The previous Sub-Chapter explored what I called corporate-closedness and this one will focus on power and control in a more general sense.
To kick start I will make a statement that I hold to be true.
True openness which invariably leads to uncertainty in respect of change has always been resisted by the privileged and wealthy who wish that society will be open to change only on their terms.
This resistance to change is manifest in names like Conservative – the political party in the United Kingdom that is explicit in ensuring that the needs of privileged and wealthy people are more important than the needs of the vast majority of the population.
But I don’t want to be too hard on the Conservatives – because at least they are honest, and their name is a dead give-away as to what they are. Most political parties, even those espousing left wing values, are similar in nature.
People who don’t want the established order of privilege and wealth to change are often referred to as right wing, and they promote the idea that our world will be better if we all accept the fact that the elite, (i.e. a small group of privileged people) have more entitlement than the rest of the population. This is rooted in their desire to perpetuate privilege and/or wealth within their own circle.
Right wing values are exemplified in exclusivity, conflict, banality, dumbing down, heightened fear, the do as I say – not as I do thinking so prevalent among the ruling classes in general, and exaggeration of crisis.
Conservatism is summed up well by the English philosopher Michael Oakeshott:
“To be conservative is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss”.
As is sometimes said – from the perspective of the privileged and wealthy – keep the predictable going!
Now it is particularly important – I believe anyway – for us community workers to remember the following:
The forces of conservatism love crises – particularly the kind of crises that arise from minorities whose rights have been denied being driven to extremes to get their needs met. Governments can then bring in (and justify to the general population) all sorts of draconian law-and-order type measures which very often remain on the statute books long after the need for them has gone.
And the pure right wing almost always trumps the pure left wing because it is top down, organised, structured, reverential, and values obedience and adherence to hierarchy – which the pure left does not. So, in a general sense, the left often needs to take on right wing characteristics (at least, organisationally and structurally) to optimise its chances of success.
This will be expanded upon in the next post and those following.