identity

I was born under Callaghan’s Labour government in 1977, into a world of brown Dralon, the Silver Jubilee and its accompaniment by the Sex Pistols. Jim Callaghan had a majority of just three seats in parliament. With no parliamentary power, mounting internal divisions in the Labour Party and widespread industrial action all over the country, he was doomed to lose a vote of confidence in 1979. Out went Labour for 18 years and Thatcher became PM.

Thatcher rode high, promising fast and easily understood policies to solve the mess the country was in, through a move back to traditional British values and isolationist nationalism, using Saatchi & Saatchi to convey it all in readily digestible ads. Things had become increasingly chaotic and national decline was starkly apparent. Combined with a disunited opposition, she had a perfect springboard into a more authoritarian style of government. We needed old-fashioned values and a return to individual liberties. Forget community, this was more about individual aspiration.

Over the past few thousand years, wise people have shared various ideas that there are traditional ‘cycles’ that we will see played out over and over again in society and politics; Plato distinguishes five forms of government that we see come and go through these cycles: aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny. (Obviously, I had to look up what a timocracy was). In our lifetimes we will see almost a whole cycle. The long global cycle, according to Dr. Dan Cox, is a period lasting approximately 70 to 100 years. At the end of that period, “the title of most powerful nation in the world switches hands.”

If we look at WW2 as the beginning of a cycle, we could be hot on the heels of tyranny. The rise of right-wing populism again, as we can see all over the globe and very apparently across Europe, was not unpredictable. When people see an unending decline, we often look for leaders who offer quick, understandable solutions, whatever the trade-off. What we don’t always fully comprehend is the truth behind the problems. Underfunding of services, decrepit systems not fit for purpose and mismanagement of taxpayers’ money are not as delicious front-page fodder as a boat full of desperate people trying to cross the channel. Those people, we are led to believe, will steal our jobs and our homes whilst simultaneously being on benefits and taking over our seafront hotels. For populists who want power, a very dull election with little choice among the manifestos on offer is a perfect playground.

Across the world, we witness another rise of the right and the age-old nationalist play for the population of each place to retain, regain or renew their national identity. Blame a group of people – immigrant or Jewish people, perhaps, alongside simple, fast solutions to complex issues that have been millennia and often a colonial past in the making. The myth often is that there is a pure, ethnic, national identity in a place that is being acutely watered down. A long time ago, I had a conversation with a friend’s Italian Grandfather and, later in life, with my friend Gabriel in Spain, about Mussolini and Franco. Their opening conversation was the same, they saw nothing but poverty as they grew up, before these people came to power and, subsequently, they were amazed by the transformation, hospitals, schools and good roads being rapidly built almost overnight. They also both lost close family members to what then became an authoritarian, fascist regime.

Our unconscious bias needs a collective rattle to prevent us from such easy manipulation, followed by regular rattles, individually. We’ve all got it, a touch of the unconscious biases, it’s an intrinsic part of how our brain tries to efficiently process the stuff we see and experience. Be mindful, think about what you read and why you want to believe it – if a particular group is targeted, check and check again what the motive might be. We were all fairly happy to help those fleeing Ukraine, people who looked like white Westerners and dressed like us, arriving on planes and trains – easy to swallow without much thought and without unconscious bias beacons making much noise. Would we have not helped them, or threatened to sink/shoot them if they had come by small boat or on the back of a lorry? When the people are brown and otherwise visibly different to the mythical ‘ethnic Englishman’, some British people are perhaps not so sure, not so trusting, not so quick to offer our spare rooms. Could it be the low hum of anti-Muslim, racist and baseless rhetoric that we have heard, read and watched every day for decades that has found a way into our somewhat collective unconscious? That they are ‘other’, not like ‘us’, and God forbid I bring it up, vaguely connected to our colonial past. Probably. Whoops-a-daisy, Brenda, I think I might be an unconscious racist.

Designing the future of a place does not just have to be a rearranging of what has come before – it can be new and different to reflect a new and different society. Different is not always something to fear and the past was certainly not always glorious. We are on a small island in Europe without an empire, what could that look and feel like if we dared to dream? We could be the ‘envy of the world’ for our world-beating health system, radical education system, our rich community capital or all-encompassing social support. Much is made of some male candidates being ‘men of the people’, or like ‘a bloke down the pub’ – I really don’t want Sid from the White Hart as PM, much as he has some interesting takes on things. Let’s vote for someone you’d trust to feed your cat over the weekend, and perhaps someone who is not into supporting genocide and upholds basic human rights. Have a think about what your decision means for all of us, ignore the urge to not talk politics, just do it well – be kind, remain connected and be compassionate when you don’t share someone else’s opinions. Nobody had their mind changed through a shout-off.

It’s not an easy election to vote in, but it could be one of our most important for 70 years. A more connected, curious and compassionate society is possible.