In the early 1980s, Thatcher and Reagan convinced our world that markets, not govt, held the key to prosperity; in the following decades, our society drifted, from not only having a market economy – but to becoming a ‘market society’: a way of life in which market values seep into every aspect of human endeavour – everything for sale. Thankfully, this is changing again; that even with the present bunch of ‘spiv’ Tories in Downing St, one senses that the era of market triumphalism is losing momentum.
The latest convert to ‘wellbeing economics’ is Mark Carney – ex Governor of the Bank of England; his new book Value(s) castigates market fundamentalism ‘for shredding the values on which good societies are based’ (see Will Hutton’s review). Carney’s book mentions a 2019 gathering in the Vatican, to discuss the future of the market system – when, surprisingly, Pope Francis joins them for lunch and offers this parable.
“Our meal will be accompanied by wine. Now, wine is many things. It has a bouquet, colour, and richness of taste that all complement the food. It has alcohol that can enliven the mind. Wine enriches all our senses. At the end of our feast, we will have grappa. Grappa is wine distilled. Humanity is many things – passionate, curious, rational, altruistic, creative, self-interested. But the market is one thing: self-interest. The market is humanity distilled. Your job is to turn the grappa back into wine – to turn the market back into humanity”.
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Recent attempts to ‘topple’ Nicola Sturgeon are, of course, driven by the Tory establishment’s terror of independence; the ‘Boris gang’ must have been devastated by the Hamilton verdict. I enjoyed the calm, objective account of these events in the New York Times. On 6th May, I’ll vote to send the simple message, that I want Scotland to separate – because I don’t want to live in a society shaped by Tory values. We Scots are more egalitarian; we understand that there are certain moral and civil goods that cannot be entrusted to markets; we aspire to create an economy that serves everyone; as an autonomous ‘people’ I have no concerns about our future.
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Simon Kuper’s column in the FT this week, broaches a ’guilty truth that rarely dares to speak its name’; that many of us became happy during the pandemic. While this seems an outrageous thought – he convinced me that some of us will never want to return to the pre-Covid lives we probably didn’t like. Surprising stats.
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This is a useful summary of seven international case studies of various options for local governance; published by Scottish Govt as part of their ‘pretend’ local governance review. So inept has been this project that I now assume it’s an ‘intentional failure’; only comprehensible as a centrist political fear of local democracy. Disgraceful.
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Though not as bad as local democracy, the SNP’s commitment to land reform is tentative; a radical new report has surfaced which has the endorsement of Andy Wightman and Lesley Riddoch. All its recommendations are within the existing powers of the Scottish Parliament; only missing is the political will to mobilise a cross-party alliance.
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All police forces in England and Wales have been circulated with guidance for policing protests – which campaigners say may breach human rights. Jolyon Maugham of Good Law Project said “What is really worrying here is the embedded value judgement, that it is wrong to target economic activity; what about supply chain slavery, commercial polluters, the very right to strike. How is humanity weighed in the balance against money.”
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We need to be extra vigilant about depression during this pandemic. In his short piece Rainy Weather, Hermann Hesse’s evocation of melancholy is so beautiful it cheers me up. https://senscot.net/?viewid=12239
“There is no escape. You can’t be a vagabond and an artist and still be a solid citizen. You want to get drunk, so you have to accept the hangover. You say yes to the sunlight and your pure fantasies, so you have to say yes to the filth and the nausea. Everything is within you – gold and mud – happiness and pain – the laughter of childhood and the apprehension of death. Say yes to everything; – shirk nothing. You like to play the solid citizen – wise and harmonious but you are a bird in the storm – let it storm – let it drive you… Always, again and again, dark days will come. You have to pay for your loved and lovely life with days like these.”
