A s p a s i a E u r o p e a n

JUST A THOUGHT

May 2012

Is the truth out there?

There are no simple answers

The whole world seems to be in a chaotic state. The ceaseless flow of information does not make it easier to understand what is happening in different parts of the world. What information and what sources of information should we trust?

African countries seem to be full of political and armed conflicts. Should we blame tribal traditions in Africa or European colonialism for such developments? Who should we support in each of these conflicts? And for what reasons?

China and India are struggling to figure out what it means, socially and politically, to be the new economic powers of the world.

What should they prioritize; economic growth, human rights, health and safety of their work force, commitment to environmental concerns, or political power?

There are no simple answers to these questions. The problems cannot be solved or dissolved by means of mathematical calculations, since the problems do not have single correct answers.

Yet another example; Europe and many other parts of the world are struggling with recession. Which one is the right remedy, austerity or economic growth?

Of course, the advocates of austerity do not deny the need of economic growth, and the advocates of economic growth do not deny the need to reduce the budget deficit. But the starting point in their argumentation is different.

Governments in several countries have difficulties in convincing their audiences that one or the other of these approaches is the right course of action. In several countries, in France, for example, elections are fought in the name of austerity and economic growth.

Once again, there are no simple answers, and the problems cannot be solved and dissolved by means of mathematical calculations.

Facts, truths, and lies

We can select some economic or social parameters and subject them to mathematical calculations based on some particular model.

We can use the outcomes of such calculations as ‘facts’ and claim that they point at one particular direction. For some people, such facts are equal to ‘truths’.

People sometimes talk about lying with statistics, but strictly speaking statistical information is not based on lies.

Instead, gathering statistical information is based on some underlying assumptions, and these assumptions already point at some direction. Assumptions are based on our values.The same goes for mathematical models applied to human societies.

In other words, each calculation is true in the sense that the calculation procedure leads to a correct answers (unless mistakes are made in the processing of information for the calculations!). But no single calculation can take into account all potential assumptions and values.

But if we wish to defend our opinion and cannot claim that our ‘opponent’ is lying, what can we do?

This is what we can do: It is always possible to argue against our opponent and his or her ‘facts’ by referring to another set of assumptions, or by referring to calculated ‘facts’ based on another set of assumptions.

Does economic growth necessarily harm the environment?

Not all advocates of austerity are neoconservatives, wishing to get rid of most of the public sector and state involvement in society.

There are also those, who see in austerity an opportunity to put a stop to economic growth. These advocates of austerity understand economic growth as equal to unnecessary or excess consumption, which, in turn, they see as a threat to the environment by escalating climate change.

It is true that for some people economic growth is the end in itself. Every (presumed) obstacle to economic growth should be removed; out with health and safety regulations, out with regulations protecting the environment, etc.

But economic growth may as well be seen as means to an end. It may mean sustainable production and consumption. Such an approach suggests that we should be investing in new (renewable) sources of energy.

It suggests that we should be producing clothes, food, goods, etc, based on organic or recyclable materials. It may even suggest that by investing in sustainable production, many will find new employment opportunities within fields where they can do something they believe in.

After all, we will not stop eating, or using clothes, shoes, or living in houses, studying and working in buildings, walking and driving on roads, or travelling...

All these activities demand innovations and production, and contribute to economic growth.

Thus, if we so decide, economic growth will be sustainable growth instead of being growth that harms the environment.

What do we value?

If there is no single truth, or single correct answer, how are we then supposed to decide what political parties, or what movements to support?

And how are we supposed to decide what courses of action in our own private lives to prefer and select?

We live in a complex world, and it is preferable that our decisions are based on knowledge-based information.

Unfortunately, knowledge-based information as such cannot decide for us. We need to relate knowledge-based information to our profound values.

I think it’s time we all paused to think of what our profound values truly are.

What kind of society do we wish to live in, and what kind of society will the next generations inherit from us?

Every decision and choice is based on some underlying assumption. Assumptions, in turn, are based on values.

Values may refer to human life in general, to our outlook on life, to our attitudes towards other human beings and to their right to be different from us, to our attitudes to various kinds of activities taking place in society, from education to business, from arts to food and tools.

In other words, before deciding anything, we need to reflect upon our own values.

If we don’t seem to have any values, we need to continue to reflect upon all kinds of values, until we find the values with which we can live.

April 2012

From Dinners for Donors to Health and Safety

Dinners for donors, VAT on warm pasties, imagined petrol-shortage panic, and the come-back of George Galloway in Bradford by-election. These are the latest themes in Britain. At least they are according to the media reporting.

Funding of Political Parties

Dinners for donors refers to what the Conservative party treasurer had told to some reporters, namely that a ‘premier league’ donors would win a dinner in Downing Street.

Personally, I’m not as bothered about who is and who is not invited for dinner (or supper) at Downing Street as I am about the funding of political parties in Britain.

All parties have to find their own donors. This takes time, money, and energy. It is also hard to believe that a person or an organization who donates hundreds of thousands to a political party (in government) would not expect one or the other form of favours.

Public funding would assure that all parties, large and small, can carry out political work. In a radio programme someone expressed an opinion against public funding, because it would mean that also BNP would be funded by the tax-payer, and because a Tory-voter would be forced to finance the Labour Party, and vice versa.

I would like to remind those who share such an opinion, that a political system is not a market place. In a democracy, there must be opportunities for both established and new and small parties to promote their political views to a broader audience than to family-members and neighbours.

We do not have to like all the political parties, who would receive public funding. It will not harm us to hear political views we do not approve of. We can always argue against them. And, we do not have to vote for them!

Warm pasties and millionaires

The ‘nation of shop-keepers’ was certainly not pleased when they learned that in the latest budget the most wealthy in the country will receive tax cuts, whereas the ‘little man’ selling (warm) pasties will be punished with VAT.

The positive and/or negative impact of tax cuts and added VAT here and there on economy are difficult to judge, but in the minds of people, the budget did not sound fair.

The Chancellor has lost his narrative. Next time he says (if he dares) ‘we are all in this together’, people will not believe him.

Health and Safety

The media reporting on the potential tank drivers’ strike and on the advice given to people (to store petrol at home) by a Cabinet office minister have focused on the unnecessarily created panic to store petrol, and thereby following shortage of petrol.

Very little has been said about the reasons for the potential strike amongst tank drivers. The drivers are not asking for better salaries, but wish to improve health and safety measures in their working environment.

When there is a pressure to cut costs, health and safety suffer. Untrained or under-trained agency workers are brought in to do a dangerous job (to a lower cost), risking both their own lives and the lives of others. Driving a tank as well as loading and unloading fuel, demand good training.

Health and safety are serious matters, although they are often ridiculed by people. I’m afraid the problems stressed by the tank drivers, are no isolated problems.

There will be more problems coming in the near future related to neglected health and safety issues.Boring Facts-page on this website deals with health and safety issues, especially related to Accidents at work.

Voters wish to be offered hope

George Galloway won the Bradford by-election, attracting first-time voters as well as previous Labour, Liberal, and Conservative voters. Galloway calls himself an honest man who says what he means and means what he says. Hmmm, pretending to be a Muslim (without explicitly saying so) is not so honest.

Galloway made promises (more jobs, no tuition fees, get our boys out of Afghanistan, and so on) he knows he cannot keep, since he has no political power to do so. But let us hope that he at least makes an attempt to keep them.

And, yet, it is these promises people desperately wanted to hear. Such promises give hope in these austerity times.

The true challenge for the established political parties is to create a narrative full of hope (in which they themselves believe) and combine it with political realism. Not an easy task!

March 2012

Change is difficult

Change is always difficult. Change is especially difficult when it is forced upon us.

Change is not easy for an individual who is expected to change his or her habits due to health reasons.

Change is not easy for a dictator or a dictatorial leader who refuges to admit that his time in power is over.

Change is not easy for a nation who needs to change its life-style.

C.G. Jung once wrote that only a necessity can make the conservative individual wish to change.

Thus, an individual with health problems needs to weight health concerns against some harmful but pleasurable habits. Potentially, he or she also needs to weight the expectations of other family members against own ‘yearnings’.

Usually, the fear of change is bigger than the steps towards change. It is not unusual that the first steps towards change are preceded by anger and aggression.

Change cannot take place until it has been internalized, accepted, and analysed.

A dictator or a dictatorial leader fears the future without power. Admittedly, a dictator may also fear the fury of the population.

In Syria, the President Bashar al-Assad, refuges to leave, and the evidence of what happened to the dictatorial leaders of neighbouring countries is not helping him to change his mind.

In Egypt and in Libya people are slowly learning new ways of doing things, yet the progress is slow, and it is easy to go back to old ways of doing things, when there are no explicit signs of progress.

The only option a dictatorial leader sees in front of him is fighting and winning, killing everyone who opposes his reign. It is a very irrational reaction based on a mixture of fear, anxiety, and anger.

In Greece, a whole nation is forced to change its life-style. Austerity measures hit hard and at least during the first years have a paralysing effect on economy.

However, I believe that the protests have been as much the results of the fear of change in life-style. When the change in life-style is internalised in the minds of each individual Greek, the economy will start growing once again.

Let’s hope that there will soon be peaceful developments everywhere in the world.

If you wish to read all previous Just A Thought contributions, , from 2010 to 2012 click the links below.