The western ‘rational’ is being subsumed by the emotional and lots of people encourage the process!
In the Uk, the Grenfell Tower tragedy has illustrated numerous flaws in our democracy and the tendency of the elites to straighten out the story ahead of the enquiry. The problem with Grenfell is that the actual residents were somewhere down the pecking order when decisions were being made about their block. The experts made decisions that have resulted in a bleak but safe 197o’s tower block being turned into a slightly less bleak death trap. Now is not the time for emotion. But emotion seems to be the order of the day served up by an emotionally promiscuous media.
The Judge who has been identified to head up the Public Enquiry is described as too remote from the victims to be fair and impartial. What the victims want is someone who can emote about the tragedy. Senior Judges leap to the Judge’s defence. The problem here is that the demand for an emotional reaction is as problematic in 21st century Britain as posh Judges being seen as remote because they are posh. With the establishment and their 18th-century institutions unable to adapt so that ordinary people can prosper among them, one-half of the regrettable binary which seems to unite the muddle-headed supporters of the left is emotion. Emotion versus rationality. The ’emotional’ is the key to Corbyn’s success and it explains not only the Tories failure but also how Corbyn can unite Mumsnet, students, hard middle and soft left, public sector workers and luvvies.
The emotional and rationality binary is just another dispiriting binary in modern 21ct century Britain. A binary that includes political left and right as well as Leave and Remain on Brexit, Islamophobia and the observant Muslims fear of secular western culture and it’s corrosive values particularly on issues such as family life and debt based economics. Until we tackle our binary culture and the institutions which support it including the party system, Parliament and Courts we will see emotion moving centre stage and Corbyn’s left with it. Our enlightenment values which triggered our Capitalism and industrialisation and modern cultural identity are in retreat and with them, our rights and freedoms will start to disappear too. In some cities and in some communities for women and Gay people they have gone already.
