Ethically Sourced Elitism and Cults by Andrew McGettigan Why are we so scared of thinking for ourselves? Andrew McGettigan’s new book provides some important clues. We need to find the courage to be truly radical, in order to challenge the establishment and its hold on power. By Andrew McGettigan 1/1 Andrew McGettigan 2/2 3/3 4/4 5/5 1/1 AN INTELLIGENT REVOLUTION The question for the 21st Century should not be “how can we make the establishment do as it should?” but rather, “why don’t we?” This radical question is the theme of Intelligent Revolution: How to run the world and thrive despite it, by Andrew McGettigan, published this month by Yale University Press. McGettigan argues that since the Cold War ended we have lost our vision of the world, and increasingly no longer believe in progressive ideals of liberal democracy. Instead we have embraced a regressive and dystopian idea of how to run the world, including a deep distrust of experts and a denial of science. This results in everything from a widespread public ambivalence towards the environment to widespread complacency about climate change to the rise of a global “neoliberal anti-elite,” which McGettigan argues are the two greatest threats to liberal democracy. A radical solution is required to bring about an intelligent revolution, one that challenges the status quo and re-introduces ideals of progress. Intelligent Revolution makes the case for a radical new vision for 21st Century society, drawing on theories about the role of elites, the rejection of the experts, and the need for deep and rapid systemic change. It also offers an original perspective on how we got here and what we might do about it. The book is also a manifesto for how we can find the courage to think for ourselves, and think critically about the world. In my interview with him, McGettigan revealed why he believes we have lost our confidence in experts, the impact of this on how we think about politics and politics itself, and why the global elite need to be reined in if we’re to avoid a crisis for the free world. The following is based on an email interview conducted by email. The interview took place on May 29th 2018 and the email exchange from his perspective can be read here. In the book, you argue that “the problem of the 21st century is not too few elites but too many elites”. But can we really trust the same elites now as we would have trusted in say, 1945? Can we trust them to not be part of the problem now? Yes I think we can. The real problem is that not enough people are thinking for themselves or even thinking critically about the world. We should accept that we live in an era of great flux, but we also need to think for ourselves about what we do. We need to think seriously about the problems we face and what the best solutions are to those problems. We need to think about how we tackle problems like climate change without giving up the values that made us want to tackle it in the first place, which is why I think it is important to read books like this one. Let’s return to our earlier question: why are we so scared of thinking for ourselves? Do we have something to fear? Why don’t we trust ourselves? We do have something to fear but I don’t think it’s the elites who have our trust. I think our elites are a symptom of what is happening rather than a cause. In fact, the real elites these days are the elites of the collective self-importance: corporations and corporations’ CEOs, the global elite who hold the most shares in these corporations, media moguls and newspaper barons, the celebrities and the TV talking heads. We need to look elsewhere for the real problem. What is a collective self-importance? Our elites are essentially a collective of people who all think they are smarter, better, wiser, or more important than other people, and that is an anti-elitist idea that goes against everything we have been taught about meritocracy. And because it’s all around us we have lost faith in ourselves. In fact it’s becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. When more and more people think they are superior it doesn’t take much for us to start to think that way as well. The elite culture that has come to dominate our lives doesn’t see the world as we do. It sees the world through the lens of winners and losers and it is increasingly obsessed with a very narrow definition of success that doesn’t include being a good human being or doing good for the world. This is what the elite culture of today represents and so we have lost faith in ourselves as a society. If a more open and more democratic version of this kind of elite existed that was more concerned with the public good than the pursuit of their own wealth, what would be different? Would this make us more willing to listen to the kind of experts the author is critical of? Good question. First, we have to distinguish between democracy and liberalism. There are many forms of democracy, but liberal democracy is defined by the rule of law, universal and equal citizenship, transparency, accountability, due process, and checks and balances. These are the foundational elements of liberal democracy. They should never be dismissed, as it is these elements that make liberal democracies sustainable and robust. So we should be clear that what we need are not more versions of the elites, but more versions of the democratic principles underpinning liberal democracies. This will also help to prevent an us-and-them mentality taking hold. You argue in the book that our societies are currently at “collective malaise.” To explain why this might be, you talk about the loss of optimism, lack of belief in our institutions, loss of optimism that things will get better, and a loss of belief that we can affect the world. What did you mean by all this? If I had to summarise these challenges in a single word it would be uncertainty. I’ve found that the more people know the less sure they are of the future and this applies especially to things like the economic climate. I think we have become more unsure because our political leaders have told us that our political systems and institutions are flawed. We have lost faith in them. So there’s a lack of belief in the institutions that are designed to hold governments to account. You see this with the Brexit vote in the UK, the Trump election in the US and the rise of populism in general. We also have an absence of optimism about what we can achieve as a society. We’ve become very complacent. A lot of it has to do with the fact that we are in a time of relative plenty when the technology and the ideas that have underpinned the globalisation of trade, communications, and culture for many decades have brought us unprecedented opportunities for prosperity. So many of us have things that we didn’t have in the past. So when a recession hits there’s not much we can do other than ride it out. It’s also because we’re in a society that has become so globalised that one region’s good fortune is another’s bad. So when you live in New York or London you’re only one bad turn of events away from falling into real hardship, as have so many of the Chinese middle classes in recent months. This creates a sense of precariousness across society which in turn creates fear and panic. Finally, we have a loss of faith in our own ability to make a difference in the world. This is a far more general problem. It’s not limited to government, nor is it limited to the West. In fact, I think it is even worse in emerging economies, as it is these countries where so many citizens have not been the beneficiaries of the fruits of globalisation and global growth. So many people have been left behind and they feel very precarious, and this makes them less confident. Can you think of examples of the ways that these challenges manifest themselves in society? What are the symptoms and what are the causes? The loss of optimism and confidence in our institutions means that fewer and fewer people believe that our political leaders can govern effectively. We have become far too complacent about the nature of these institutions, and too willing to believe that we don’t know what we’re talking about. As a result, we allow many things to happen. The most obvious recent example of this is Brexit. We also have a loss of faith in ourselves. This is manifested in the fact that the most radical solution to any problem is dismissed as radical and out of touch. This happened with the Occupy movement and is happening now with Brexit. We shouldn’t ignore the fact that it’s very difficult for the public to have anything other than a limited set of viewpoints when we are dominated by 24 hour news cycles and partisan media. We also have an absence of global solidarity in the face of large-scale problems like climate change. Instead we now have a sense of collective self-importance. We’re not all in this together. Our elites are now far more concerned with being leaders of the free world, than with actually solving the problems of the free world. So what can we do to fix this? I think we need to start by learning to think for ourselves about our own country and