- Written by: Kamran Mofid
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‘The Enlightenment philosopher’s attack on cosmopolitan élites now seems prophetic.’
'Rousseau’s lowly background made him the Enlightenment’s great outsider.'
ILLUSTRATION BY JEFFREY FISHER, Via The New Yorker
…’Rousseau “the most original genius of his age—so original that most people at the time could not begin to appreciate how powerful his thinking was.”- Leo Damrosch in his biography of Rousseau “Restless Genius” (2005)
…’that a society built around self-interested individuals will necessarily lack a common morality.’- István Hont, in “Politics in Commercial Society,” a comparative study of Rousseau and Adam Smith.
Down With Élites!
The economic losers, the ‘left-behind’ have revolted against the elites everywhere
Photo: Financial Times
‘The projects of the rightwing elite have long been low marginal tax rates, liberal immigration, globalisation, curbs on costly “entitlement programmes”, deregulated labour markets and maximisation of shareholder value. The projects of the leftwing elite have been liberal immigration (again), multiculturalism, secularism, diversity, choice on abortion, and racial and gender equality. Libertarians embrace the causes of the elites of both sides; that is why they are a tiny minority.’- Martin Wolf, Financial Times, 26 January 2016
'How Rousseau Predicted Trump’
Understanding the anti-elite Trump vote
Photo: Blogs LSE
'In the course of nearly twenty books, Rousseau amplified his objections to intellectuals and their rich patrons, who presumed to tell other people how to live. Rousseau did share a crucial assumption with his adversaries: that the age of clerical tyranny and divinely sanctioned monarchy was being replaced by an era of escalating egalitarianism. But he warned that the bourgeois values of wealth, vanity, and ostentation would impede rather than advance the growth of equality, morality, dignity, freedom, and compassion. He believed that a society based on envy and the power of money, though it might promise progress, would actually impose psychologically debilitating change on its citizens.’
‘The triumphs of capitalist imperialism in the nineteenth century, and of economic globalization after the Cold War, fulfilled on a grand scale the Enlightenment dream of a worldwide materialist civilization knit together by rational self-interest. Voltaire proved to be, as Nietzsche presciently wrote, the “representative of the victorious, ruling classes and their valuations,” while Rousseau looked like a sore loser. Against today’s backdrop of political rage, however, Rousseau seems to have grasped, and embodied, better than anyone the incendiary appeal of victimhood in societies built around the pursuit of wealth and power.’
‘The recent explosions of resentment against writers and journalists as well as against politicians, technocrats, businessmen, and bankers reveal how Rousseau’s history of the human heart is still playing itself out among the disaffected. The Jacobins and the German Romantics may have been Rousseau’s most famous and influential disciples, but Rousseau’s claim that the metropolis was a den of vice and that virtue resided in ordinary people makes for a perpetually renewable challenge—from the right and the left—to our imperfect political and economic arrangements. It is the uprooted people with Rousseau’s complex wounds who have periodically made and unmade the modern world with their demands for radical equality and cravings for stability. There will be many more of them, it is safe to say, as billions of young people in Asia and Africa negotiate the maelstrom of progress.’
‘I love the poorly educated,” Donald Trump said during a victory speech in February, and he has repeatedly taken aim at America’s élites and their “false song of globalism.” Voters in Britain, heeding Brexit campaigners’ calls to “take back control” of a country ostensibly threatened by uncontrolled immigration, “unelected élites,” and “experts,” have reversed fifty years of European integration. Other countries across Western Europe, as well as Israel, Russia, Poland, and Hungary, seethe with demagogic assertions of ethnic, religious, and national identity. In India, Hindu supremacists have adopted the conservative epithet “libtard” to channel righteous fury against liberal and secular élites. The great eighteenth-century venture of a universal civilization harmonized by rational self-interest, commerce, luxury, arts, and science—the Enlightenment forged by Voltaire, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, and others—seems to have reached a turbulent anticlimax in a worldwide revolt against cosmopolitan modernity…’Continue to read: - Pankaj Mishra, How Rousseau Predicted Trump, in The New Yorker, 1 August 2016
A selected of similar readings for your interest:
‘Two famous philosophers can help us understand Donald Trump's popularity: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith.’
Rousseau was noted above. Below is a reflection on Adam Smith
‘While they differed in many ways, both Rousseau and Smith were acutely interested in the relationship between rich and poor that was emerging in 18th century commercial society. Both argued that growing inequality threatened to undermine social harmony. And their respective analyses diverge in ways that are useful in understanding Trump's appeal.
‘Adam Smith is best known today as the godfather of the modern free-market system, as outlined in his "Wealth of Nations." But Smith built his academic reputation on his 1759 treatise, "Theory of Moral Sentiments," which aimed to understand what motivates individual behavior, known as the study of moral psychology. In a fascinating passage, he notes a reverence for the rich that borders on obsequiousness. He claims that it is the inclination of many common people "to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and powerful." Elsewhere in the same treatise, he writes that the material benefits of the upper class "can extend but to a few; but their fortunes interest almost everybody."
‘Smith reasons that most people assume that the wealthy and powerful have great talent and efforts-and that we imagine that with a little more effort on our part, we could be just like them.
‘To be sure, there have been plenty of other wealthy presidential candidates. But none has made his or her wealth so central to the candidacy, citing personal fortune as a primary qualification. Trump repeatedly sells himself as being worthy specifically because he is worth, he claims, "more than $10 billion." Smith argues that this kind of wealth, especially in ostentatious display, garners wide admiration. In this view, Trump's populist statements are mere window-dressing for his greatest asset: his assets.
‘Smith did not consider this admiration for the rich to be a virtue. Indeed, he worried that an instinctive love of the wealthy was "the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments." He argued that it fuels the already substantial vanity of the rich and the unmerited shame of the poor. This vanity would persuade the rich that they were above the laws, which could inspire the poor to abandon their admiration for the rich and take up arms against them…’- Continue to read
A Must Read Book about how Adam Smith can change your life for better
SMITH, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. London: Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand; A. Kincaid and J. Bell,
in Edinburgh, 1759.-Photo:baumanrarebooks.com
See also:
Imaging a Better World: Moving forward with the real Adam Smith
Adam Smith and the Pursuit of Happiness
Economics, Globalisation and the Common Good: A Lecture at London School of Economics
- Written by: Kamran Mofid
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Photo:fmacskasy.com
It goes without saying that, I am delighted to hear that the fundamentalist, ideology-driven, feral Tory capitalists, have now admitted to their inhumane, unjust and costly mistake when they privatised ‘Justice’ and have now taken it back to the heart of public sector, where it has always belonged. More on this a bit later.
First, I would like to recall the piece I had written a few years ago when Justice was being privatised and sold to the bidders who gave the lowest estimates! What a horrible and shortsighted way to value and honour Justice, you might say.
'Privatising the courts system: the public are not customers, they are citizens'
‘Court staff are the foot-soldiers of judicial independence, and even a fool could grasp the imperative to protect their impartiality.’
‘Why sell and fragment a service that has met or exceeded its targets?
The only reason must be money and ideology.’
(Clause 39 Magna Carta, 1215)-Photo: SlideShare
‘The tide of privatisation inches closer to the heart of our justice system by the day. Security, probation, transport and interpretation services are long gone. G4S provide child-abuse investigators and rape recovery suites, for profit. Legally-aided representation is in the MoJ's cross-hairs…’-For God’s sake, we are Citizens not Customers: Justice cannot be for Sale or Profit
Chris Grayling, a Tory minister that turned every nugget of gold we had into dust!
Photo: Sean Smith/The Guardian
And Now the Good News
Probation services return to public control in England and Wales
‘Probation services in England and Wales will return to public control, seven years after Chris Grayling's changes that were later labelled as "flawed".
The former justice secretary's 2014 reforms saw the management of low-risk and medium-risk offenders contracted out to private companies. It led to what was assessed as "poor quality supervision" of many offenders…
Mr Grayling's reforms saw the 35 probation trusts in England and Wales previously running the sector being dismantled.
Under the system of 21 contracts, private companies, voluntary groups or charities had to bid to win million-pound contracts to run the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs).
Opponents warned at the time of the reforms that the public could be put at risk, and many probation staff resigned over fears the new system would become too fragmented.
The House of Commons justice committee also expressed "considerable concern" that companies supervising low and medium risk offenders would not be required to have professionally qualified staff - although Mr Grayling promised employees would have the right skills to manage offenders…’-Continue to read
Read more on the madness of Justice for Sale
Privatisation: A pick from our archive
Privatisation is Criminal and a sure Sign of ‘Bastard Economics’
Privatisation of Public Sector is unfair and un-Christian
The shaming of privatisation and deregulation, the so-called neo-liberalism
The Tragedy of Health and Social Care Failings in our Privatised and Monetised World
Death and Destruction on Brothers’ Road to Serfdom
Selling off our Motherland: The Biggest Crime of the Broken Economic Model
Finally, Lest We Forget
Privatisation and Systematic Rise in Corruption in Britain
‘The Posh Boys, brainwashed and stupefied by the ‘Posh’ Girl, privatised, deregulated and out-sourced all that was good and valuable and now finally, they have privatised, deregulated and out-sourced their soul and moral compass, and in the process have forgotten what it means to be human. Everything, including themselves, is up for sale to the highest bidders…’
Illustration: Chris Riddell/The Observer
'An uproar of voices was coming from the farmhouse. They rushed back and looked through the window again. Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were shoutings, bangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, furious denials...Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which.' - George Orwell, closing lines of Animal Farm
...And thanks to the Posh Boys, new chapters are added to Animal Farm on a daily basis.
‘Corruption in Britain has reached new heights under Boris Johnson’s government.’
Pity the Nation Whose Leaders Are Liars, and Corrupted to the Core
Illustration: Rebecca Hendin/The Guardian
How to Restore Trust in Politics, Governments, Institutions and Build a Better Country, a Better World
‘Trust is at a breaking point. Trust in national institutions. Trust among states. Trust in the rules-based global order. Within countries, people are losing faith in political establishments, polarization is on the rise and populism is on the march.’-UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, 25 September 2018
It takes collective action to restore trust. Photo: Via Shutterstock
- Written by: Kamran Mofid
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The Tree of Wisdom, Old whimsical tree in the Wicklow forest, Ireland.- Photo by Jenny Rainbow: fineartamerica.com
The Wisdom of Mother Nature belongs to all Life.
Let be guided and inspired by Her and Save the Web of Life
'Be like the sun for grace and mercy.
Be like the night to cover others’ faults.
Be like running water for generosity.
Be like death for rage and anger.
Be like the Earth for modesty.
Appear as you are.
Be as you appear.'- Rumi
A lesson for our times
‘When we fiddle with nature, there can be unforeseen consequences.
When we fiddle with nature in big ways, entire civilizations collapse.’
'Man and Nature’, George Perkins Marsh
The 1847 lecture that predicted human-induced climate change
'We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and
the last one that can do anything about it.'- World Wildlife Fund
'Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.'- Native American Children
Desperately seeking Sophia: The Wisdom of Nature: A Five Part Guide
Photo: Stock
'Nature and Me'-Part I: Educating the Heart and the Soul of Children to Build a Better World
'Nature and Me'-Part II: ‘A new guide to strengthening the relationship between people and nature.’
Nature and Me'-Part III: ‘This is it! The moment so many of you have been waiting for…’
'Nature and Me'- Part IV: Nature to Heal the World
‘Nature and Me'- Part V:A Beautiful and Inspiring Path to repair our relationship with life
Photo: INTIMINA
- ‘Nature and Me’: ‘Nature as a Cure for the Sickness of Modern Times’
- ‘Nature and Me’: ‘200 words to protect the planet’
- 'Nature and Me': Unlocking a New Vision for a Better World
- My Poem of the Month: July is the Month Happiness, Purity, Beauty and Creation
- 'Nature and Me': Educating the Heart and the Soul of Children to Build a Better World