12 Comments on We’ve never had it so good – or have we?

Hadleigh Roberts on Tue, 16th Jun 2009 9:44 am


A very comprehensive (and more importantly, well-written) piece. Though I think in some cases it may be seen as a “money makes evil” line, stopping short of right-wing looneys’ screams of “communist”.

I’m a little surprised you missed the big target of Thatcher’s “no such thing as society, only individuals” which would have fitted perfectly.

If you want some ideas to expand from this article, I think the idea of “new social evils” could be well applied to the general increase in technology, and dependence thereof which leads to stress. John Bird got it quite right as ‘old man in the pub’ when he said “Of course life is hectic nowadays if you have to do things and then write it all down as you go along.”

phil korbel on Tue, 16th Jun 2009 10:30 am


An excellent article Matthew – a drawing together of many of the RSA’s most urgent strands of thought.

If a commitment device is a place where we share and re-confirm shared values, one challenge is that these spaces have been eroded. When we set up our charity ten years ago it was clear that community media could offer one response to this – in re-inventing some ‘social cement’. I’m not calling for conformity in this, but a realisation of the commonalities that exist and an informed knowledge of the differences.

You also alude to the fact that it could serve some parties’ interests to present a picture of a broken Britain. Where we broadcast in Wythenshawe, there may be occasional disfunction but the sense of community is strong.

Finally, if we are to find shared solutions to external threats such as climate change, the urgency of re-inventing/re-discovering our commitment is all the more crucial.

Sam Holmes on Tue, 16th Jun 2009 1:28 pm


The Gekko/Handbag selfish era lasted some time and now people are hungry for the emotional reward that comes with thinking about the greater good and wider society. On the business front there are definitely shades of the Quaker age, and on the socio-political front, the people-empowerment of the sixties. The global freedom that technology and social media gives us now is to be celebrated. I believe that we will get fed up with all this freedom and social conscience in the end and there will be another selfish phase, but not for quite a few years yet. I think we’re doing fine.

Matthew Kalman on Tue, 16th Jun 2009 3:09 pm


Hi Matthew,

So glad to see you mentioning Abraham Maslow – I do hope you run into some of Pat Dade’s work using a much updated version of Maslow. He’s doing lots of work round the UK these days with NGOs, parties, Govt depts about changing behaviours – especially in relation to sustainability/climate change topics.

If you look through this Maslow-like lens, you will understand how some pioneering segments of people have already – in a sense – solved many big problems, other segments are just beginning to grapple with them.

It’s fascinating the way interest in climate change moves through the segments, from the transcender/self-actualising side to the more brand-obsessed ‘outer-directed’ segments.

Each segment has its own language, its own logic. The average civil society activist – a ‘Concerned Ethical’ – speaks a kind of campaigning language that is poison to the masss of outer-directeds.

Dade’s work be be a good complement to your behavioural economics/neuroscience interests?

Actually I already wrote a slightly off-the-wall speculative rant/comment on the Guardian website about Madeleine Bunting’s piece on the Rowntree ‘social evils’ report. [I would have written a blog comment to a much higher standard for your blog, of course... ]

Can I re-post it here?
(It even mentions both Abraham Maslow, and you! Or more precisely, your regular mentions of that troubling Robert Putnam research. BTW ‘self-actualisation’ wasn’t the peak of Maslow’s pyramid, ‘Transcendence’ needs were, I believe. Ronald Inglehart’s ‘post-materialist value shift’ is probably apposite here too. It was originally Maslow-derived, and that research is a treasure trove of insight into the global trends in values).

If it’s OK, here’s my blog comment from the G. site:

* * *

FROM FRANK FIELD… TO BAKUNIN… TO GANDHI…!

I fear that no workable answers to these ‘social evils’ are going to emerge when even Madeleine herself is careful to quarantine off anything potentially non-PC as ‘right-wing’ and Daily Mail-connected.

Any solution which works for people in Britain will be both non-PC *and* PC at the same time.

That’s why it probably can’t come from either the Guardian or the Daily Mail!

Surprisingly, one person who did break through the unthinking polarisation of politics was Abraham Maslow, who is often seen as some kind of great liberal humanist.

Yet he was quite clear about the key role of law and order, the forceful father etc. (ie All the non-PC stuff that seems potentially authoritarian, but somehow once it’s gone we eventually notice we have created a ‘broken society’!)

On this base of conservative ‘realism’ Maslow thought that we could ultimately reach a liberal ideal of philosophical anarchism and decentralization!

So maybe Frank Field (or Cameron) is actually our stepping stone… to Bakunin. Or, better still, Gandhi

But it we don’t bother to fix the kinds of things that Frank Field MP – and most people in the UK – talk about (eg the family, mass immigration etc), then we’ll never get to our liberal utopia.

Quite an irony!

BTW, it is possible to get beyond all the same old generalisations about who is communitarian, who is individualist etc by using (psychographic) surveys of people’s values and motivations. ie It is possible to have data, evidence, to discuss this – not just rhetoric etc.

IPPR was due to produce a paper using such a model to understand how to change behaviour re climate change. Must check if it appeared…

Everything changes once you become aware of the exact spread of motivations in an organisation, a town, a country,

It’s how businesses, NGOs and parties know how to ‘sell’ things to all of us, to motivate us to change!

Matthew

PS Did the Guardian ever discuss Prof Robert Putnam’s (unwanted!) research finding that greater diversity in communities destroys ‘social capital’ and drives everyone not just back into their own particular community, but back into their shells? RSA’s Matthew Taylor is always reminding us about it (though there is some evidence it might be less true in the UK).

A major source of trouble is the Labour policy didn’t really distinguish between the multiculturlaism of ‘bridging’ social capital and the multiculturalism of ‘bonding’ social capital – which can be exclusionary and leads to ‘plural monocultures’ rather than real multiculturalism, as Amarya Sen explained.

matthewtaylor on Tue, 16th Jun 2009 5:42 pm


Bloody hell Matthew!

All good stuff

Although not sure I agree with Dade about choice – I thought the evidence shows that poor people like it most – or maybe I didn’t get the point

matthewtaylor on Tue, 16th Jun 2009 5:44 pm


I agree Sam. We go upwards but in cycles. Generally we adapt to external threats too but I’m not so sure about climate change.

matthewtaylor on Tue, 16th Jun 2009 5:45 pm


Thanks Phil. And I agree about broken Britain. Actually Labour;s record on the poorest neighbourhoods is pretty strong (see Ann Power’s writings on this). The challenge is to keep up the improvement in a recession and spending squeeze

matthewtaylor on Tue, 16th Jun 2009 5:48 pm


Nice point Hadleigh. I thought Thatcher a bit hackneyed (and of course it’s not quite what she said). As for technology I agree – I like blogging, facebooking and tweeting but I feel i am turning into a human radio station. I can stop of course but the clever thing about all this stuff is that it is very addictive.

phil korbel on Tue, 16th Jun 2009 7:07 pm


ah Matthew – you ‘think’ that you can stop

Interesting point re human radio station – IMHO it’s not the broadcast that’s important but the dialogue that it inspires – otherwise there’s no community.

matthewtaylor on Fri, 19th Jun 2009 8:45 am


I agree Phil. I love the comments on my blog page but the time I spend answering them seems to grow week by week.

Dave Gorman on Fri, 19th Jun 2009 8:05 pm


Thanks Matthew,

Actually I thought all the blog comments were really shallow, until I realised it was the Times article blog comments!

But then that set me thinking…perhaps the things some of us think of as higher states and sources of happiness- for me environment, humanism, a sense of being a thrown-project with one chance etc- are all a bit cerebral and elitist.

I wonder about Richard Layard or Gilbert’s ideas that to some extent, needs for status and advancement are in-built and hard to shake off? I also see little evidence of fundamental challenge to the consumption model at present, though lots of evidence of ‘greener’ behaviour from business at a process/efficiency level (e.g. we buy more efficient TVs, we decarbonise energy sources but then want 3D TVs or low level space flight).

But I do think we’ve barely begun the pathway to action and thought so I remain an optimist, if we can keep the track going. I think we need to sort out the ‘bulk ‘stuff in a sustainable way- transport, housing, food production, energy etc and maintain growth in technology/social media/health improvement/overseas development/education. The lower burden from the first on environment, plus the improved tolerance, improved health, understanding and personal growth from the second, might open up more support for the really big questions- our place in the universe, fundamentals of evolution, pyschology, history- that inspire a further round of growth and development.

If that makes any sense at all…

matthewtaylor on Sat, 20th Jun 2009 12:22 pm


It makes absolute sense. I agree that progress is possible and that human beings in the end work things out. But there are some quite big dangers too – climate change, and the willingness of religious fundamentalists to destroy human life in the name of a cosmic war are two that stand out.

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