We're On - a Bit of a Cliché

Years ago I heard, and have always been haunted by, a radio play called (I find) The Tree of Strife which dramatised the Icelandic saga known by various titles, but often named The Story of Burnt Njal. I remember the august Bernard Hepton playing Njal, the eleventh-century jurist in Iceland who watches helplessly as the society around him degenerates into blood-feud and violence, and ends up burned to death in his own farmstead, refusing to leave it as a sort of protest against what has happened.

People often underestimate the extent to which human society relies on trust, on assuming that most of the people around you are mostly honest most of the time, and will mostly try to do what they have said they will. Law is vital (though secondary) because it underpins the expectation that if people step outside these norms in a way that harms others, something will be done about it, no matter who they are. Doing anything, anything at all, that erodes this subtle and delicate nexus of truth, trust and socially-agreed rules is dangerous. Ultimately it will liberate the worst about us, and put property, security and life at the mercy of anyone who is willing to act cruelly and brutally in the expectation that they will get away with it.

Rich people can shield themselves from this basic social truth in ways that most of us can’t, because they can pay others to get what they want. As a result they can come to believe that such interactions are all there is to human society. This is the cost of electing to public office rich, immoral people who don’t care about rules provided they get the result they’re aiming at: they don't understand how dangerous it is, and we should name the danger for what it is.

I don't think Mr Johnson is a fascist, a word some people I know are wont to toss about. He isn't even an authoritarian, in the way Mrs Thatcher was inclined to be. He wants to be liked too much. But like Mr Trump, his carelessness and dishonesty may well be clearing the ground for real, on-the-ground evil. Once you lose the social bedrock of honesty and trust, the legal institutions of a society will start to be corrupted as well, and then we're all in trouble, ultimately even the people who think they can buy their own security and welfare. In a society run by criminals, not even the rich are safe. Safety only comes from the dull, unglamorous soil of trust, truth, and law.