I seem to be more comfortable thinking ambiguous thoughts as I get older. The aggression of youth slips away, and I no longer feel as much pressure to be Certain about something. It is, I realise, possible to hold opposing views at the same time.
Which makes the internal dialogue more interesting, at least.
Case in point: In trying to understand the current political landscape in the run-up to next week’s election, I find myself asking whether the Tories have created a predicament and a mess of their own making, or whether they’ve inherited one, something which was inevitable given long term trends.
Or in other words (and more specifically), have the modern Tory Party (coalition-years Cameron onwards) been the “Failed Guardians of the British Dream” – a group of incompetents who have dug their own grave – or are there much larger socio-political trends which, while not distinct from the Tory party, transcend and surround (indeed control) the domain of the ruling cabinet in general?
“Failed Guardians of the British Dream” is a phrase which comes back to me. When it comes to guardians of a country, we usually think of some noble creature – often the English Lion, possibly with a supportive Scottish Unicorn by its side.1 By inference, our all-too-human leaders should personify the values and behaviour we ascribe to these mythical creatures. Perhaps this would a good test of applicability?
And secondly, to unpick “The British Dream” is a necessary part of the puzzle. It’s hard to think of the British Dream as anything but a parallel of the “American Dream” – a consistently spun narrative stretching out from the 1960s, in which “ownership of progress” became the defining factor of success. The dependency of the economy on capitalism, the dependency of capitalism on scale, and the “trickle-down” effect from there to individualism and social disaggregation/competition – these are the values I would argue have defined us over the last 60+ years. This is the dream we find ourselves in.
(To be clear, it’s not a dream I’m inherently arguing for or against at this point. To be clear, I enjoy a vast amount of privilege within this dream, and have yet to find a solid way to break free from its patterns. To claim I have answers would be arrogant and hypocritical. But I try at least to be aware of it. I can also hold ambiguous opinions abut my own self, it seems.)
So have the recent Tory Party failed to maintain, uphold and extend this dream? Perhaps, if you see the dream as something which can be maintained. But this is a crux point, and where I believe we should be focusing our observational efforts in order to understand politics.
Perspective 1: The dream is fine, we just need to get better at it. Reinforce the existing pattern: Create better industry. Employ people within the country. Pay them and respect them. Benefit from technological-material progress. Political parties need to structure this, and the Tories have failed to do so by being slow and tethered by external forces. 2
Perspective 2: The dream relies on being able to draw on4 resources to power it, which are becoming increasingly scarce. Demographically, we have an inverted population pyramid. Globally, other nations wield relatively much more power. Ecologically, we’re aware that supply chains are more fragile than we would like, and that risk is being increasingly priced in. Political parties – any party – will struggle to maintain the dream as it slowly unpicks itself.
The difference between which perspective you’re drawn towards likely depends on your position within the system, and what skills and assets you think you’re best able to benefit from. But, let’s be clear, we’re all actually part of the same system. Global capitalism depends on movement of labour, research and development, and available markets. Wanting to be employed and to enjoy life is pretty much a universal.
The power of the dream explains why the two sides of the system struggle to come together though. The strength with which Perspective 1 has manifested, and how adamant the Brexit movement has been, stems from the simplicity of the vision, I believe. It’s a vision that we’re already living, a reinforcement of the known. This is much easier to imagine, and to fight for.
Meanwhile there are no easy answers under Perspective 2. A distrust and a disinterest in politics generally doesn’t necessarily stem from being tired of the people involved, but a broader sense that democracy cannot implicitly set out a solution. Opinions differ about whether it’s better to set new goals, change the methods but not the goals, or just retain the existing system but give it new names.
Which comes back to next week’s election. Do I trust the Tories to lead the country through the next 5 years? Would Labour be better at maintaining the Dream? Would another party be better at setting out a new Dream, or even at waking us up?
Making a decision involves collapsing all these potential futures into a singular timeline. Or, then again, maybe it doesn’t. Perhaps a vote is just a way to swing the needle towards one perspective or another. Whatever happens, I’m sure this blog post will still be relevant in another 5 years’ time.
1 a) I really should read Orwell on this theme. And b) how cool would it be if the Scottish football teams sported a unicorn instead of a lion?
2 The EU, Woke culture, young people, etc. Moved to footnote as I don’t wish to emotionally distract myself from a valid perspective here. 3
3 All perspectives are subjective and therefore valid. All reality is more complex than any perspective, and therefore all perspectives are also invalid.
4 “Exploit” is the word I would normally use.
Image source: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
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