In 1975, Andy Warhol observed: “You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you too can drink Coke.” Warhol is acknowledging an ‘equalising’ aspect of free market economics. My Hotpoint washing machine, my Ikea bookcase, my Moderna booster jab etc. I often celebrate the benefits of capitalist production – but it isn’t my central belief system. Early in my personal life story, I found myself interested in what we call the ‘caring professions’ – a very different dynamic from competitive markets.
In 1983, in trying to capture the essence of caring relationships between people, the Scottish psychiatrist, R.D Laing chose words in harmony with my own understanding. He said that ‘in’ us and ‘between’ us there is a healing power that is always there; it is activated by ‘attunement’ – two instruments getting in tune with each other – harmonising. Laing considered this ‘force field’ beyond scientific investigation and referred to it as ‘spiritual’. With him, I believe that humans have a primary instinct to connect and help each other, which overrides market considerations.
Adam Smith,(1723-1790) ‘ the patron saint of capitalism’, seems to predict here how free market economics will eventually exhaust our planet: “A profitable speculation is presented as a public good, because growth will stimulate demand and everywhere diffuse comfort and improvement…but the nature of this growth, is that it is at once undirected and infinitely self-generating in the endless demand for all the useless things in the world”.
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I didn’t anticipate the level of upset I feel about the Russian invasion of Ukraine; ordinary people like us under bombardment, families with children, in flight for the borders; this is a level of danger I’ve never known in my life. When the Hitler war ended, I was five; I remember the aftermath of shortages and rationing – but not bombs. Russia has made a momentous miscalculation which I can’t understand. This Guardian piece is by Yuval Noah Harari (who wrote Sapiens); he takes the view that Putin has already lost this war. He might conquer Ukraine, but ‘holding’ it would depend on Ukrainian compliance, and the last few days have indicated that that is not going to happen.
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The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is the global authority on this subject; their new report paints a worrying picture of climate impacts already affecting billions of people. Some will find this Conversation article a useful, if depressing read, for example: “Children under 12 will experience a four-fold increase in natural disasters during their lifetime”.
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Sunday’s Observer carried a Q&A with historian, Professor Peter Hennessy, about his new book: ‘A Duty of Care: Britain before and after Covid’. His theme is that Covid has re-united us with the state and he asks how deep this goes – can we agree a ‘new Beveridge’ to build consensus for a new post Covid Britain; but I’m afraid he’s comparing Boris Johnson with a PM called Clement Atlee.
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This week, Kate Forbes published Scotland’s long-awaited National Strategy for Economic Transformation. The Unions have already criticised it from the left; the Tories from the right; it’ll take me a bit longer to assess the SNP’s latest interpretation of social democracy. This Scottish Govt release details the Strategy’s key programmes for action.
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Former PM, Gordon Brown, who lives in Fife, is known to ‘get around’- e.g. he supports the Cottage Family Centre in Kirkaldy. In a Guardian piece this week, Brown says that, in all his time in politics, he has never witnessed so much poverty and hardship. I can’t help thinking that most politicians are unaware of the gravity of this situation.
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These two images are the same civic square in Kharkiv, before and after a missile.
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From a speech given by R.D. Laing – famous Scottish psychiatrist, to an audience of psychotherapists – in Edinburgh – October 1983. His reference ‘beyond science’- to a spiritual healing power – caused much controversy.
“There is nothing in the world more enjoyable than to be in communion with another human being. This has nothing to do with technique. Once it is there it is a field – a sort of force field that is not to be discovered within the investigative competence of science. So I will have to call it spiritual. It is the tuning into a spiritual field that is always there. It has to do with attunement – two instruments getting in tune with each other – harmonising. It is quite an experience. In Christian terminology the name they have given to this healing force is the Holy Ghost. Holy means healthy and spirit means ghost. There is a healthy spirit that exists in us and between us and that is the only healing power that exists as far as I know. It exists not just between us as a single species – but throughout the whole of creation”.
