromise<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">10.</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Cutting support for the vulnerable<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">11.</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Championing sacrifices for some great cause (though not sacrificing themselves)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">12.</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Displaying anti-feminist views and rejecting non-standard sexuality <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">13.</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Positioning the leader as one who can do no wrong <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 28.8pt 64.8pt 100.8pt 136.8pt 172.8pt 208.8pt 244.8pt 280.8pt 316.8pt 352.8pt 388.8pt 417.6pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">14.</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Attacking concerns with racism, climate change, fairness as ‘woke’ or whatever term designating ideas that should be silenced.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Eco’s warning should be heeded more than ever:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 28.8pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 28.8pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Ur-Fascism is still around us, sometimes in plain clothes. It would be so much easier, for us, if there appeared on the world scene somebody saying, `I want to reopen Auschwitz, I want the Black Shirts to parade again in the Italian squares.' Life is not that simple. Ur-Fascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises. Our duty is to uncover it and to point our finger at any of its new instances - every day, in every part of the world. (Eco, 1995)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">--<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Eco, U. `Ur-Fascism', in <i>The New York Review of Books</i>, June 22, 1995.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-27695373760658252372023-06-01T00:03:00.012+01:002023-06-01T00:03:00.165+01:00From Here to Community: a communitarian timeline<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Terms such as ‘liberal’, ‘conservative’, ‘socialist’, ‘libertarian’, ‘nationalist’, ‘green’ are often used, but not always in line with the thinking of ardent advocates who embrace those labels themselves.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Furthermore, the advocates with a shared label can nonetheless hold quite different views as to what is actually covered by that label.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The same is true of the label ‘communitarian’.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">While the term has become more widely used in political writings, less attention has been given to what it is meant to convey by its core advocates.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">What is set out below is a brief timeline indicating who have been most closely associated with that label, and when their distinctive ideas emerged.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Owenite & Cooperative Advocates of Communitarian Experiments (early/mid-19<sup>th</sup> century)<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Robert Owen (1771-1858) pioneered new ways to enable people to live and work together in cooperative communities. He set out his ideas in <i>A New View of Society</i> (1813) and other publications, and experimented with socio-economic projects at New Lanark (Britain) and New Harmony (the US). His distinctive experiments in promoting mutual respect, sharing out resources fairly, and providing education and social security for all, led some commentators to coin the term ‘communitarian’ to refer to what he was putting forward in theory and practice. Many who were inspired by Owen went on to experiment further in devising democratic and inclusive forms of community relations – e.g., the Rochdale Pioneers (1844) paved the way for the cooperative movement.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Thinkers who Developed Communitarian Approaches to Political Philosophy and Social Reforms (late 19<sup>th</sup>/early 20<sup>th</sup> century)<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">After the term ‘communitarian’ was revived in the 1980s/1990s (see the next two sections), a number of experts on late 19<sup>th</sup>/early 20<sup>th</sup> century thinkers observed that some of these ought to be recognised as key communitarian theorists. The most notable figures in this context are Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), John Dewey (1859-1952), and the New Liberals [such as <a href="https://henry-tam.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-hobhouse-challenge.html" style="color: #954f72;">L. T. Hobhouse</a> (1864-1929) and John Hobson (1858-1940)] (as explained by Mark Cladis, Alan Ryan, and David Weinstein respectively). A similar case can be made for Leon Bourgeois (1851-1925) who, like Durkheim, developed the notion of solidarity to map out an alternative to callous laissez faire and rigid collectivism); and <a href="https://henry-tam.blogspot.com/2023/02/mary-parker-follett-communitarian.html" style="color: #954f72;">Mary Parker Follett</a> (1868-1933) whose writings on the importance of advancing cooperative community relations guided thinking on organisation as Dewey’s did for education. [It should be noted that </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Ferdinand Tönnies </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">is often superficially read as a communitarian who argued for </span><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Gemeinschaft</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> (traditional hierarchical community) against </span><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Gesellschaft</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> (loose association of self-interested individuals). Tönnies </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">was in fact criticised by Durkheim who set out a genuinely cogent communitarian conception of community that is neither </span><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Gemeinschaft</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> nor </span><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Gesellschaft</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">.]</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Communitarian Critics of John Rawls (1980s)<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In the 1970s the most prominent defence of social justice and liberal support for the disadvantaged was that put forward by John Rawls in <i>Theory of Justice </i>(1972). However, Rawls’ arguments relied on ideas which abstracted individuals and their moral understanding from all connections with the wider community. This led to a series of criticisms that emerged in the 1980s: Alasdair MacIntyre’s <i>After Virtue</i> (1981) and <i>Whose Justice? Which Responsibility?</i> (1988); Michael Sandel <i>Liberalism and the Limits of Justice</i> (1982); Michael Walzer <i>Spheres of Justice</i> (1983) and <i>Interpretation and Social Criticism</i> (1987); and Charles Taylor <i>Philosophical Papers</i> (1985) and <i>Sources of the Self</i>(1989). The critics of Rawls came to be referred in academic circles as ‘communitarians’. None of them subscribes to conservative politics, and all of them are critical of right-wing libertarianism espoused by the likes of Robert Nozick.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Proponents of Communitarian Ideas (late 20<sup>th</sup>/early 21<sup>st</sup> century)<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In contrast to the communitarian critics of Rawls who are ambivalent about the describing their own ideas as ‘communitarian’, from around 1990 on, a range of British and American writers argued explicitly for what they termed as ‘communitarian’ positions. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Both David Miller and David Marquand put forward ideas for the communitarian reorientation of socialism towards a cooperative vision of society.</span></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Jonathan Bowell, who counted Durkheim as one of his key influences, expounded what he termed ‘democratic communitarianism’, a term Robert Bellah was to welcome and adopt himself in his writings on social development. Elinor Ostrom argued for a communitarian approach to local government. To ensure there was no mistaking his political stance, Charles Derber set out his ideas on ‘left communitarianism’. Philip Selznick, steeped in Dewey’s philosophy, developed in detail what he called ‘liberal communitarian’ thinking, a term which would also be used by a student of his, Amitai Etzioni, who went on to establish the Communitarian Network. Reflecting these related currents, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Henry Tam set out the core arguments in</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Communitarianism-New-Agenda-Politics-Citizenship/dp/0814782361" style="color: #954f72;">Communitarianism: a new agenda for politics and citizenship</a></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(1998), and traced their historical development in</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030265571" style="color: #954f72;">The Evolution of Communitarian Ideas</a></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> (2019).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">--<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><u><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Note<o:p></o:p></span></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Thinkers who have been most closely associated with the coining of the term ‘communitarian’ (the Owenites and cooperative pioneers during the 19<sup>th</sup> century) and its revival in the 1980s (the often cited ‘communitarian critics of Rawls’); as well as theorists who explicitly refer to their ideas as ‘communitarian’ (all those mentioned in the section on late 20<sup>th</sup>/early 21<sup>st</sup> century) and the key figures who influenced them (Dewey, Durkheim, etc), are without exception antipathic towards both oppressive traditional hierarchies and atomistic free-for-all individualism. No notable conservative writer has presented their own ideas as ‘communitarian’. While some commentators like to refer to non-liberal East Asian societies as ‘communitarian’, that is not based on any intellectual or theoretical usage that is actually connected with that term. There are progressives who want to distance themselves from communitarian thoughts because they are misconceived as ‘illiberal’ or right-wing. In fact, communitarians are the amongst the most progressive of liberal, social democratic, and cooperative advocates.</span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-62138031021130028472023-05-16T00:03:00.008+01:002023-05-16T00:03:00.160+01:00Don’t Know Much About Politics?<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Why do so many people vote for political figures who prefer to serve the wealthy elite rather than deal with the problems afflicting everyone else?</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">How come vast numbers choose not to vote for politicians who actually have a track record in helping those in need and improving the quality of life for the general public?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Alas, all too many people just don’t know much about politics.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">They are fed lies, surrounded by tabloid mood music, misled by demagogues, and have rarely – if ever – learnt much about the real pros and cons regarding the policies being debated in the media.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Would it help if we have more political education to enable citizens to learn about public issues and how state power is obtained or used?</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Of course it would.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">But that is also why there is a growing number of Con-minded politicos who thrive on voters being misled – witness recent Conservative Education Secretaries in the UK and Republican governors and legislatures in the US – who have manoeuvred to hamper objective learning of many issues central to political deliberations.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">For example, for schools, they invoke the notion of ‘contentious issues’ to stop any teaching which may increase pupils’ understanding of issues (such as tackling racism or climate change) that they would prefer to leave mired in false and misleading exchanges.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">For universities, they cite ‘academic freedom’ as the reason why no one – be they white supremacists, rampant misogynists, or militant homophobes – should be denied the opportunity to promote their views on campus.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Politicians concerned with the safeguarding democracy from widespread lies and malicious distortion must take urgent action to ensure citizens can learn objectively about matters relevant to political decisions.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">They must stop those who serve plutocratic and/or fundamentalist interests from abusing the law to designate any topic as too ‘contentious’ to teach just by contesting widely shared claims.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">And just as academic freedom does not entail that any baseless allegation or thoroughly discredited theory can be promoted as worthy of consideration, all learning institutions must be allowed to apply their peer-validated expertise to adjudicate what ought or ought not to be disseminated.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Con-minded politicos want to pretend (when it suits them) that all expressions are equally entitled to be aired – except for when they touch on those ‘contentious’ issues they want to silence.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In reality, the scientific community, the legal system, the established professional bodies, the peer-scrutinised researchers, the networks of accredited experts in diverse fields, provide multiple means of differentiating between reliable claims and unwarranted assertions, acceptable evidence and fanciful imaginings, sound advice and life-endangering falsehoods, across countless topics.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">We all rely on these impartial means, and society simply cannot function without them.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Only the most shameless charlatans can spout with a straight face that ‘academic freedom’ means anything goes, or they alone know what must be taught and what must be banned.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">By contrast, educators draw from the expertise and findings of the different bodies and systems in existence to help share with learners what at any given time are deemed instructive to share, and what groundless claims and misinformation should be kept at bay.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Applying this approach to the teaching of political issues is something we need more than ever.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;">--</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Who’s Afraid of Political Education? </span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Edited by Henry Tam is now available from Policy Press: <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/whos-afraid-of-political-education" style="color: #954f72;">https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/whos-afraid-of-political-education</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-27396446612116607272023-05-01T00:01:00.001+01:002023-05-01T00:01:00.148+01:00When Dogmas Met Caesars<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Few historical occurrences can have worse consequences than when a powerful autocrat seizes upon some ‘unquestionable’ doctrine that has attracted a fanatical following.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The classic dogma-meets-Caesar scenario has to be when Emperor Constantine decided to proclaim Christianity as the religion for the Roman Empire in the early 4<sup>th</sup> century. In the centuries that follow, absolute imperial rule was infused with a sense of infallibility – anyone deemed deficient in one’s devotion to the emperor or his ‘God’ (and the two were of course aligned) could be tortured or executed. This invocation of ‘God’-sanctioned power would manifest itself down through the days of the Spanish Inquisition to contemporary theocratic regimes in a number of Islamic countries.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">However, ‘God’ doesn’t always have to come into it so long as you have a doctrine that commands fervent belief in certain quarters. Indeed, the very first documented case of the unfortunate coming together of a dictator and a dire dogma is to be found with Qin Shi Huang, who as China’s ‘First Emperor’ (reign: 221-210 BC) embraced the Legalist doctrines which declared that a ruler must set down punitive sanctions against everything that might undermine his power, and enforce them ruthlessly to secure total compliance. The Legalists maintained that anyone putting forward rival ideas must not be given a hearing. Accordingly, Qin Shi Huang ordered the burning of books that offended Legalist sensibility, and the burying alive of scholars who dared to disagree with Legalist teaching.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">During the French Revolution, Robespierre and other like-minded extremists showed how even a word such as ‘reason’ can be capitalised and used as the name of a quasi-religious cult. Picking out ideas from Rousseau that would imply a single lawgiver could discern the ‘General Will’ even if ordinary people do not subscribe to it, Robespierre declared that on behalf of the General Will he would take whatever action he deemed appropriate – such as instituting the execution of thousands of people, including those whose ‘crime’ was to plea for more moderate policies.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Into the 20<sup>th</sup> century, the mass intimidation and killing of civilian by dictatorial leaders armed with oppressive dogmas got only worse. Antisemitic white supremacist ideas found a home with the Nazis whose murderous intolerance destroyed millions of lives when opposition was theoretically and institutionally ruled out as unacceptable. Racist delusion and militarist obsession were also fused together by Japanese usurpers who put an end to parliamentary democracy in their country, and in the name of their unquestionable national and spiritual destiny brought suffering and devastation that rivalled that caused by the Nazis.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Marxist doctrines about some indubitable Dialectic that would ensure the lower class overthrow the economically dominant class, were taken up by revolutionaries who would argue that they were merely acting in line with historical inevitability when they eliminated all opposition to their rule, destroyed anyone suspected (rightly or wrongly) of doubting communist ideas, and carrying out sweeping changes that led to the deaths of millions of people.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, were all alike in possessing neither reservation nor remorse in crushing countless victims who got in their way.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">What about ‘free market’ doctrines such as those propagated by Milton Friedman? They were presented as ‘scientifically’ correct beyond question. With total certainty they assert that with deregulation, privatisation and cuts to public social spending, prosperity would arrive (more specifically, it would arrive for the wealthy minority who will benefit from the system rigged in their favour, while the vast majority are likely to suffer lower standards of living and greater economic insecurity). In the 1970s, military coups were carried out by Jorge Rafael Videla in Argentina and Augusto Pinochet in Chile to get rid of democratically elected regimes, leaving them to implement Friedman’s doctrines with the help of widespread tortures and executions. A wealthy elite emerged to get richer, and the majority suffered from poverty and unemployment – not to mention fear of getting ‘disappeared’.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Autocrats are inherently a menace. But if they should get their hands on some ‘unquestionable’ doctrines that make them think they could do no wrong, the danger they pose skyrocket to a whole new level.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-43287338627608902052023-04-16T00:04:00.001+01:002023-04-16T00:04:00.146+01:00Brexitopia: what it’s really about<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Some commentators, especially in the US, have pondered if the push for Brexit was fuelled by some lingering British yearning for past glory – a forlorn quest for a grand status which has long vanished.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In truth, while individuals who voted for Brexit did so for a multitude of reasons – quite a few contradicting each other and most are simply false (be it about redirecting funds to the NHS or improving the economy) – the main strategic push for Brexit came from the craving for ‘free market’ exploitation.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The ideal of Brexitopia has been relentlessly promoted by its most ardent advocates, not because it embodies a return to a ‘great’ waves-ruling Britain, but because it can bring about a future fit for exploitative profiteering on an ever widening scale. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">While they promised everything under the sun in the run-up to the EU referendum – maintaining standards, retaining levels of fundings, staying in the single market, enhancing services – all these commitments were jettisoned as soon as Brexit was voted through in parliament. From that moment on, the Brexit advocates revealed their one and true interest as dismantling the protective arrangements against exploitation which had hitherto been in place as an integral part of EU membership. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">When they complain that the UK has not been moving fast enough to realise the ‘benefits’ of Brexit, what they mean is that the government is too slow in removing those previously EU-mandated safeguards which get in the way of callous profiteering. Their own priorities are to:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Slash worker rights: weaken trade unions, lower standards for working conditions, undermine health and safety at work, and increase job insecurity to make workers more compliant and more sackable.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Cut environmental standards: increase the scope for making profit from environmentally harmful activities, remove requirements that curtail pollution, and cut down preventative measures that serve the public.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Roll back human rights: reduce protection against prejudice-fuelled abuse, facilitate the flaming of community tension, and push back arrangements designed to tackle discrimination.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Downgrade consumer protection: leave people to have to pay more for the same or worse service than before, open the door to less safe and poorer quality products, and allow more commercial deception. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The above actions would enable unscrupulous profiteers to make more money from exploiting the disadvantages thus foisted on workers, consumers, communities, and the wider environment. It is almost certain that the vast majority of people will as a result suffer in social and economic terms, with the poorest having to endure the worst. But for the Brexitopian advocates, all that matters are the financial gains to be made by the profiteering clique. They do not care about people’s quality of life deteriorating, instability worsening, or the economy shrinking. So long as they can get rid of those laws that hold back exploitative profiteering (and put in new ones such as banning worker actions or peaceful protests against corporate wrongdoing), they would celebrate Brexitopia as a lucrative new dawn.<o:p></o:p></span></p><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-6694938580327241282023-04-01T00:11:00.001+01:002023-04-01T00:11:00.165+01:00David Hume: Conservative or Anti-Conservative <p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Keen to increase the intellectual ballast for their political outlook, some conservatives have sought to identify more major thinkers as their champions.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">One thinker who was thus enlisted is the eighteenth-century philosopher and historian, David Hume.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The main reason why the conservative-minded think Hume is on their side is the thorough scepticism he directed at radical/revolutionary ideas.<span> </span>Hume stressed the reliability of any given claim can only be derived from experience.<span> </span>Over time, if people have come to find that certain claims – be they about the recurrence of some natural phenomenon, or the efficacy of a social arrangement – are backed by their shared experience, then that is a sound basis for accepting them.<span> </span>By contrast, if someone tries to argue against such claims without any tangible evidence, then our starting point has to be one of doubt regarding such an argument.<span> </span>Indeed, the more drastic a departure from what is backed by prevailing findings and observations, the less inclined we should be in allowing it to determine our thinking.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In his historical writings, Hume cited disapprovingly the ideas Cromwell and many parliamentarians invoked in getting rid of King Charles I in the English Civil War (1642-1651).<span> </span>This has suggested to later conservatives that Hume would frown upon any proposal to change a long-established socio-political system, and he could therefore be embraced as a beacon of conservatism.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Alas, they are mistaken on two levels.<span> </span>First of all, Hume was never dogmatically against change.<span> </span>For him, the key was whether what was being put forward was some abstract claim not connected to any relevant experience, or it was a set of assertions that people could assess from their own observations.<span> </span>After all, he judged it was correct that political rebels in England forced King James II off the throne in the ‘Glorious Revolution’ (1688).<span> </span>For Hume, proposed changes for which there are sound empirical grounds for trying are worthy of experimental adoption; but complete transformation which has no evidence to suggest may have beneficial effects should be resisted, especially if it is intended as irreversible.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, given Hume’s opposition to sweeping claims that defy empirical validation, he would most likely be a staunch critic of quite a few of the core elements of contemporary conservative politics. Take the following:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Religious fundamentalism<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Hume would wholeheartedly reject any political idea that seeks to use some contested text in one particular religious tradition to justify an edict on everyone to comply with a command that strikes many as dubious and harmful in its effects.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Market ideology<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Hume would expose as groundless any attempt to declare one single approach to structure the economy as sacrosanct.<span> </span>He would point to the diversity of economic systems, the different pros and cons, and warn against accepting ‘free market’ as unquestionably the best model despite mounting evidence to the contrary.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Xenophobic jingoism<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Hume would challenge any claim that one race or one nation is inherently superior to all others as disconnected from any empirical fact. He would reject as delusional any suggestion that we should seek to dominate others on the absurd basis of our ‘greatness’.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Hume’s philosophy is consistently cautious – about what we are warranted in believing. That extends to beliefs which supposedly reflect long established traditions that should be preserved, when in fact they are groundless claims that ought to be cast aside.</span></p><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050369312201897243.post-38260419320478873852023-03-16T00:05:00.001+00:002023-03-16T00:05:00.177+00:00 Four Lessons from the 2008 Financial Crisis<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Politicians who refuse to recognise the causes of the disastrous global financial crisis of 2008 are likely to allow them to happen again.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Here are four key lessons which must not be forgotten:</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[1] Bankers’ Greed & Irresponsibility<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">When savers deposit their money with banks, the latter are supposed to hold that money plus any agreed interests until a withdrawal request is made. But in the period 2006-2008, many banks (in the US and in a number of European countries though, as we will see below, with notable exceptions) increasingly used their savers’ money to make high risk investment which would inevitably collapse. When they were hit by the colossal losses (stemming from deeply flawed subprime mortgage packages), millions of people across the world were in danger of losing their life savings, and different national governments had to step in to provide funds to prevent that from happening. <i>It was covering the losses made by irresponsible corporate gamblers in the banking sector, and not funding much needed public services, that led to the crisis and subsequent drain on public resources</i>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[2] The Need for Regulation<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Is the problem of allowing financial companies to risk savers’ money an unforeseeable one? In the 1920s, American banks used savers’ money to gamble on the stock bubble which burst and led to the Great Depression of the 1930s. To prevent this kind of disaster from recurring, the US Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932 to bring in safeguards which would, amongst other things, stop financial companies from risking the loss of savers’ money in making investment that could fail. In the UK, institutions licensed to accept savings were kept from being able to use those deposits to invest in deals that should be left to merchant banks. However, by the 1980s, ideological deregulators were pushing to give bankers the freedom to make money irrespective of the risks to the general public. In 1986, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government lifted an array of British banking regulations in a move hailed as the ‘Big Bang’. In the US, the Federal Reserve Board (under Ronald Reagan’s administration) began to reinterpret banking regulations as loosely as possible, until the Republican Congress passed the Gram-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 to formally repeal the Glass-Steagall Act. <i>By 2000, it was wide open for banks in the US and the UK to gamble with their savers’ money – since they either make even more profit for themselves, or they make huge losses and ask to be bailed out by their government.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[3] The Problem with ‘Free Market’ Regulators<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">‘Free Market’ advocates like to argue that the 2008 financial crisis had nothing to do with deregulation, but with poor handling of issues by regulators. What they would not admit to is that, not only had a robust regulatory framework been largely dismantled, but what was left was overseen by people who subscribed to the deregulation mantra. In the US, without explicit legislation to stop the Ponzi-scheme-like subprime mortgage deals, it was down to those with statutory responsibility to make the case for intervention. But in that time, who was the Secretary of the Treasury? It was none other than Henry Paulson, former Chairman & CEO of Goldman Sachs, brought into government by George W. Bush. Paulson, who was able to save himself $50 million in tax payment thanks to a provision passed under President Bush, repeatedly insisted in the years and months leading up to the financial crisis that all was well, and no action was needed. <i>If you hand regulatory oversight to people who are inclined to keep regulation out of money-making deals – regardless of the damages they may cause – necessary intervention will most likely be left ignored.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">[4] Crime, Bonus & Punishment<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">When banks were losing so much money that people were in danger of losing their life savings (as many did during the Great Depression), government had a choice – punish those who had acted irresponsibly and help those who could be harmed by their action, or help the culprits and punish their victims. In the UK, billions were handed to the banks (which could then pay bonuses to their top executives) while the rest of the country was subject to austere cuts. In the US, vast sums were given to the banks virtually with no strings attached, but people who lost their homes and jobs had no comparable support. Of the countries hit by the 2008 financial crisis, only Iceland tried to prioritise helping ordinary people, let the irresponsible companies go bust, and sent guilty bankers to jail. <i>Where greed and irresponsibility are rewarded by bailouts and bonuses, instead of being punished by bankruptcy and jail, it is likely that more of the same will happen again. <o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Deregulating the financial sector makes it far more likely for a calamitous crisis to occur. Why do some people nonetheless push for it? It’s basically why ‘Free Market’ acolytes always call for deregulation – it increases the scope for unscrupulous profiteering while passes the risk of harm to the public (consumers, communities, the environment, public agencies). In cutting down regulatory safeguards, callous executives can engage in activities that generate more income for them even though it greatly increases the probability of many unsuspecting people getting financially or even physically hurt as a result. When damages are done, they will deploy top law firms to help deny their culpability, pay out if necessary compensation (which is tiny compared with the profits they have then made), or lobby the government to bail them out.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In closing, it is worth noting that Norway and Sweden were persuaded to adopt financial deregulation in the late 1980s, but after they both got burnt in the 1990s, they learnt the lesson and tightened their financial regulations again. Subsequently, they were largely unaffected by the 2008 global financial crisis. As for Denmark, which never embraced the deregulation mantra at all on the banking front, it emerged unscathed from what hit most European countries in 2008.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Henry Benedict Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15317153382084185304noreply@blogger.com0