Liberal progressives – you have a good story to tell. Tell it!
Communication has become the art of the sound bite; infuriating, though that is, it is the reality of the world we inhabit. S/he who is good at simplifying a complicated issue, but keeps the essence of it is the one who will reach the widest audience.
The left and progressives are too clever by half [*]. They get the complexities, but are loath to simplify for fear of losing some strands of the argument. Liberal progressive writers use their experience and knowledge combined with findings from other sources in an enterprise of intellectual rigour to back up their theses and conclusions. However, it is important that these conclusions and ideas are then distilled into easily digestible chunks, and presented in a way that resonate with the experiences and struggles of the ordinary voter, to whom politics is not such a passion. Alas, this does not happen. Progressives seem to me to be writing for each other with little regard to keeping an eye on a wider audience.
The right have always been able to appeal to the basest instincts of human nature in a way that chimes with the aspirations of the many. Take, for example, the issue of the savage cuts in government spending that are being advocated by the right on both sides of the Atlantic; it is presented in the guise of a “family finances” argument. As a family, “wouldn’t you want to pay your debts and live within your means”? - is a very appealing argument.
Note that when the right and like-minded groups talk about cutting government spending even further, they are not talking about cuts in spending on wars and its destructive machinery. Oh no, they are talking about cutting it from the meagre amounts given to the disabled, the poor, the unemployed, those most vulnerable in our society. They never talk about priorities in spending; they never talk about the obscene income gap between the ultra rich and the poor.
Selfishness and obscenely large salaries for the elite in society are presented by the right as self-reliance and reward for hard work. The argument that you too can make it has a simple appeal. The fact that the top 1% of society in the US owns 38% of the wealth; in the case of the UK the top 1% owns 21% of the wealth; moreover, this gap is getting wider, concerns them not a jot.
People are finally waking up to the cruelty and immorality of punishing the poor and vulnerable in our society for the greed of bankers who brought society to its knees with their casino-type form of banking. The huge demonstrations across Europe and the US against the cruel cuts and the economic model that consigns millions of young people to the scrapheap of unemployment demanded by the “moneymen” is a testament to that awakening.
Progressives need to find simple counter messages if they are serious about changing society and the politics that are impoverishing the quality of life of millions in the US and UK. In that they have a mammoth task to get their message across. Corporate media is not going to help, and those with money and influence will do their utmost to bury and distort the message. But we now have the net based media, and here the left should be able to reach a wider audience. However, it seems to me many of the progressive left leaning websites are probably being read by political junkies of the same persuasion and not reaching the wider audience necessary to make a difference to the way our lives and our world are being run. Could it be because ordinary voters find it difficult to make the connection between their experiences and the articles they read?
The immorality of severe cuts in public spending with its detrimental influence on the poor, disabled and marginalized in our society, is now manifest and being rejected by ordinary citizens represented by trade unions, faith groups, and progressives across Europe and the US. Liberal progressives need to articulate a vision of society that places human beings at its core. Justice, fairness and respect for the rule of law and human rights should become its guiding principles. More than that, intellectuals on the left of politics need to put together a coherent practical programme that will deliver such a noble vision.
Dictators and despots in the Arab world, with all the instruments of media control and terror at their disposal, cannot stop their people finding out the truth. Surely it is easier for progressives to make the case that there are better ways to run the US and the UK than the present state of perpetual war, callousness, and greed that is blighting the lives of millions in the West and worldwide.
Liberal progressives - you have a good story to tell; tell it.
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[*] "Too clever by half" is a derogatory comment about a speaker who offends his audience by verbal overkill: an inappropriate display of erudition, a point made and made and made again, an argument that goes (50%!) too far, etc. It is 100% British, and is not used in America. (The Phrase Finder)
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Dr Adnan Al-Daini took early retirement in 2005 as a principal lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at a British University. His PhD in Mechanical Engineering is from Birmingham University, UK. He has published numerous applied scientific research papers covering heat transfer, fluid flow and energy utilization in many industrial applications. He is a British citizen born in Iraq. Since retirement he has devoted his time and energy to building bridges and understanding between minority communities, particularly the Muslim community and the wider community in the South West of England. He was Chair of Devon Racial Equality Council between 2007/8. Adnan is a contributing writer for the Huffington Post.
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URL: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2011/07/06/liberal-progressives-you-have-a-good-sto
