Saturday, 7 December 2019

Lincoln as Reminder


          I was left open-mouthed recently by the Trump supporter who, in a brief interview, said that she was “terrified” by socialism. An extreme reaction, surely? But then she lives in America, where the media deliberately conflates social democracy with Stalinism. On this side of the pond, meanwhile, millions of us are thankful for having been beneficiaries of Britain’s post-1945 socialist reforms. Our differing political views are not surprising: as Claude Levi-Strauss observed, “One must be very naïve or dishonest to imagine that men choose their beliefs independently of their situation” *.
          Everything I perceive lately is coloured by the imminent general election, in which the principal contestants present extremely opposed theories of governance. But why extreme? Whatever happened to consensus? Was that, in Joni Mitchell’s phrase, “just a dream some of us had”? Utopian or not, the idea of a society in which wealth is more evenly distributed need be neither the end of capitalism nor the beginning of Stalinism. In the past twenty years or so the rate of disparity between rich and poor in both the USA and the UK has accelerated and this seems to be at odds with the principles of our democratic systems, which, supposedly, guard the majority against the minority of would-be plutocrats, kleptocrats and autocrats. Either democracy is not working well for the benefit of the masses, or the masses are failing to ensure that democracy works in their favour.
          We should be thankful that, compared with previous times, we do have considerable political freedom. The thoroughness with which authority was forcibly imposed, historically, was brought home to me this week as I wandered through the centre of the City of Lincoln, where the layers of history run deep and, here and there, resurface to tell their stories. The Romans established themselves militarily at Lindum, as they named it. Later, as they conquered more northerly realms, it became a colonia, or administrative hub. Not much remains of their infrastructure, but the essential layout of the city, based on fortification, endures. The city’s north entrance arch still stands and traffic passes through it on what was Ermine street, the Romans’ main route to the Humber estuary. (Ironically, there is a photo in the museum of a lorry, painted in the livery of ‘Humber Transport’ circa 1950, which became stuck fast under the stone arch.) The medieval southern gate to the city stands on the foundations of the Roman original that marked the end of the road from Exeter, the famed Fosse Way. The Romans brought unification, order, stability and the rule of law to their colonies, but the improvement of the lot of the masses was not on their agenda.
          The Romans left, abruptly, to look after their own back yard and the ‘Dark Ages’ set in. Uncertainty became the norm until, in medieval times, the power vacuum was filled by monarchs and priests, sometimes working together, sometimes at odds, to control the wealth produced by the country and its people. Lincoln, again, reflects this story, since it is dominated by the massive castle and magnificent cathedral standing side-by-side at its highest point. Less prominent, but just as significant, is the Guildhall, where the city council has met since 1520 and where ancient symbols of power are kept, such as swords representing fealty to the Crown and royal charters granting ‘favours’ such as the right to hold markets.
          By the end of the day, reacquainted with our long history of subjugation, I had strengthened my resolve to exercise my vote in the rejection of any politician whose words and deeds smell of the recurring themes of the past – plutocracy, kleptocracy and autocracy. Surely, faced with these, a little socialist compassion is not such a terrifying proposition?
* Claude Levi-Strauss, anthropologist (28 Nov 1908-2009)


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