It's the culture, stupid!

Sorry to disagree with our esteemed Director but I do not think that enhancing equality and freedom is a sufficient over-arching vision for a progressive party in the 21st century (see Robert Philpot's article in the current issue of Progress magazine). Nor do I believe that ministerial references to allowing everyone to achieve their full potential are adequate as "the vision thing". Nor is it just the ecology,stupid as my fellow blogger, Melanie Smallman, has recently suggested. All these may be sub-components of what we should be aiming for. But outside a larger framework they could be a digression from what is really needed to set us on the right path.

Without a fundamental change in the way we live, more freedom and equality can simply mean giving everyone an equal chance to over-indulge themselves, which is the main driver of global warming and social breakdown. Likewise the goal of everyone achieving their potential in our society as it stands could just mean giving everyone an equal chance to take part in a rat-race to the top where the main consequences are time-poverty, stress, broken relationships and a sense of failure for the vast majority who do not make it. And an emphasis on ecological considerations per se could leave us feeling guilty and depressed.

Even as a vote-winning strategy the promise of striving for these seemingly worthy objectives can have its downside. More equality can be seen as a threat to those on higher incomes. more freedom as a threat to our safety, and more greenery as a constraint on our standard of living (as the Daily Mail will no doubt be quick to point out to its readers).

No, if there is to be an all-encompassing vision that captures the public imagination it has to relate not to the simple, material-based imperatives of former times but to the more subtle imperatives of the current century. In advanced countries like the UK these revolve around the need for psychological, social, and environmentmental well-being rather than the need to acquire more and more possessions. It is this all-round improvement in the quality of our lives that is the vision we and the world are crying out for. As the Australian eco-campaigner, Clive Hamilton, put it in a recent lecture in London "we need to live richer lives instead of lives of riches".

To achieve this kinder, gentler, more fulfilling kind of society a complete change in our culture is required. The one we have now is essentially a "market" culture which is geared to bringing out the worst in human nature - one-upmanship, selfishness, laziness, gluttony, envy and greed - rather than the best. As such too much time is spent on working, shopping, binging and watching junk television (all of which can be damaging to ourselves and the planet) and too little on things that really matter, like peace of mind, nurturing relationships, meeting our family, community, and environmental obligations and participating in active and creative pursuits.

A truly progressive government  can counter the insidious pressures of the market place by such measures as reducing working time, promoting a more discriminating form of consumption (covering the amount as well as the nature of what we are buying), introducing emotional intelligence and relationship and character training into the school curriculum and by encouraging "feel-good" communal activities.

Unless we switch from a culture of competitive excess to a culture of cooperative sufficiency based on personal and planetary well-being everything else we do to try to improve the human condition is spitting in the wind.