Reclaiming Freedom
February 12, 2011 § 1 Comment
Hearing our opponents hijack the language of justice, equity and environmental safety frustrates the hell out of me. They lay claim to words like ‘progressive’ and ‘sustainable’, to the point where it’s use necessitates a brief investigation of what type of ‘sustainability’ the speaker actually means. (Option A – a recognition of the fallacy of infinite growth with finite resources, or option B – the continuing of that infinite growth completely ignoring those finite resources.)
So let’s not let that happen here.
The public struggles for freedom, for democracy, that have brought to life a stale Western image of the Middle East must remind us that we believe in freedom. Human rights are essentially freedoms. Equality is about freedom from oppression and discrimination. The great social movements we regard with awe – Suffragettes, Abolitionists, Diggers – all of these were centrally concerned with freedom.
I was shocked to see various conservative commentators ask questions such as ‘are we sure democracy is always right?‘ yesterday. Seems to me that when we scratch beneath the surface of these ‘free-marketeers’, what we find are conflicted, prejudiced and ill-informed views. (Read John Cassidy’s recent book How Markets Fail for a good insight on this.)
So what does this mean for us?
Too soon are climate advocates accused of undemocratic, dictatorial tendencies. For me – to suggest that a temporary suspension of democracy is necessary in order to deal with the unprecedented global problems we face reveals two failures on our behalf.
- A failure of belief in the wisdom of the crowd. Vox populi, vox dei and all that. (See here for an interesting anecdote on that phrase.)
- A failure to imagine new democratic, global governance systems through which we can take these decisions equitably.
I certainly know that that isn’t easy – seeing the UNFCCC negotiations at close hand is enough for anyone to want to run away from global dialogue. But to abandon the principal that so many of our ancestors fought for, and that many around the world still struggle for, would be to abandon any hope of a solution.
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” MLK
And, to bring in an expert on language…
Amen, Casper. Nice blog. Wisdom of the crowds is where it has to be at. But how?
Egypt is clearly a blinding beacon of hope for what a crowd can achieve. Jaw-droppingly lovely to watch. But we all know this is just the first step. I was thrilled to hear this morning that there’s a stage in Tahrir square, and people are making speeches about how they have to stay there until the military give a credible commitment to a path to democratic reforms. That’s a long term project. I hope they have the staying power they’ll need. God knows the odds are stacked against them.
Whilst they get on with that, we need to develop a vision, a road map, for our own environment. And it needs to reclaim not just language but the values that anchor and guide our judgements, and that means the place they have in society. Right now we are entirely under the kosh of a system that can’t stop itself promoting individual power and status, to the direct detriment of our collective ability to value and act from benevolence and caring for others. It’s so used to it that it can no longer see how deafening and consistent and all-pervasive that promotion is. That’s why the nutty right can so lightly tread on genuine meanings of freedom and equity. We are each primed thousands of times a day to care primarily for ourselves. Freedom means freedom to buy, to acquire, to protect ourselves and our very nearest. Which in turn makes us nervy, unhappy, suspicious of others and constantly wanting more. But suggest to a mainstream audience that we need to find caring values more space, prominence and encouragement – in ways big and sustainable enough to shape our identities over time, and our theories of politics and progress – and blank stares, stifled giggles or rolled eyes are likely to be the reply. The norm is so unrelentingly normal that alternatives are derided or attacked. Twas ever thus where change is concerned, of course, but we’ve never been quite so well primed and cajoled towards the extrinsic, selfish values as we are now. This, I’d suggest, is a fundamental reason why the very language that should open doors to the wisdom of the crowds and genuinely democratic methodologies can be so readily hijacked and attached to suspicion, elite governance and intertia.
So let’s delve, let’s plan, let’s organise to put benevolence and caring back at the heart of our national debate and identity. Until we do we’ll always be the minority voice in a world of individualist, materialist, anti-democratic norms.