Power to the People

Micheal Sandels extraordinary pitch on BBC4 for his Justice and philosophy course at Harvard was an eye-opener. I have reservations about all snakeoil salesmen setting out their table with a scare story and then the promise of a world exclusive remedy if only you buy into the course, book, video or whatever. Be that as it may, the point for me was that Bentham, Kant and Aristotle's attempts to provide a philosophical framework able to answer societies toughest questions fell short of the mark. The ordinary person in the street seemed to have, bye and large, a canny understanding and a feel for where the fairness lay in those absurd hypothetical situations put to them. Absurd, but granted they did push the moral dilemma selected to the limits, polarising the options. Fine, if your accept the Sandels pre-determination of the moral conflict reflects the dilemma's our society might have to face. I suspect it showcases the point he wishes to demonstrate but might have limited value beyond that. Not reflective of life as experienced. Certainly it is not within my skills to appraise Sandels contribution. As a final point I do note that Sandels subsequent contributions all seems to revolve around the same issue, ending up at the same loose end. No sequence and build-up to a shared understanding. Just a go on and buy his book to find the answers to the universe and life? Not for me.

In counter point to that, Andrew Neil's 'Posh and Posher' BBC2 was a well assembled and orchestrated package. Ordinarily I find Andrew Neil hard to stomach, his self-opinionated smarm gets in the way. But what a good package was put together. A bit leaden as we padded self-evidently from one plank to the next but it did in the end build to a cohesive whole. So okay, I differ with him in the detail conclusions drawn, but the main thrust was unambiguous. The meritocracy that came in mid to late 1900's has been brushed aside and elitism rules day yet again.

What has caught my eye with both these programmes is firstly the common sense shown by those ordinary people in the street. In the main they have a feel for the things that concern them and they have a flair for knowing which direction they think the answers lies. Even if they are not always skilled in separating out their ideas or putting their answers into articulates phrases. The other thing that came across to me strongly is this underlying sense that we as a society are groping about for a new definition of community and how we as individuals relate and feed into it. That to me is the most rewarding and encouraging idea. Suddenly I am no longer writing this blog in isolation, a loner heading off to the next windmill. I am just part of this mass directionless searching around for a better solution.

What is crystal clear to me is that it has nothing to do with the Government. Their eyes are right off the ball looking in the totally wrong directions for what meets and will satisfy the peoples needs. Nor is it the Big Society so beloved of David Cameron. That is such a way off the mark. What we ordinary people are looking for is the Small Society, that which we can respond to, relate with and most of all contribute to without some remote organisation breathing down our necks telling us we are wrong.