All over the Western world, the Near East,
the Middle East, what in Britain is known as South Asia, Australia and
elsewhere, there is a marked rise in various forms of populism. I remember
asking my father, when I was a teenager, why populism was such a Bad Thing.
After all, we believe in democracy, which means rule by the people. So why is
finding out what people really think and want, and ruling accordingly, not to
be countenanced? And my sainted father (whose intelligence, good sense and
limpid explanations I still miss 12 years after his death) patiently explained
that people in the mass and their ideas (feelings, usually) in the raw all too
easily constitute a mob; and that proper democracy provides the filters of representation
and time: elections and the interval between them. It also entrusts the actual
responsibility of governing to those who, we hope, are better educated for the
task.
He
was right, of course; and yet the problem of populism, and the problems that underlie
populism, remain. Most obvious among is the frustration, even the anger, that
fuels this current. A French journalist recently showed that in his country
this anger, which pushes an increasing number of people to the far-right
National Front, aligns with a certain demographic: the “petits Blancs”, the
“little white people”: those who have little education, who are in the front
line for job loss, who have small and precarious incomes, and who see not just the world but their world changing from year to year. (NB: in other parts of the
world, these look different – the “Arab Street”, for example – but their
feelings are the same.) They don’t understand the changes and even when they
think they understand them they don’t like them. Their children or grandchildren
don’t do well in school, but nobody accords them the indulgence and the extra
help that (they feel) the children of dark-skinned immigrants get. And when
they express these frustrations, the “cultural elite” – not just the
politicians, but the intellectuals, academics, and media -- just looks down on
them, calls them reactionary or fascist, and basically tells them to shut up.
The political Left and Far Left, which used proudly to represent the underdogs,
no longer represents them, so they drift off to the Far Right which at least
tells them it’s listening and that they aren’t always Wrong.
What
can be done about this? The first thing, from a Christian point of view, is to recognise
that they are people, that they are God’s children, that they are hurting, and
that they are in need. When we do that, we realise that the next thing is to listen, without impatience and without
arrogance. Once we have listened, we can perhaps begin a conversation, since
they will have noticed that we don’t look down on them. And in such a
conversation, certain points can perhaps be gently raised. Example: almost
everyone who dislikes a certain group
of people – an ethnic group, a nationality, a social class, a professional
group – will make an exception for one or two individuals, or families, from
that group that they know personally. That’s a start. Perhaps some volunteers
running ultra-cheap and cheerfully friendly courses on specific and practical
modern-world problems would help: these already exist, here and there. Priests
and ministers can help, by on the one hand showing that the Others are images
of our Saviour, who died for them, and on the other hand being
extremely firm about certain kinds of behaviour among their congregations. (In
the Central African Republic, the Catholic Archbishop and the Imam work
together closely, but I haven’t yet heard the former thundering against the
murderous militias who call themselves Christians.)
As
for the problems of the economy and job losses, they too may need an approach
that allows for some additional values. To cite my father again, his field of
interest and research was “the Social Responsibility of Business”. (He was both
an economist in a multinational and a university professor.) Nothing could be
more topical in this day and age. The business of business is business, true:
but as a French thinker wrote recently, perhaps today’s business people should
be more involved in politics. Then they could help work out a model of society
that manages to maintain well-run corporations without “downsizing” at the drop
of a share, and that can create new technologies that do not always end up
replacing manpower. That, as the World Council of Churches has long recognised,
merits the creation of serious thinking on “Church And Society” which, if
goodwill can be created on all sides, could replace the corrosive antagonisms
that pollute the air.
Sometimes
the underdogs are not (only) who we think they are, or who the media have
selected for the role. And charity, i.e. love, should go where it is needed.
Lord, make me an
instrument of Your peace;
Where there is
hatred, let me bring love;
Where there is
offence, let me bring pardon;
Where there is
error, let me bring truth;
Where there is
doubt, let me bring faith;
Where there is despair,
let me bring hope;
Where there is
darkness, let me bring light;
And where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
