The purpose of the forum is to encourage the discussion of social, economic and legal issues relevant to the UK. In particular I wish to encourage exploration of the connectivity between these fields and viewpoints, how they intermesh and create each other.
Society: social conventions, starting with the sanctity of family, community traditions and religious practice go towards what make a society what it is, in 2016 Britain, a multi-cultural society. The Economy: in its widest sense encompasses money, central bank policy; commerce, trade associations such as the EU; and fiscal policies imposed by local and central government. The Rule of Law: takes in Parliamentary legislation, the Court system, civil and criminal, as well as law enforcement.
The objective is to encourage people to question ‘accepted wisdom’ and convention and the belief that the mainstream media view of the World presents an accurate view of the World. Just as a gold fish in a bowl might not know why he is there and why when a mirror is placed next to his bowl there appears another identical fish. In the same way we are born into a particular era, a culture and time that results in a particular mind set. It is not that we accept the system, we are the system and we cannot easily understand how it came about. Even if we can find some history books or have time to listen to our elders or have lived overseas for some years we are liable to accept that because the other gold fish in the bowl with us are doing the same thing as us that all must be well and normal and just how it is. The aim is to empower the reader and participant and demonstrate that the goldfish bowl is an illusion; that we have power to direct our destiny in the wider sense, we are society, we are the economy; we are the law makers and enforcers; like a million ants building an ever higher anthill, but for what?
The site will make available information that is out there but not in readily digestible form; pose awkward questions as to why things are as they are, if things should be as they are, and how things might be changed for the better. My motivations are many. Perhaps the catalyst has been the fiasco of the Brexit referendum and the realisation that the majority of our so called ‘leaders’ (politicians, civil servants, economists, heads of industry, religious leaders) are, “ in the age of spin”, a mirror reflection of the society’s wish for short term gain, staying in the job, hitting sales targets; secondly, the lack of critical thinking by today’s mainstream journalists who need to satisfy the media moguls who ‘own’ them; thirdly that ‘elite’ of society are often experts in the art of knowing how things work in a very narrow field only. This lack of wide field vision and critical thinking skills is a trait of today’s society, which like a hamster on a wheel runs ever faster trying to catch up with itself, knowing not where it is going or how to get there, only that the faster it runs the more distant seems the destination. I will aim to drag into the light of day what is going on and provoke free thinking, understanding and finally action by posing the right questions. With education comes knowledge, with understanding comes reflection, and with reflection the ability to act rationally for the wider good.
More to come soon…