The Culture Wars are back to distract us

This week saw the launch of the ludicrous “Coalition for Marriage” (though apparently they prefer C4M – I’m guessing because they’re so down with the kids…). While I am deeply concerned at the increasingly febrile atmosphere surrounding social issues in the UK, I’m also becoming increasingly concerned that this age old distraction is once again back with a vengeance. Whether it’s religious numpties or atheist ones, the culture wars are reasserting themselves with a vengeance.

Bugger.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the ridiculous bigots at C4M are pursuing a nasty and horrific agenda. And of course this must be fought. I think Nadine Dorries has a horrendous agenda, straight-jacketing vulnerable women into massively restricted life choices. And of course this must be fought. I find the rise of racial and cultural stereotyping abhorrent, and the increased marginalisation of groups already separated from society deeply concerning and I worry about the long term consequences. So of course this must be fought.

But once again, it seems that no sooner do we start to have a real and genuine exploration of the deleterious effects of free market Capitalism on society, but we’re distracted by other more immediate issues. The urgent is drowning out the important in the way that it has done for years.

I really hoped it would be different this time. I remember remarking of the Occupy movement that while I was ambivalent about their methods and sceptical about the ability to achieve their specified ends through their chosen means, at least they were actually having a real conversation about Capitalism. For a while the rest of us were having that conversation too. We were talking about what is at the root of the problems inherent in a free-market Capitalist society. We weren’t simply discussing the best ways to tinker around the edges.

But of course, we have more immediate fights to have. We need to protect the NHS, try to dull the edges of the pain being felt by vulnerable and disabled families thanks to the Welfare Reform Bill. Our economy is scrambling to keep its toehold and that involves a great deal of kicking down, in the desperate attempt to get purchase or purchases. We need to help wherever we can at each rung of the ladder.

Perhaps I’m hoping for too much. I remain committed to Party politics as the only vehicle through which real and lasting change can be achieved. But as late stage Capitalism has turned us into consumers of individualised trends, so our politics goes the same way. We pick our issues and we stick with them. Collectivism is not something we have experience of anymore, so it is losing its value.

So we fight each other to make our issue a priority when rearranging the deckchairs on the good ship Free Market Capitalism. We noticed the Iceberg. It even jolted us for a while, but now we’re simply transferring the values we help in the ship to the lifeboats – Women and children first is only necessary when there isn’t enough room, and a well-planned escape that takes account of the needs of all.

We spend all our energy fire fighting. We don’t have time for the macro, the bigger picture, for what lies beneath. The system is skewed against us and that’s how they keep us from questioning it.  Which is dreadful and dreadfully sad.

But I offer you this one small crumb of consolation. It ain’t just our side that gets distracted like this.

Read any columnist in the Mail, the Sun, the Express for long enough and you’ll hear that plaintive cry of the victimhood of the winning class. It used to annoy the hell out of me. When so many people are really suffering, it can seem insufferable.

But ask yourself this: “How my worse would they be, if they didn’t waste all their energy fighting paper tigers?”. Every time some idiot Tory MP goes off on a “political correctness gone mad” jaunt, we should thank them. Not because they’re right. But because the time, energy and political will they are using up attacking non-existent councils for banning Christmas could have been put to far worse use.

But next time you go to take up arms against them, realise that so could ours. If we could get there first, instil that discipline first, then we could leave them to their distractions and perhaps claim the real prize.