The future of the left

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In the current political climate, I’ve not been surprised to see a particular question raised more than once – namely, does a proper left wing movement/party stand a chance in Britain? I’ve seen articles saying it doesn’t, and arguing that no really left wing party has held power since the early 70s.

So, is Britain just a bit right wing/centrist, and destined to remain on that track?

It’s certainly a more difficult battle to fight now, given the erosion of tribal politics where people were ‘Labour’ voters for generations, the massive bias of the establishment, media and powerful towards the right (and, at the same time – although not tautologically – aggressively against the left) and the continuing growth in influence of wealthy and powerful interest groups since being unshackled following the rise of neoliberalism in the 1970s.

So, it’s true to say that the progressive left is fighting a trickier battle than ever, but it should never stop trying to get people behind the vision of the future and values it believes in – a) because, in my view, they’re the most humane vision of how society should be and also b) because if history has taught us anything, it’s that no political situation is permanent. Commentators such as Peter Hitchens are therefore spouting nonsense when they espouse (out of hope rather than evidence) that there’s no chance of left wing electoral success and, essentially, that left wing progressive parties should abandon their cause.

I therefore have no time for politicians who seem to share these progressive values yet cosy up to neoliberalism not because they believe in it but out of so-called ‘pragmatism’ – because they think it’s the only way to get power. This philosophy of neoliberalism is fundamentally broken and inhumane – so we have to oppose it and put forward something different – even if it’s not the most popular view at the moment, given the political environment we’re in. So we should be faithful to the vision we care about and stay committed to moving towards it.

If it is to improve its position, the left also needs to get a whole lot better at articulating its vision of the future and its values in a way that resonates with people, not using the abstract and politically-loaded language it’s so accustomed to using but that means so little to people. Forget ‘social justice’ – talk about ‘jobs for everyone’.

A new progressive movement needs to meet the public on the issues that matter to them rather than judging them negatively for the things they care about, and talk to people in a way that resonates with them. It needs to show that its solution is the best one for their problems – but not change its principles entirely in order to gain power. The language it uses and the focus it takes (i.e. it needs to take the focus of the vote) is vital to its ability to succeed – and it’s been dreadful at this up to now.

I’m currently working with some progressive political entities to help them put together a more powerful and engaging vision of a progressive future, and I’ll aim to share some of this here soon, as well as some of the thinking behind why we’ve chosen to present the vision in this way.

A quick postscript – I long for a future in which we ditch the nomenclature of ‘left’ and ‘right, as these labels are laden with history, meaning and past tragedies and successes that can be employed in an almost infinite range of ways to inflict damage on the ideas coming from them in the present, and therefore obscure all useful debate and passing on of new ideas. Instead, let’s discuss how parties and policies are – in other words, judge them by the values and vision of society they espouse.

Economics for the people

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One significant reason for Trump’s election victory is that Clinton represents a discredited system. Politicians that people don’t trust.  An economic system that isn’t working for people. And the two things are connected. Because politicians have lost trust through desperately trying to defend, promote and support the economic system that isn’t working.

So, the only way forward to restore faith in politics and politicians is to trash neoliberal economics and start again with a different economic philosophy. One that is focussed on human flourishing  rather than making as much wealth as possible in the hope it will ‘trickle down’ to everyone – which, as much evidence, including the current situation in the modern world, shows, it doesn’t.

In other words, we need an economic philosophy with the aim of giving people the economic resources they need to flourish and feel a sense of self respect. This needs to be achieved within the parameters of our planet – and this latter point is an intrinsic part of the overall aim, not a separate ‘nice-to-have’.

This will include factors such as a fairer system of taxation to reduce the appalling inequality in neoliberal western societies like the UK and US.

Once we have this philosophy in place, the hope will be that politicians can talk about it in a more honest and humane way as it genuinely will benefit the many rather than the very few.

What must not happen, in the UK or in the US, is a situation where we elect another nominally left-of-centre party to carry out ‘business as usual’ – with the same old tired and ineffective policies delivering ‘neoliberalism lite’.  As this is failing to address the problem, and failing to listen to people, and will exacerbate rather than solve the world’s problems, as well as people’s anger about the current system and their situation.

So, we not only need to oppose the policies and governments that are causing the west to lurch further to the right, butwe need to ensure that the left wing (perhaps we should lose these tired labels too – let’s call it ‘people-focussed’) movement that we build to challenge them offers a different economic vision from neoliberalism.

We need economics for the people.

A new vision

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“Politics has failed through a lack of competing narratives (to neoliberalism). The key task now is to tell a new story of what it is to be a human in the 21st century. It must be as appealing to some who have voted for Trump and Ukip as it is to the supporters of Clinton, Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/14/neoliberalsim-donald-trump-george-monbiot

Yep. That’s pretty much it. Let’s get to work…

The power of kindness

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The world is in a chaotic state at the moment. 2016 has felt like the most negative year I’ve experienced on this planet – and partly for the toxic and negative political atmosphere that has enveloped western democracies in the last few years.

It’s reached its nadir (so far at least) with the rise and election of Trump in the U.S. and Brexit in the UK. Both these events, and many others involving a shift to the right in various countries around the world, leave me with a sense of deep unease, shame and sadness.

This is not just because of the policies that this shift to the right entails, but the language and thinking that is used to describe certain people (e.g. Trump’s view on Mexicans), and the suspicion and resentment towards various groups in society. The bigger picture of history seems to suggest that politics works in cycles – and we don’t know where the current cycle of political unrest and a lurch to the right may lead.

In this time of darkness, I was wondering what the most important thing was to do or say to people – what actions to suggest that could prove most effective and powerful. Having thought about it for some time, I concluded that the thing missing from much of the political discourse, media and people’s views at the moment is simple kindness.

In fact, I’ve reached the conclusion that kindness is not some hippyish, abstract concept that isn’t viable in the ‘real world’. It is in fact the most important virtue that exists among human beings.

It is more important than love, as kindness (in its true sense) is unconditional; it demands and expects nothing in return – it is done for its own sake. Kindness is a particular attitude towards the world beyond the individual’s own head – a warm, welcoming, embracing attitude that reaches out to the world and everything in it (including other people), rather than closing down towards it and treating it with suspicion and fear.

It leads to a perspective in which the individual sees themselves as part of the world and part of other people – not as separate and isolated from them.

It should be fairly obvious from the outline above as to which direction many western democracies currently seem to be moving.

So, I’m not going to repeat the political arguments here about why we need a better, fairer world (as they are being repeated powerfully all over the world), but to appeal to one of the most fundamental principles in people’s humanity in order to support them – simply, that kindness is what matters.

It is the thing above all others that we need to build back into our politics, societies and cultures. And we should be deeply suspicious about any political, religious, economic or other doctrine that doesn’t aim to show kindness – as it is likely to be ultimately inconsistent with human flourishing.

In fact, whether something is kind or not could be a very useful way of evaluating whether it is worth supporting – whether it is a political party, policy, action or personal viewpoint.

Aside from choosing politics that are consistent with kindness, there’s another important way we can have a meaningful positive impact on the world, and it’s one that we each have direct control over – namely, to resolve to our lives with an attitude of kindness ourselves.

By bringing this benevolent, friendly, and open attitude into the world we will make life significantly better for both ourselves and other people – so let’s all start living with kindness.