What a superb piece of writing which seems to sum up so much of what is wrong with the Great Britain (and we are!!!) of today. Yet our "lords and masters" in Westminster and Whitehall seem totally oblivious to what ails us all today.
I feel that the definition of "populism" that you quote from the OED is too narrow to be helpful. Most politicians address popular concerns, the problem is how they do it, and how what they say contradicts what they do (hence the the two-tier justice that you brilliantly describe). To me, populism is addressing complex problems in a simplistic way with measures which sound popular, but would often be insufficient and/or would create downsides as bad as the problem being addressed. An example is Richard Tice, asked how he would save £50billion off public expenditure, and then just saying "it's easy", waffling, and giving no detail. The truth is much of what he might save is actually popular amongst his own supporters, but he daren't admit that. The opposite of populism is telling people the truth, that all real solutions have downsides, and the big issues of the day (immigration, NHS, elderly care, our weakened defence capability etc) have complex causes which will require solutions which are far from simple and far from popular
Since you are interested in the history of American populism I suggest you the brilliant essay by Stephen Jay Gould on William Jennings Bryan (digit the words and find it on the internet to download for free).
This essay shows that the paramount weakness of populism is not in the moral virtues field, but in the intellectual virtues field.
A similar story is the one of American conservatives and their lack of interest and committment to philosophical questions. This story is well told by Claes Ryn in his enlightening book "The failure of American conservatism and the road not taken"
Wasn't it Martin Luther King who said that a riot is always the language of the unheard?
What a superb piece of writing which seems to sum up so much of what is wrong with the Great Britain (and we are!!!) of today. Yet our "lords and masters" in Westminster and Whitehall seem totally oblivious to what ails us all today.
Succinctly put and i couldn’t agree more. Well done !!
From what i have seen and heard about what is going on in our schools, i suspect there is a conspiracy to destroy childhood.
I was there and heard this delivered live, I particularly liked the Ant and Dec comment - a highlight of the week-end!
I feel that the definition of "populism" that you quote from the OED is too narrow to be helpful. Most politicians address popular concerns, the problem is how they do it, and how what they say contradicts what they do (hence the the two-tier justice that you brilliantly describe). To me, populism is addressing complex problems in a simplistic way with measures which sound popular, but would often be insufficient and/or would create downsides as bad as the problem being addressed. An example is Richard Tice, asked how he would save £50billion off public expenditure, and then just saying "it's easy", waffling, and giving no detail. The truth is much of what he might save is actually popular amongst his own supporters, but he daren't admit that. The opposite of populism is telling people the truth, that all real solutions have downsides, and the big issues of the day (immigration, NHS, elderly care, our weakened defence capability etc) have complex causes which will require solutions which are far from simple and far from popular
Since you are interested in the history of American populism I suggest you the brilliant essay by Stephen Jay Gould on William Jennings Bryan (digit the words and find it on the internet to download for free).
This essay shows that the paramount weakness of populism is not in the moral virtues field, but in the intellectual virtues field.
A similar story is the one of American conservatives and their lack of interest and committment to philosophical questions. This story is well told by Claes Ryn in his enlightening book "The failure of American conservatism and the road not taken"
The same can be said of the meaning of many popular put downs. Far Right, Racist, Fascist, Nazi etc
I see this face and all I hear in my head is blahblahrhubarbblahbollocksblahrhubarb