CommonSpace columnist Fraser Stewart says political thought in Britain is beginning to feel more like religious ideology
WE live in an age of unmitigated progress and innovation. From cameras that can capture photos of Pluto 7.5 billion kilometres away, to instantaneous social media and communication platforms that allow us to connect in a heartbeat the world over, the human race has strived for millennia to optimise the lives of its people.
Of course, some of our greatest advancements were initially sneered at by experts of the time. Wozniak’s first PC was ridiculed by Hewlett Packard; Origin of Species was dismissed by Marx and Engels as a “bitter satire on man”; Ludwig Boltzmann was derided for presupposing the existence of atoms only a few years before their existence was universally accepted.
History teaches us, then, that only by challenging traditionally accepted beliefs can we move forward. Even religion, that once supreme and unshakable institution, has found its influence all but decimated by the scientific method and modern philosophy.
Capitalism in the Western world is as theological as any dominant religion since the dawn of civilisation, particularly in the United Kingdom.
Yet some aspects of society continue to defy the trials of progressive thought. Capitalism in the Western world is as theological as any dominant religion since the dawn of civilisation, particularly in the United Kingdom.
Establishments such as Westminster function as churches in contemporary society – a place of worship for neoliberal elites, the economic orthodoxy, guided faithfully by selective interpretations of the gospels of Adam Smith.
This was once a singularly Conservative creed, with genuine opposition evident in both the houses of parliament and among the political spectatorship. But the Labour leadership debate has exposed a far deeper tenet of neoliberal intransigence across the wider British political class.
Much of the media argues that campaigning on a progressive agenda would lock the Labour party out of government for decades. Descend on the centre-ground (that “iron demand for conformity”, as John Warren so brilliantly put it), cries Tony Blair, or prepare for perpetual opposition.
What a ludicrous assertion, given the obvious groundswell in support for left-winger Jeremy Corbyn as UK attitudes towards austerity begin to erode. There is no need for a second Tory party. What is needed is a genuine alternative.
Sadly enough, however, the hierarchy of the Labour party stand largely in agreement with Blair, threatening a coup should the “radical” Corbyn gain power.
This was once a singularly Conservative creed, with genuine opposition evident in both the houses of parliament and among the political spectatorship.
Yes, Labour would sooner beg for Tory votes with an unconvincing Burnham or a joined-the-wrong-queue Kendall than elect a principled Corbyn with a clear, appealing and alternative agenda – the only candidate in the running with the kind of discernable vision that Labour has lacked desperately for the past decade.
The other three leadership candidates are determined to show the public that Labour understands the issues instead of offering another perspective.
They would rather support Tory spending cuts and force hundreds of thousands of people into poverty than challenge the dialogue surrounding welfare, or immigration, or the economy, or the corrosion of human values because that would take time and effort and thought and risk. Austerity doesn’t work, and Labour knows that. It’s far easier to chase votes and appease critics than to change minds.
We now find ourselves trapped in a cul-de-sac of misguided populism akin to the medieval chokehold of Roman Catholic theology. If Labour must mimic the Tories to gain power, to remain in favour with the economic clergy, there can be no opposition: only tyranny.
Thus, although we might not technically live in a one-party state, choice is fast becoming little more than a democratic illusion. British politics as an institution, much of the commentariat included, is stubbornly confined to the way things are, united against common decency behind a wall of superior ignorance.
It cannot see beyond the neoliberal scope because, like those who once believed that the earth was flat, it refuses to entertain that which it cannot comprehend within the realms of the status quo.
Whether the centrist political class chooses to ignore it or simply devalues the fact, millions of real people are suffering directly as a result of these ideological dogmatisms.
The second wave of Tory austerity stands to diminish incomes and living standards for the poorest third of society, yet most stick by the archaic commandments of “sensible economics”.
The Labour leadership debate has exposed a far deeper tenet of neoliberal intransigence across the wider British political class.
I envy their ability to discount the human condition. Maybe ignorance is bliss after all.
But Labour has an opportunity here: a UK government poised against the neoliberal delusions of European financial elites is far harder to ignore than a Greece or a Spain.
Could they find it within themselves to do the right thing and allow a Corbyn-led charge against the hypocrisy of Austerity Europe?
Rumblings from the shadow cabinet strongly suggest not. The Blairites that occupy Labour’s upper echelons still very much revere the teachings of the prophet Tony, deviance from which is tantamount to the original sin.
Should Corbyn face a mutiny in September, it would not represent a political phenomenon: it would represent the exile of a member of the church for daring to question the word of God.
Picture courtesy of stopwar.org.uk