Broken Dreams

The 1960s are heralded as being the start of a social revolution. It was the moment that the 'Establishment' lost control of the social debate. As the soixante-huitards proclaimed in Paris, "It is forbidden to forbid". If questions of race, gender, class etc may have gone back centuries, this was the decade which gave impetus to the transformation of the way in which such issues are considered today.

It was, of course, the willingness to challenge orthodoxies, to question the right of the self-proclaimed religious and secular moral guardians that had made the difference.

For those of us who witnessed this period of history first hand, it is depressing to see that the revolution has now come full circle. We have returned to a time when the 'Establishment seeks to impose its moral certainties, and which considers itself justified in doing so because its members are both intellectually and morally more enlightened than others. As the sans-culottes would have said, 'Plus ça change...'.

It is a new sanctimonious left wing orthodoxy which reveals its prejudice in its vocabulary. "I am a democrat, you are populist, he is a fascist". 

And it matters not that in so many cases it is evident that the 'Establishment' got things so terribly wrong - the invasion of Iraq, the bid to join the euro, the refusal to manage immigration, the promotion of diesel engines,etc etc.

There is perhaps, however, still hope that a new revolution may be underway - and one driven by similar dynamics to those in the sixties. Back then it was the access to a more independent media, which enabled the alternative society to thrive. Rock music, provocative plays, films and magazines may often have contributed little of lasting artistic value, but they created a new intellectual freedom. 

Today, the internet with its blogs, websites and access to international media takes this to another dimension. It is this which guarantees the long term failure not just of the printed media but of the hegemony of institutions such as the BBC.

Vive la nouvelle révolution!