Editorial
Editorial
Prisoner of hope
Those who wish to face some of the appalling dilemmas of the modern world have often been accused of spreading messages of gloom and doom. There is an answer to this and it was well expressed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the last of David Frost's Breakfast shows. Frost said to him, “In the face of all these disasters are you still an optimist? His reply was, `I am not. I am a prisoner of hope'”. In the last issue Derek Scott gave a pessimistic view of the future of the EU if it continues on its present course. The results of the French and the Dutch referendums seems to indicate that he was not so far wide of the mark.
The first paper in this issue by the author of “Powerdown” may also seem to be rather gloomy but in reality it may also be said to fit into the category of hope with its hard, hopeful message. Edmund Burke once wrote in response to Rousseau's Social Contract, society was indeed a contract but it was a contract between the dead, the living and those yet to be born. Today our concern seems mainly for the living and yet it seems certain that unless the achievements of those who have gone before and stretch our concern to embrace future generations our activity in the present will have a hollow and dangerous ring.
The next paper is about apprenticeship and a way of life our forefathers understood. China may follow the example of our somewhat shallow industrialisation, despite its own profound culture and history, and be much better at it than we are. The traditional European qualities that developed after the Dark Ages may yet be needed to offer us a lifeline in the twenty-first century.
Looking back at the motivation that brought America into the Second World War. Thomas Toughill offers us a personal interpretation of Roosevelt's aims. Whether he is correct or not, there is no doubt that America did end up as the major world power. The Soviet Union never was really the great force that many believed it to be at the time.
Reviews include the fascinating book, The Corporation, by the Canadian Professor of Law Joel Bakin. It delves into the history of the giant companies we now call multinationals or transnationals and considers the legal factors which have enabled them to become so powerful. The next book is The Great Abdication by Alexander Deane. He blames the breakdown of standards in British Society on the failure of the middle classes to give the kind of lead they once regarded as their social duty and perhaps it is something that applies more widely in the rest of Europe also. The influence of the corporations may well have been a powerful factor in undermining and eroding the confidence of those classes. Alternative Futures by three thoughtful eurosceptics is well worth looking at in the present uncertainty following the French and Dutch“No” votes in their referendums on the Constitution.
Direct Democracy: An Agenda for a New Model Party is a book based on a theme this journal has consistently emphasised: the importance of size and this cannot be mentioned without reference to Leopold Kohr's seminal work, The Breakdown of Nations. Here is the cure, the authors say, for the disillusionment of the voters: local democracy. It is a lesson intended for all parties and for all political classes.
