Listen / Read
I might be going soft all of a sudden, but I found this reading to be fairly reasonable and not uninteresting. Religion wise, it’s relevant in relation to an Islamic Republic, and otherwise it actually made me wonder a little. A Thought for the Day actually got me thinking. How about that.
Like a lot of people, I am fascinated by what’s going on in Iran. There are currently a lot of question marks over what’s gone on with regards to vote counting, and a lot of unknowns with regards to what’s going on behind closed doors. But clearly a considerable proportion of the population are aggrieved. Too large a proportion for the establishment to quash or appease without doing some sort of deal with opposition leaders. We can only watch as it plays out.
I think there must be a given balance in a modern liberal democracy wherein enough of the population feel content enough in their standard of living and there’s a critical mass of political ideology shared across the board of all parties, that politics seems like some optional extra rather than being of any significantly tangible relevance.
Unfortunately in Britain many people don’t pay attention to it not because they’re content with their lives but because they’re so discontent with politics. I wouldn’t say this was political apathy or complacency, but rather a reflection of the fact that our politics, unlike Iran’s, have become homogenized around a core of ideological values approved by the political class.
Even though all the candidates in Iran’s election had to be approved by the head of state, this still provided the Iranian people with a wider choice of policies and ideologies than we usually have to choose from. It’s easier to want to make a difference in a democracy if you can tell the difference between the political parties. Socialism, for instance, may as well have been forbidden by a religious leader for all the presence it has in British democracy.
Enough of us could do something about that, of course. For now though, just enough of us have it good enough not to give a toss.