THE PROBLEM IS PEOPLE...

Before people remove me from their reader for lack of activity… Just thought I’d briefly summarise an assembly I bemused the kids with last week.


I was basically looking back at my formative experiences watching, on TV, the collapse of Communism and fall of the Berlin Wall – leading to the end of the Cold War. I referred to the fact that this was vividly depicted to an 11-yuear old as the Good having defeated the Bad, with a strong chance of ‘Happily Ever After’ to result. As Fukuyama (no I didn't say his name in assembly!) wrote, this was perhaps the End of History.

However, I then suggested that perhaps People were the Problem – rather than any geographical grouping or political construct. After all, the triumphal West was itself celebrating from within the confines of a pickle – Reagan/Thatcher’s recession having rendered 3 million unemployed in the UK alone, my father among them. And now we find ourselves looking back at an era in which the East has not notably flourished, nor the West covered itself in glory. Because the problem, perhaps, was the people – rather than the systems they operated within.

After all, Communism is a lovely idea. The idea that we work for mutual benefit – giving according to our means and getting according to our needs – is tempting. There is mileage in the concept of companies being run for good rather than for profit. The only problem being that we’re not wired that way! Deprived of the incentive of personal gain, and of the technological advances that come via competing corporations, Soviet farmers were eight times less productive than their American counterpart. Likewise the perpetually queuing proles, forever hoping to defect towards the materialistic West. Above all, virtually every Communist story, and those of the post-imperial new-born socialist African nations, gave headline billing to the power-drunk leaders who saw unlimited opportunity in such giddying state control and very quickly became ‘more equal than others’; reticent in the extreme to give up their superstar status for the good of anyone but themselves. And in saying that there is no pro-Western patronisation on my part: Our constitutional rights are shouted about by necessity – Blair didn’t want to let go or share… Brown couldn’t bear to hold that election just in case. Power is a drug and people aren’t selfless when they get it (this despite the fact they invariably begin their journey fuelled by ideals).

Which takes us to capitalism… the winning formula – the opportunity for all to achieve, to see reward for skills and hard work. The beauty of choice, propped up upon transparent liberal principles. How quickly it has taken us to environmental meltdown, global corporate monsters who devour the High Street, bankers who will literally gamble away your granny’s last penny, sex used to sell everything bar baby-food, exploitation of the Third World and a spiritual vacuum where few are happy with what they’ve got. Not because the ideas are fundamentally bad, but because the problem is the people. Prices are fixed, tax breaks are secured, loans come bearing brutalising conditions, politicians are paid off, lies are told (has anyone ever derived positive female attention by using Lynx deodorant?!), surpluses are dumped on Third World economies, further disabling local producers competing against the subsidised US/EU equivalent. After all, the Free Market would be great if it were free!

So is there any point going on? Shall we each retreat to our own rural Kibbutz? Well, for what it’s worth, I think Britain had it right for a while. The mixed economy of regulated Capitalism with unionised workers, its taxation funding a welfare state to pick up the unfortunate or unable… I think it seemed to do OK. But again, people were the problem. The unions ran wild and asked for too much in the 70s. Then Capitalism had its revenge and swept all aside on a tide of greed in the decade that followed. Now we have the worst of both – the over-mighty, paranoid Labour state sucking up to big business and relying entirely on wheeler-dealer finance to drive the country (after all, we don’t make anything anymore).

Why? Because the problem is the people. As I may have said already.

And yes I did attempt to communicate all this to a group of 14-16 year old boys within 9 minutes. And there was a pay-off. None of it will ever improve unless they, the next generation, realise they are not naturally good and work really very hard at being part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Because whereas humanity en masse generally disappoints, individuals remain capable of doing great things…

PS I know proft isn't the ONLY effective incentive. The Soviet miracle under Stalin made good use of the fear incentive. Khrushchev got some purchase from patriotism as incentive (Space Race, Sport Race etc). China perhaps employ both.

PPS I seem to left-lean above. I don't really think that's representative of me any more. I have no beef with the rich if they are wise in that responsibility. I certainly don't trust the state any more than I trust them when it comes to spending that wealth...