Act 1 – the monsters
“The old world is dying the new world is struggling to begin. Now is the time of monsters” (Should I read Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibben? Think I’ll stick to Evelyn Waugh)
Today leaders of the shameless, the most culpable, the least scrupulous.
eg USA – Caligula and the fall of Rome, surrounds himself with sycophants, cowards
eg Europe – the slow death of Venice. Fire and fog of decadence, power protecting power. Big fashion, dynastic families, natural gazers obsessed with immigration. Impass over Gaza. Rule makers become obsessive regulators, compliance officers. Regulate before innovate.
Eg Right, shamelss corruption
Eg Left – quick to judge, slow to persauade, we have pronouns but not affordable housing. Toxic masculinity V heroic
Rise of the F word – Freedom. Dismantalling of democracy, replacing with Musk.
Michael Anton – one man rule. He was the Friedrich Hayek to Margaret Thatcher, to Donald Trump.
Failure of the left. Betrayal of privilege. Failure of leadership across Europe. Built in meritocracy of ambition without morality.
We need a moral revolution.
The rise of POPULARISM. There is value in popularism but we need one on the left. We need to make doing good fashionable.
The rise of the right enabled by TECHNOLOGY, but technology can also be a force for good (eg the Pill)
ACT 2 How to start a moral revolution
Russian revolution – a broken system. How apathy paves the way for tyranny. Even mad me look like a better option. We are living though a similar period of unravelling.
Always fascinated by those small groups of people who have changed history. Margaret : Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world indeed it is all that has. BUT The Great Men theory of history. Hard to deny that certain individuals like Lenin did the world great harm. What about those who did great good. History is not made of the critics.
EG Slave. UK built one of the most successful slave trade. How weird this movement was. Masterminds were 12 men, who started the first human rights campaign, which overturned a whole political system. Arguement it would have happened anyway, but history refutes this, other countries fell after the UK. First great political movement for the rights of others. The royal navy freed … 10/12 led by merchants businessmen, thos who had build and skilled their own companies. They used their privileged to change the course of history.
eg Wilberforce: Not the main man but got the credit. From gambling and drinking, became MP. After tour Swiss alps, saw the light, joined evangelicals.
Eg Thomas Clarkson, from winning essay context on morality on slavery. For 61 years he fought slavery. He bought the committee together. A moral steam engine.
The British abolitionists taught me, that goodness can be contagious. In 1917 most Russians thought every set of rulers were as bad as the last. They opened the door to a tyrant. In moments of crisis the state is most maluable. When the centre is weakest. It could birth a new authoritarian era. In 1785.
Massive boycoting of sugar by people and also people of power, capital and political.
Question: Today campaigns are fleeting, arrive energise then collapse.
Answer: From Abolisitionsts. Of the 12 only 1 was still alive when slavery abolished. Perseverance needed.
Question: Rights of others? Immaterial rights for myself. Is it only the privileged who effect.
Answers: Animal suffering, fought for by others. Not to say, those who fought for themselves were equally important. But in this case not as effective.
Q: Wilberforce’s sons re-wrote history, writing Clarkson out as alcoholic.
Act 3 – Conspiracy of decency
He likes stories. He begins with the extraordinary escape routes organised in Denmark for Jews when alerted the Nazi roundup. Gratitude is not passive. What programe could renew liberal democracy, any clue from our past?
Fabian society. (after a ghost story). Social transformation had to begin with personal transformation. 1884 formed. Tortoise their emblem. Became magnet for coolest people in Britain. Wrote in plain language, short pamphlets. Stylish. Elegant. Best parties. Took position as governors eg LSE. Labour Party. Universal Health Care. Votes for women. Informed the 1944 Act.
Today much of this legacy under siege. 1947 the Neo Liberals met Swiss village, Frederik Hayek, Milton Friedman among them, who feared the growing power of the state would lead to a new tyranny. Change would take time, a generation or more. Believed in primacy of self interest. Market place rules. ‘Capitalism and Freedom’ Only a crisis produces of real change. Echoed the Fabilan from a century earlier. When the crisis of the 1970 arose their built up networks flourished. Markets the solution, de regulating, state owned companies sold. Thatcher, Regan. For a while it did seem to work. Stock markets sourced. But as decades past the cracks appeared. Hollowed out communities, spiraling inequality, ecological destruction. Morally bankrupt.
People are hungry for change. But instead of hope, there is resurgence of fear. Neo liberalism is dead and replaced by demogogues, pedling division. Can we once again reclaim utopia? Where are the neo fabians? Who is organising the next conspriacy of decency. Taxpayers that created internet.
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