SOCIAL DISSONANCE

 Brexit and The Corrosion of Civil Society

Democracy is dead without conflict, without the dialectic of competing ideas. If you want peace, harmony and unanimity go visit a graveyard. Compromise, the prerequisite of democracy is a form of creative tension, - never fully settled, always threatening fracture and division.

This is the framework in which debate and political discourse take place. However, there are limits to the degree of division compatible with a healthy democracy.  When the division becomes too wide civility, the agreed rules and formula begin to break down, compromise becomes impossible and conflict threatens to become violent; civil war begins to emerge as a possibility. Examples abound, Spain from 1933 to 1936, Ireland after the creation of the free state. France in late 1930s and Weimar Germany. As can be seen from the above examples, not all such discord ends in civil war, merely that it is threatened and civil unrest becomes more likely.
I want to suggest that the UK is currently experiencing just such a breakdown, though I think civil war is not a remotely conceivable possibility. Instead, another possibility is slowly emerging, a development which, though well short of civil war, is extremely damaging and corrosive of democracy just the same. This might be termed Social Dissonance.

All the exhortations about learning from history are predicated on the assumption that people do not look back to the past to inform their actions. This is simply untrue. If anything, people look back far too much and, as AJP Taylor observed, draw all the wrong conclusions from the exercise. Generals prepare to fight the last war and politicians arm themselves to deal with the last financial crisis. The appeasement of the 1930’s threatens any attempt to make concessions to an adversary, whilst McCarthyism hinders any attempt to deal with entryism or real fifth columnists. Thus, if we look back to other times when societies were crippled by the civil discord of a similar kind they might not contain answers to our current situation. Though one stark conclusion is that such situations rarely end well.[1]
Of course, the Brexiteers think that everything will be resolved on leaving the EU. Whilst my comrades in the Remain camp believe that everything will return to normal if the whole Brexit enterprise is junked. Both I believe to be deluded. Though the former much more so since leaving will not be an end but the beginning of a whole new period of upheaval and discord. Whatever happens, an evil-smelling can of worms was opened after the 2015 General Election and the chaos and rabid disunity that it has released into society are unlikely to dissipate anytime soon.
We are entering a period of prolonged social dissonance and it is not going to be pleasant.



[1] War seems to be the best way of reuniting divided societies. 

Popular posts from this blog

NESRINE MALIK AND THE UNSUNG VIRTUES OF HYPOCRISY

Image
As I write this a 27 year old woman, Mariam Ibrahim, has just had a baby in a Sudanese prison, ‘the condition of the mother and baby is not known as Ibrahim's lawyer and her husband, a US citizen, had been denied access to her. Omdurman women's prison has a basic clinic, where the child is thought to have been born. Ibrahim has been shackled since being imprisoned.’ [1]   Mariam also has an 18 month old child who is also being held in prison with her. The ‘crime’ for which she is imprisoned is apostasy, for which she has received the death sentence. She has also been sentenced to 100 lashes, for the additional crime of having sex with her Christian husband. Although she has been a lifelong Christian her father was a Muslim, Sudanese sharia law forbids women to marry outside the Muslim faith, men needless to say can do as they please in these matters. Mariam Ibrahim and her husband.  Nineteen countries punish their citizens for apostasy, and in 12 of those countries
Read more

INTERVIEW WITH TOM VAGUE

Image
Tom Vague At the top end of All Saints Road there is a refuge, an enclave in which a local Bohemian culture retains a foothold, this is the Book & kitchen , a café/bookshop with adjoining terrace. Here the bustle of the nearby market gives way to conversation, conversation in the presence of images of the recent, and not so recent, past. The past of an area that has contributed so much to the life and culture of the city. I was there to meet local historian Mr Tom Vague a man intimately familiar with so much of this history. What Tom doesn’t know about the recent history of the area probably is not worth knowing. With Tom’s energy and effort Colville Community Forum, supported by City Living Local Life, recently held a gathering at The Book and Kitchen to celebrate this rich history. February 16 6-9 Pm, with Film Screening and Readings Exhibition February 16-26 2016. Featuring 30 Classic Westway Photographs and Posters. This represents one of a number of initiatives of t
Read more

LONDON BELONGS TO ME PART ONE

Image
. I. I have lived in London now just over thirty years, having moved here on 4 th July 1983 . I don’t know how long you normally have to wait to claim squatter’s rights but thirty years seems a good enough period to me. The glory of London is its parks and open spaces, you are rarely ever far away from a London park, common or heath. I am within fifteen minutes walk of Kensington Gardens or Holland Park , much closer to several smaller areas with grass and flowers and benches on which to sit, all maintained by Kensington and Chelsea council who also still believe in the value of trees. Those who would see what they call ‘the state’ shrink rarely mention such items in their calculations. What does it cost to maintain a tree? Too much by far for the likes of those right wing think tanks whom and I fear the phrase is soon likely to break under the strain under which it is now being placed, know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Holland Park is one of t
Read more