Has anyone noticed the elephant in the budget room?
Forget the detail for a moment (though it is truly shocking.) It’s the big picture that we should be focusing on. The raison d’etre – the grand sweep. The level of honesty that explicitly stated that what we are primarily doing with the budget now is trying to appease the markets was truly disturbing.
Yes I understand the short-term importance of our credit rating etc, but in the midst of constant short-termism we are not noticing that our noble straining most resembles a hamster in a wheel, expending energy purely for someone else’s entertainment.
Have our memories become so short? We were handed a once in a generation opportunity to realign the power axis between democracy and capitalism, and it looks like we have failed. What was exposed during the credit crunch (more accurately a debt crisis) was the myth of self-regulation, and the screaming need for oversight.#
An analogy from science fiction seems most appropriate. A common theme of many futuristic tales is that humanity builds computers and robots to do their dirty work. This goes swimmingly for some time until classically the machines rebel, subjugating humanity in the process. The programmed amoral lunatics take over the asylum. Does any of this sound familiar? Our hooverbot was handy in the short-term, but now has a veto over our household budget. That’s how insane it all is.
So this is not solely a debate about left and right (even though that is vitally important in terms of specific policy). We will win a much broader groundswell of people to our cause if we articulate this battle in terms of restoring democracy to its rightful place. It isn’t perfect, but at least it is accountable. Let the battle between capitalism and democracy be observed. For only then can it be joined.
