The 1950s and the 1990s: Prosperous Complacency

Part five of a forthcoming book called Collected Essays.

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The 1950s and 1990s were prosperous but complacent decades, as they assumed that prosperity would continue indefinitely. The economic structures of both decades were drastically different. In the 50s it was statist and interventionist whereas the 90s encouraged privatisation and deregulation in the economy. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan claimed that ‘you have never had it so good,’ but he was also preoccupied as to how Britain could maintain full employment, high wages and economic growth without unleashing inflation. Also, Britain did not modernise sufficiently well and this would create problems in subsequent decades. Countercultural movements emerged which satirised complacency in British society. Meanwhile, the 1990s produced unheralded levels of growth, as globalisation was starting to bring third world countries out of poverty. Governments increased financial deregulation, which was perceived as prudent. Like the 1950s, it was assumed that prosperity would continue indefinitely, but this was shattered with the financial crisis of 2008. It was also assumed that liberal values could be exported to countries in the middle east, but these ideas were undone by the invasion of Iraq. Like the 50s, the 1990s also produced acerbic satire which mocked the self-righteousness of political movements. This essay will examine how the 1950s and the 1990s were complacent decades which created problems.

The 1950s were a period of unprecedented prosperity for Great Britain – and, indeed, for much of the western world. Harold Macmillan claimed that ‘we have never had it so good’ [1]. The Labour government had previously achieved full employment, economic growth and increased production after the war. However, the Conservatives lifted rations, consumerism increased and the coal and steel industries boomed, which resulted in economic growth of 2.2% in 1958 [2]. Macmillan had always been on the left of the Conservative party and had been scarred by the unemployment of the 1920s and 30s. Unlike most of the Labour Party, he did believe that individual enterprise was necessary to create wealth and redistribute it to the needy. However, he believed in government intervention to manage consumer demand and therefore maintain high employment. He made this particular speech because he was worried that the unprecedented full employment could cause prices to spiral and affect employment [3]. Nonetheless, employment had exceeded the targets set by Keynes and Beveridge.

The boom of the 50s was unlike the economic booms of the 80s, 90s and 00s, as British industry was exporting more. Indeed, this was the last economic boom that depended on manufacturing. Up to the 1950s, Britain was an industrial powerhouse and made up a quarter of the world’s exports. Now, however, it makes up 2% of the world’s exports. It made up a third of the nation’s output and employed 40% of the workforce. Later economic booms were over-reliant on overinflated financial services [4].

After the Second World War, governments made a concerted effort not to return to the poverty and inequality of the 20s and 30s. As such, they created ‘welfare states,’ which had largely mollified poverty. Macmillan continued a policy of full employment, building several factories in poor towns. Macmillan encouraged investment by encouraging car manufacturers to expand their facilities away from the West Midlands and into less industrialised locations such as Merseyside [5]. Also, the Conservative government had an excellent record on housing, having built on average 300,00 houses per year in this period. The Conservatives acknowledged the advantage of the mixed economy and recognised that, if they built more social housing, that it would also encourage investment in the private sector [6]. However, child poverty and elderly poverty had increased and wages were rising in ways that adversely affected lower ones. As such, poverty had increased, relative to the prosperity of the time. However, higher life expectancy rates meant that elderly people struggled with their pensions. Coupled with rises in inflation, this meant that a quarter of elderly people needed National Assistance [7]. Beveridge’s other target – the complete elimination of poverty – had not been achieved completely.

The post-war economic recovery was statist and the economy at the time was much more interventionist. The ‘consensus’ that emerged after the war encouraged greater intervention in the economy to incentivise investment and planning. Public spending went up under Macmillan, which caused health secretary Enoch Powell to rail against the Conservative government's policies. Powell wanted to bring inflation down at all costs, but the economic orthodoxy of the day was different. However, Macmillan did introduce a mildly deflationary package – in other words, he brought public spending down – to protect pound reserves. However, Macmillan contravened the quantity theory of money when he stated: ‘[Inflation is not caused by] a control of the money supply,’ which was seen by Roy Harrod ‘as an antiquated doctrine’ [8]. The Conservative government thought that unemployment and stagnation were worse prospects than mild inflation. However, by 1959 inflation went down to 1%, its lowest rate since the war. Hence, Powell’s prescriptions seemed nonsensical, as Britain was at its most prosperous, there was economic growth and the generous benefits, pensions and housing had created a fairer and more generous society. According to Sandbrook, monetarist historians had overlooked how the Conservative governments from 1951 until 1964 were determined to stop the unemployment and class divisions of the 1920s and 30s [9].

The economic ruin bequeathed by the ‘laissez-faire’ model of the 1920s and 30s gave rise to ideas such as planning, which were assiduously implemented by the Labour Party through rationing. There were central boards which encouraged investment, which was a form of ‘planning.’ Throughout the 40s, 50s and 60s, Governments increasingly set long term targets. Institutions were established to reach these targets, such as the Economic Planning Board [10]. However, long-term plans were also set for social welfare, such as the NHS Plan of 1962, Local Health and Welfare Plan of 1963 and the Housing Plan of 1965 [11].

The economic prosperity of the 1950s posed a conundrum for the Labour Party, as it had achieved most of the aims of its 1945 manifesto [12] and the Conservatives claimed that they could run the welfare state more efficiently [13]. Many people in the rank-and-file of the Labour Party thought that they might never return to power ever again [14]. As such, this led to a lot of revisionism within the party, most notably with Anthony Crosland’s influential book The Future of Socialism (1956). He claimed that the economic problem that the Labour Party were trying to overcome had been solved [15]. It had achieved full employment and social welfare whilst other objectives such as the abolition of private property and increasing the power of the working classes had become irrelevant [16]. He wanted Labour to drop its commitment to socialist controls – that is, controls that plan industry or ration its goods. Industry could be directed in the right direction to increase profits and full employment, but it did not have to control it, as this denied free choice and it created a needlessly large bureaucracy to enforce it [17]. He claimed that nationalisation was no longer a panacea. He revisited this theme in a speech in 1973: ‘Nationalisation...does not in itself engender greater equality, more jobs in the regions, higher investment or industrial democracy’ [18]. The classical central tenet of socialism – that the community must own the means of production – had to be dropped. Instead of pining for greater public ownership, Crosland urged the Labour Party to focus on improved public services and the elimination of poverty. The objectives of social welfare were to relieve distress and suffering, not to achieve social equality [19]. It must provide greater equality of opportunity and, in this regard, the Conservatives did not go far enough. In order to provide greater equality of opportunity, Labour must abolish grammar schools, abolish the eleven-plus and increase comprehensive education. Inequality was wasteful, as it prevented social mobility. Additionally, Crosland wanted to place strong emphasis on liberty and the good life: ‘[the socialist] in whose blood there should always be a trace of the anarchist and the libertarian, and not too much of the prig and the prude.’ (20)

However, both parties were complacent, as British industry did not modernise sufficiently well. After the Second World War, debt stood at 225% of GDP [21]. However, subsequent Labour and Conservative governments brought the debt down. Although borrowing had increased, there had been budget surpluses and growth which allowed the government to pay back some of its net debt. Growth averaged 3% and inflation averaged 3.57% between 1951-64. By 1964, the debt had been reduced to 110% of GDP [22]. However, the most pressing issue was innovation in British industry, as it was not exploiting new technological advances. Productivity in British industry was high in the early 1900s, but other countries caught up in the 1960s and took over by the 1970s. This was not reversed even until the end of the twentieth century and Britain continues to have a productivity gap with The United States and Europe [23]. Robert Skidelsky writes as to how British industry throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s expected to keep living off the empire. The Conservative governments from the period, he claimed, did not try to modernise. Additionally, British industries were under no pressure to modernise their plants or upskill their managers or workers [24]. Despite the prosperity of the 1950s, this would spiral out of control in the 1950s and 60s. Labour governments tried to implement an ‘Industrial Plan’ where they tried to re-organise industry. This was finally discredited when Tony Benn wanted to create worker co-operatives for Britain’s decaying industries [25]. By the 1970s, companies such as British Leylands and Ferranti were making enormous losses caused by mismanagement. After the Oil Crisis, the Labour government started the National Enterprise Board, which was meant to modernise British industry under the direction of the government. The NEB had to deal with more companies in trouble, but no improvement occurred [26]. Statism and interventionism had been discredited.

On the other hand, the Labour Party governments of 1964-70 and 1974-79 have been described as ‘Croslandite.’ However, Crosland later admitted that he overlooked in his seminal text as to how the Labour Party could generate economic growth [27]. Indeed, he was initially pleased as to how the welfare state had quelled capitalism through greater union laws and regulations, as free-for-all capitalism had been quelled by the mixed economy [28]. However, some people claim that the post-war consensus – high taxes and regulations – ended up stifling the British economy [29]. Some people claim that its emphasis on the public sector – 49.7% of GDP went towards public spending in 1975 [30] - stifled entrepreneurial initiative [29]. Of course, the oil shock was the death knell to Croslandite social democracy [31]. Unlike their mentor, Kenyensians were later very inflexible as to how to tackle inflation [32]. As such, governments across Europe, decided to prioritise low inflation over full employment [32]. Monetarism emerged as the de rigeur economic theory, which is the theory that the amount of money that circulates in the economy should be proportional to the amount of goods. Availability of money goes up, which increases economic growth. However, an increase in the supply increases demand, so companies put prices to meet this demand, which leads to inflation. Hence, monetarists urge central banks to control the supply of money. Also, monetarists lower interests rates because this brings the cost of borrowing down and people can borrow to invest more, which also leads to economic growth [33]. This economic theory replaced statist Keynesianism as the prevalent economic doctrine. However, several thinkers and politicians of the 1950s did not foresee how they could preserve the statism of the day. Indeed, it was assumed that the prosperity would go on forever [34], but it unravelled quickly.

Certain political and economic political attitudes were complacent in the 50s. However, there were cultural movements in the 1950s which were indicative of new changes and actively satirised complacency. The first countercultural movement in the 1950s were the Angry Young Men. However, the 1950s were largely a conservative, family-oriented culture [35]. The Conservative governments from 1951 until 1964 were ‘paternalistic,’ meaning that they were meant to look after and protect its citizens [36]. Despite this, Britain was becoming less deferential to institutions like the monarchy [37]. The Angry Young Men were the first countercultural movement that reacted against this. The movement was manifold, but it was partly political and religious. Its most famous exponent was Kingsley Amis, who published Lucky Jim in 1956. Amis satirised the deference that was prevalent in British culture. His novel covers a university in Great Britain and its protagonist is forced to participate in its pomp and circumstance to gain acceptance. The novel actively satirised British institutions and pretensions. It sold very well and it was controversial. As well as satirising British society and its institutions, it also criticised Britain's attraction to continental modernism and the avant-garde [38]. Meanwhile, Colin Wilson popularised existentialism with his book The Outsider (1956). The book appealed to the counterculture, as it glorified the idea of the ‘outsider’ in art. Wilson represented the more religious strand in the movement, as he later wrote a book entitled Religion and the Rebel (1957). His book mixed a plethora of disparate writers and thinkers, but it helped bring contemporaneous continental philosophy to a British audience. Crucially, Wilson came from a working class background and had never been to university, which signified the rise of equal opportunities [39].

The tail-end of the 1950s also witnessed the nascent beginnings of Britain’s satire boom. Beyond the Fringe – comprised of Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennet and Jonathan Miller – created sketches which satirised toffs and in many ways prefigured Monty Python. In an iconic moment, Beyond the Fringe performed in a theatre with then-prime minister Harold Macmillan in the audience and Peter Cook walked up to Macmillan and impersonated him in his presence [40]. Beyond the Fringe and the Angry Young Men segued into the decadence, radicalism and anarchism of the 1960s. However, much of the satire of both movements was rather soft. Peter Cook claimed that the real target of his satire was ‘complacency’ and that they were not interested in tearing down patriotism or morality [41]. Indeed, Sandbrook writes that the impact of the programme has been exaggerated and that only a small fragment of society saw the programme when it was broadcast [42].

The 1990s resemble the 1950s in many ways, as it also was a period of prosperity and economic growth. The children of the 50s generation, the ‘baby boomers,’ came to power. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair rebelled against the statist paternalism of the 1950s and accepted the Thatcher/Reagan settlement [43]. Globalisation had generated high levels of economic growth and wealth. The collapse of communism appeared to confirm that liberal democracy had won the battle of ideas. This also solidified laissez-faire, which had made a come-back after the stagflation of the 1970s [44]. Europe had also enjoyed its longest period of peace. As such, history appeared to have reached a plateau, which led Francis Fukuyama to theorise about the ‘end of history.’ Several ideas had been tried and tested, but liberal democracy had won the battle of ideas. Fukuyama did not claim that there would no longer be historical events, rather he claimed that ideology had expired and that liberal democracy had mollified political extremes [45]. Fukuyama was a Hegelian conservative and Hegel was a thinker who believed that political ideas were theses and antitheses which produced syntheses. In other words, history has a purpose. Moments in history and political ideas are all parts which add up to produce events. Certain political events end when they have achieved their purpose, such as the Roman Empire [46]. According to Fukuyama, liberal democracy had won the battle of ideas and history had culminated, which led to the kind of perpetual peace envisaged by Kant. This was a universal, liberal and co-operative federation of states. Kant claimed that wars occur when individuals self-interestedly disregard justice. Republics, united by international law, would subscribe to a universal doctrine of rights. Also, national barriers had to be overcome and nations would have to co-operate [47]. The world in the 1990s was starting to resemble this ideal. This global liberalism was Fukuyama’s notion of historical culmination whereas for Marx it was communism [45].

Like the Kenynesian statism of the 1950s, there was also some complacency in the 1990s. There were unusually high levels of economic growth and it was assumed that it would keep growing. In the USA, the economy grew on average by 4%, 1.7 million workers were added to the workforce, the average income grew by 10% and the poverty rate fell to an all-time low of 10% in 2000 [48]. Clinton and Blair took financial deregulation further. Bill Clinton signed the ‘Financial Services Modernisation’ Act in 1999, which was welcomed by most people and was not seen as reckless [48]. British Labour chancellor Gordon Brown even spoke about ‘the end of boom and bust,’ [49] which suggested that economic growth would extend exponentially without a single recession. Brown also deregulated the banks from the oversight of the Bank of England [50]. There were some doom-mongers who claimed that this laissez-faire attitude would result in a global financial meltdown, but these were a minority. Roy Jenkins had been a Labour chancellor in the 1960s and proposed Keynesian solutions to generate full employment as leader of the SDP. However, he sensed that the financial deregulation could cause a giant economic depression that mirrored 1929 [51]. Similarly, John Gray wrote a book called False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism (1998) in which he claimed that laissez-faire was hubristic, debt-prone, created higher crime, broke up families, created greater atomisation and that it would soon lead to a meltdown [52].

However, laissez-faire globalisation was winning the argument in the 1990s whilst the left appeared to have lost it completely. Globalisation had brought countries in Africa and south east Asia out of poverty and starvation [53]. The left was beating the same tired drum, arguing against globalisation and for greater protectionism. Noam Chomsky sold less books during this period [54] and a figure like Tony Benn became completely estranged from the Labour party [55]. Labour embraced globalisation and rebranded itself as ‘New Labour.’

The unprecedented wealth also led western countries to believe that they should export western values and laissez-faire economics to third-world countries. ‘Neo-conservatism’ and ‘liberal interventionism’ became fashionable buzzwords during this period [56]. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cooke spoke about an ‘ethical’ foreign policy [57]. George W. Bush was elected in 2000. His vice-president Dick Chaney and his secretary of state Donald Rumsfield were branded as ‘neo-conservatives.’ Neo-conservatism advocates free market capitalism and an interventionist foreign policy which exports this form of capitalism. Paul Wolfowitz promoted the invasion of Iraq [58].

Like the 1950s, complacency towards the economy and foreign policy soon started to generate problems. George Bush took financial deregulation further [59]. This led to the biggest bust in economic history, which meant that governments bailed out banks with state money and accrued large deficits. Gordon Brown and Barack Obama spent money on the economy and bailed out ailing companies [60]. Liberal interventionism, which had been solidified by successful interventions in Bosnia and Sierra Leon and genocides in Rwanda, also led to chaos. The invasion of Iraq led to to Sunni/Shia sectarian battles and a failed state [61]. Also, a power vacuum led to the rise of ISIS and to a nascent Islamic caliphate across Iraq and Syria [62].

Like the 1950s, Hollywood films from the 1990s reflect the economic boom. Many films – such as Forrest Gump (1994) – recreate a sense of economic freedom and a sense of optimism. Like the British satire boom of the 1950s, there was a lot of satire, which became more hard-edged and biting. It may have been reflecting the prevalent complaceny. Bret Easton Ellis published his novel American Psycho in 1991, which mordantly satirised the vapid consumerism and individualism of the day. Programs such as The Simpsons attacked sacred cows and everyone was on the brunt of their attacks – conservatives, liberals, leftists, etc. South Park took this iconoclasm further. Both programs were controversial when they were first released. In the early 90s and late 90s, schoolchildren who wore t-shirts of both programs were sent home [63].

The 1950s were a prosperous but complacent decade. Conservative governments did not modernise industry. The Labour Party’s revisionist theories were too complacent, as they took economic growth for granted. The prosperity of the era had made some of the ideals of the Labour movement redundant. As such, it placed greater emphasis on greater social mobility and equality of opportunity. However, many of the assumptions, such as state planning and intervention, had been dropped by the 1970s. The boom of the 1950s was created primarily by manufacturing, but mismanagement ran most British industries to the ground by the 1970s. Many people assumed that the prosperity of the 1950s would continue indefinitely – many people thought the same about the prosperity of the 1990s – but proved illusory. Similarly, many assumptions of the 1990s were complacent. Governments increased financial deregulation and it was not seen as imprudent. Indeed, British chancellor Gordon Brown hubristically claimed that the era of boom and bust was over. The whole world was prospering in the 1990s and this led Francis Fukuyama to claim that the ‘end of history’ had been reached. Fukuyama believed that history had reached an apotheosis, that ideology had died and that liberal democracy had won the battle of ideas. As such, the world was starting to resemble Kant’s ideal of a universal republic. However, this was also a complacent assumption to espouse, as there were several conflicts in Kosovo, Rwanda and Sierra Leon. Subsequently, a shadow banking system almost brought the world economy down and governments had to bail out the banks. Foreign policy ideas from the 1990s were also equally hubristic, as they assumed that western values could be exported and imposed on other cultures, but the invasion of Iraq tarnished these ideas. Finally, the satire of the 1990s, like the satire of the 50s, also acerbically critiqued the complacency of the era. The 1950s and 1990s were similar decades in that they were prosperous, but they also naively assumed that this prosperity would continue.

Notes

1. Martin Evans. 2010. Harold Macmillan’s ‘Never Had it So Good’ Speech Followed the 1950s Boom. [Online] The Guardian. Available from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8145390/Harold-Macmillans-never-had-it-so-good-speech-followed-the-1950s-boom.html

2. 2016. UK GDP Since 1955. [Online] The Guardian. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2009/nov/25/gdp-uk-1948-growth-economy

3. Dominic Sandbrook. 2005. Never Had it So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to The Beatles, p. 79-80. London: Abacus.

4. Robert Skidelsky. 2013. Meeting Our Makers: Britain’s Long Industrial Decline. [Online] New Statesman. Available from: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/culture/2013/01/meeting-our-makers-britain%E2%80%99s-long-industrial-decline

5. Brian Marren. 2012. Class, Culture and Community, p. 93. Ed. Anne Baldwin, Chris Ellis, Stephen Ethbridge, Keith Laybourne, Neil Pye.

6. Andrew Gimson. 2013. How Macmillan Built 300,000 Houses Per Year. [Online] Conservative Home Available from :https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2013/10/how-macmillan-built-300000-houses-a-year.html

7. Ian Gazely, Hector Guiterrez Rufrancos, Andrew Newell, Kevin Reynolds and Rebecca Searle. 2016. The Poor and the Poorest Fifty Years On: Evidence from British Household Expenditure Surveys of the 1950s and 1960s, p. 16. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A.

8. Never Had it So Good, p. 86

9. Never Had it so Good, p. 91.

10. Glen O’Hara. 2002. British Economic and Social Planning: 1959-1970, p. 5. UCL PHD Thesis. London: London University.

11. British Economic and Social Planning: 1959-1970, p. 1.

12. Chris Mullin. 2016. Citizen Clem: The Unparalleled Achievement of Labour Under Attlee. [Online] The Guardian. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/01/citizen-clem-by-john-bew-review-labour-clement-atlee

13. Alan Clark. 1999. The Tories: Conservatives and the Nation State, 1922-1997, p. 268. Phoenix: London.

14. Andrew Thorpe. 1997. A History of the Labour Party, p. 5 Palgrave: London.

15. Geoffrey Foote. 1985. The Labour Party’s Political Thought: A History, p. 212. Croom Helm, London.

16. The Labour Party’s Political Thought: A History, p. 214.

17. p. 216

18. Speech from 1973. Available from: Quizlet.com

19. p. 216

20. p. 219

21. Robert Neild. 2012. The National Debt in Perspective. [Online] Royal Economic Society. Available from: http://www.res.org.uk/view/article5jan12Correspondence.html

22. Perri 6. 2014. Getting Government Debt Down: Lessons from Anthropology of Economic Management in British Post-War Governments. Political Studies Association Conflict, p. 15. 14-16.

23. Stephen Broadberry. Britain’s Twentieth Century Productivity Performance in International Perspective, p. 29. National Institute of Economic and Social Research: University of Birmingham.

24 and 25. Meeting Our Makers: Britain’s Long Industrial Decline.

26. Geoffrey Owen. 2009. Industrial Policy in Twentieth Century Britain, p. 56. Ed. Richard Cooper and Peter Lyth. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

27. Diamond, Patrick. 2016. The Crosland Legacy: Lessons for the British Left. [Online] SPERI. Available from: http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2016/09/28/the-crosland-legacy-lessons-for-the-british-left/

28. The Labour Party’s Historical Thought: A History, p. 212.

29. Colin Tahin. 1992. Two Decades in British Politics: Essays to Mark Twenty-One Years of the Politics Association, 1969-90, p. 236. Ed. Bill Jones and Lynton Robins. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

30. Simon Rodgers. 2010. Historic Government Spending by Area: Get the Data Back to 1948. [Online] The Guardian. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/oct/18/historic-government-spending-area

31. Jonathan Derbyshire. 2010. The Social Democracy of Fear. [Online] New Statesman. Available from: https://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/09/social-democracy-gray-ralph

32. Robert Skidelsky. 2010. Keynes: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

33. Monetarism. [Online] Investopedia. Available from: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monetarism.asp

34. Never Had it so Good, p. 100.

35. Cherish Watton. 2016. The Politics of Affluence in 1950s and 1960s Britain. [Online] History to the Public. Available from: http://historytothepublic.org/capitalising-on-affluence/

36. 2017. A Brief History of One-Nation Conservatism. [Online] The Economist. Available from: http://historytothepublic.org/capitalising-on-affluence/

37. Pat Thane. 2010. Unequal Britain: Equalities in Britain Since 1945. [Online] History and Policy. Available from: http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/unequal-britain-equalities-in-britain-since-1945

38. Never Had it So Good, p. 154.

39. Never Had it So Good, p. 164.

40. Andy Parsons. Andy Parsons on Peter Cook: The Pure Filth that Inspired my Career. [Online] The Guardian. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/06/andy-parsons-on-peter-cook-the-pure-filth-that-inspired-my-career

41. Never Had it So Good, p. 593.

42. Never Had it So Good, p. 591.

43. John Kampfner. 2008. Margaret Thatcher, Inspiration to New Labour. [Online] The Daily Telegraph. Available from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/themargaretthatcheryears/1895878/Margaret-Thatcher-inspiration-to-New-Labour.html

44. Ravi Kanbur. 2016. The End of Laissez-Faire, the End of History and the Structure of Scientific Revolutions. DOI. 59-51, 35-46.

45. Eliane Glaser. 2014. Bring Back Ideology: Fukuyama’s ‘End of History’ 25 Years On. [Online] The Guardian. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/21/bring-back-ideology-fukuyama-end-history-25-years-on

46. Peter Singer. 2001. Hegel: A Very Short Introduction, p. 14. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

47. Roger Scruton. 2001. Kant: A Very Short Introduction, p. 126-127. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

48. Kurt Anderson. 2015. The Best Decade? The 1990s, Obviously. [Online] The New York Times. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/opinion/sunday/the-best-decade-ever-the-1990s-obviously.html

49. Deborah Summers. 2008. No Return to Boom and Bust: What Brown Said When he was Chancellor. [Online] The Guardian. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/sep/11/gordonbrown.economy

50. William Keegan. 2012. Bank Regulation Leads to Disaster: Shout it from the Rooftops. [Online] The Guardian. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/sep/11/gordonbrown.economy

51. John Campbell. 2014. Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life, p. 619. London: Vintage Books.

52. John Gray. 1998. False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism. London: Granta.

53. Alassane D. Ouattara. 1997. The Challenges of Globalisation for Africa. [Online] International Monetary Fund. Available from: https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2015/09/28/04/53/sp052197

54. Chris Lee. 2006. Chomsky Book Sales Skyrocket. [Online] LA Times. Available from: http://articles.latimes.com/2006/sep/23/entertainment/et-chomsky23

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58. Stephen Faris. 2016. Paul Wolfowitz in the Wilderness. [Online] Politico. Available from: https://www.politico.eu/article/paul-wolfowitz-world-bank-president-us-defense-secretary-interview/

59. Mark Landler and Sheryl Gay Stolberg. 2008. Bush Can Share the Blame for Financial Crisis. [Online] The New York Times. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/business/worldbusiness/20iht-prexy.4.16321064.html?mtrref=www.google.co.uk&mtrref=www.nytimes.com&gwh=73A959E0CB4BEC9FDC4971B866AA9FA6&gwt=pay

60. Jon Swaine. Gordon Brown Hails £500 Billion Bank Rescue Plan. [Online] The Daily Telegraph. Available from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/3157728/Gordon-Brown-hails-500-billion-bank-rescue-plan.html

61. 2016. Sectarianism and Conflict: Legacies of the Iraq-Iran War. [Online] Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy. Available from: http://jmepp.hkspublications.org/2016/04/02/iran-iraq-legacies/

62. Dilly Hussain. 2015. ISIS: The Unintended Consequences of the US-led War on Iraq. [Online] Foreign Policy Journal. Available from: https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2015/03/23/isis-the-unintended-consequences-of-the-us-led-war-on-iraq/

63. Dennis Lim. 1998. Television: Lowbrow and Proud of it. [Online] The Independent. Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/television-lowbrow-and-proud-of-it-1153256.html

The three books that I am working on

Here are the covers of the three books that I am currently working on.

Book that I am working on #1. Planet Zhelanie (Novel)

Cover illustrated by Sofia Lindgren

Book that I am working on #2 - Collected Essays.

Titles: 2001, Cinema as a Platonic Ideal; Jazz and Democracy; It's a Wonderful Life and the New Deal; Literary Creativity in Cinema; The 1950s and the 1990s, Prosperous Complacency; The Communal Town and the Liberal City; Paganism in the Fiction of J. G. Ballard; A Comparison Between the Internet and The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges.

Cover designed by me (hence the amateurishness).

Book that I am working on #3 - Fifteen Characters: Loners and Altruists (short story collection).

Characters: Edward Heath (British politician, Loner, 1916-2005), Charles Crumb (American cartoonist, Loner, 1942-1992) Jo Cox (British politician, Altruist 1974-2016,), Charlie Parker (jazz musician, loner, 1920-1955), Edgard Varese (Franco-American composer, Loner, 1883-1965), Marcelo Bielsa (Argentinean football manager, Loner, 1955-), Bobby Fischer (American chess player, Loner, 1943-2008), Clement Attlee (British politician, altruist, 1883-1967), Meister Eckhart, German theologian and philosopher, Loner, 1260-1328), Otto von Bismarck (Minister/President of Prussia and Chancellor of Germany, 1815-1898), Ferdinand Lasalle (French politician, Altruist, 1825-1864), Diogones the Cynic (Greek philosopher, Loner, c. 412 bc-323 bc), Hannah Arendt (German-American philisopher, altruist, 1906-1975), Gordon Brown (British politician, altruist, 1951-), Karlheinz Stockhausen (German composer, loner, 1928-2007).

I seem to be partial to dead white men - please lynch me.

The physiognomy of literary authors #4

Look at those eyes. Those are the eyes of someone who has been persecuted, of someone who is terrified.

And indeed, we do know that Kafka was persecuted and terrified. We know that from his writing and we know that from his biographical information (of course, Kafka has one of the most documented biographies). We know about his relationship with his father, of his doomed romances.

We know from his stories that he wrote about arbitrary persecution, about nebulous authoritative bureaucracies. He foreshadowed the terrifying totalitarianism of the Nazis and the USSR.

And we can tell that when we look at him. This is a petrified individual, someone who is afraid to talk. This is someone who is constantly toils. Indeed, he embodies the horrible cliche that a writer must suffer for his art.

Was Kafka precognitive? Do his eyes foresee Auschwitz, show trials, gulags and Hiroshima? Is his petrified state the perfect analogy for the horrors of the 20th century?

The physiognomy of literary authors #3

Borges is a blind author, which sounds like a paradox. Surely he can't write and read without sight? Surely he must write in braille. Well, he never learned braille, he would dictate his writing to his amanuenses.

Borges lost his eyesight when he was younger (but then, so did Milton and Joyce), a tragic predicament for such a learned and passionate reader. He had read thousands of thousands of book - indeed, when critics write about him, they always stress his reading. He read books that no-one read anymore, such as classics, medieval, Renaissance writing - you name it. His erudition was vast.

But can we tell that when we look at him? Indeed we can. We can tell that beyond his blind eyes, his mind is buzzing with his learned erudition. His mind is buzzing with copious libraries, labyrinths, parallel corridors, roaming tigers, infinite universes and infinite libraries.

We can tell this because he smiles and he is full of wonder. These images circle his mind again and again. He retains the same curiosity and imagination that he had as a child. The world for his is one continuum - the bird that he saw as an eight year old is still with him. Everything is a manifestation of the same Will.

And, although he is old, he is the still the same young person that he once was. Everything is always for Borges.

The physiognomy of literary authors #2

When we look at Paul Auster's eyes, we can tell that he is earnest. Although he is sometimes called a 'post-modern' author, that ambiguous term suggests that he is an ironic trickster. As it happens, Auster is not ironic. He means what he says. He claims that you do not choose to become a writer, it chooses you. He always wanted to be a writer with a capital W. He really wanted a black-and-white photograph taken of himself, with a cigaratte, a black cup of coffee, next to a typewriter and copious pages.

We can ascertain this when we look at him. His eyes tell us he is earnest, as does his dress code. He sometimes wears leather jackets, but he wears typical writer's attire. This is not the expression of a trickster.

When his writing becomes convoluted, when he takes us on parallel narratives and digression, that's just how it goes. No hidden message. No message about the unreality of the world. See, Auster tells us that, when he tells the story, that's where it takes him. Again, the writing chooses you.

And when we look at Auster, he means what he says. It is not artifice. It is not irony. It is not meta. This is a man who really is a Writer. And we can tell when we look at his earnest eyes and his earnest way of dressing.

The physiognomy of literary authors #1

J. G. Ballard looks like a jolly good chap. Just look at that broad grin! You can certainly tell that he likes a good drink or two at night. You can tell that he smokes the occasional cigar. You can tell from his bulging stomach that he does like plentiful meals. You can tell from that grin that he likes taking his golden retriever for a walk and tucking his daughters in at night.

So how can we account for his deviant imagination? How can we account for his fetishisation of car crashes? Semen on binnacles? Dead celebrities? J. F. Kennedy's death envisioned as a competitive sport? Growing flowers with semen?

So how can the (pseudo-) science of physiognomy account for this? If J. G. Ballard looks like a happy, decent chap, how do we account for the monsters and dragons that roam across his twisted psyche?

Well, that grin does have a malignant aspect to it. Perhaps he is a sadomasochist. If he feels compelled to write about sexual violence, he perhaps does enjoy it. Perhaps he does enjoy manipulating people's emotions. When we look at those eyes of his, we perhaps can ascertain that he does enjoy danger. The car crash that endured before the publication of Crash was most likely not accidental.

What about his dress code? Perhaps this is just as sinister as his profession. He claims that he is a writer, but he uses this to gain respectability. He dresses in a refined way, again, to gain respectability. He claims to write in metaphors to gain respectability.

But it is all a front. The smile on the face of this man is the smile of a man who loves pornography. It is the smile of a man who manipulates the emotions of others. It the smile of a deviant.

My top 10 films of all time

10. Crimes and Misdemeanours - Woody Allen (USA, 1989)

This was made during Allen's so-called 'serious' period, when he made homages to the likes of Bergman and Fellini. It interlaces dramatic and comedic scenes.

Allen references so-called 'existentialist' themes here and the title knowingly alludes to Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. A character kills a lover who threatens to make their affair public and reveal his financial fraud, so he kills her off. He is wracked by guilt throughout the entire film, but he recovers and resumes his daily life. Most books and films which deal with guilt usually end with redemption, but this is not the case here.

Allen's theme is that the world is - you guessed it ! - meaningless and random and, as such, amoral. Societies aren't always just and fair and this film - a relatively big release - doesn't always reward ethics or merit.

I love Woody Allen's films and this my favourite film of his, as it contains the best examples of both his drama and his comedy.

9. Aguirre, the Wrath of God - Werner Herzog (Germany, 1971)

This film is 'awesome' in the true sense of the word. Herzog is German himself and harks back to 19th century ideas like the 'sublime.' The film captures images of impotent men thrust into the vastness and chaos of nature, which brings to minds paintings by Caspar David Friedrich.

Herzog also plays around with other Romantic ideas, such as the primacy of the individual. Aguirre asserts his authority and becomes a mad autocrat. However, Herzog does have a sense of humour and does satirise these self-important notions.

The characters strive to reach 'El Dorado,' a mystical ideal that doesn't really exist. In this sense, this film is like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Heart of Darkness set in Renaissance times. Aguirre is possessed by grand ambitions that are impossible to realise. He wants to conquer the Amazon forests and become a king. The film documents this quixotic quest and documents the character's descent into madness, but there is also a touch of humour and the absurd about it.

Herzog delved into the Amazon forests with basic film equipment and a film crew. Some of the shots that he captures are awesome - grand long shots of horizons and rapids. He also spent several weeks in the Amazons with actor Klaus Kinsky, a literal madman who resembled the eponymous character.

8. The Second Heimat - Edgar Reitz (Germany, 1992)

This might not qualify as a film. It may be described as a series, or a film shown in parts.

Heimat is a series of films that covers a German village from 1919 until 1984. This series revisits a character from that series. It follows him going to university in Munich and the series spans 1960 until 1970. Reitz mentioned that the film is meant to cover a 'second home' that we find as adults.

The first series is more universal and covers important historical events whereas this second series is more specific. It follows avant-garde movements in art, mainly experimental classical music as well as filmmakers and actors. It captures a sense of excitement, as these artists try new and different forms. Edgar Reitz - along with Herzog - was part of the German New Wave and pronounced that 'papa's cinema is dead'. All the musicians featured in this film were professional musicians. Many of their projects are grand and do not often come to fruition. The main character, Herman, builds his own state of the art electronic studio.

The film also features radical politics. Seminars are often seized by students, who refuse to conform to their 'paternalism'. The German left was more militant than the rest of Europe, as they were reacting against the Nazi heritage of their parents. Reitz looking back is not too sympathetic to these movements, who appear indulgent.

Like the first season, the film alternates between colour and black and white. Scenes shot in day time are in b/w whereas night time is shot in colour. The latter scenes were shot in the most state-of-the-art film equipment. Despite being a chronicle of the avant-garde, it is classically shot.

This film for me captures the excitement of trying new things in art, rapid social changes and the excitement of starting university.

7. Crumb - Terry Zwigoff (USA, 1994)

This film really captures the life of a single individual. Zwigoff knew Crumb very well, so he really opens up here.

Crumb was a cartoonist and produced his most influential during the 1960s. However, his satire is less interesting and he is more interesting when he draws his private life. He rarely censors himself and graphically chronicles sexual fantasies and hang-ups. The brilliant thing about the film is that it follows the same prerogative - it is an equally honest attempt at revealing the private life of an individual. Several of his fetishes are featured here in some detail.

Crumb came from a broken home. His father was overbearing, authoritarian and beat up his three son on a regular basis. Zwigoff features Robert's brothers Charles and Maxon, who are even stranger. They are both very maladjusted - Charles lives at home with his mother whilst Maxon begs in the streets - and the film is as much a documentary about the entire Crumb family as it is about Robert.

There is plenty to dislike about Crumb, as his comics objectify women and also feature racism. Several talking heads are featured who discuss his work and they take divergent views. Some feminist critics disparage his misogyny and claim that it is irresponsible to release deviant sexual fantasises into the public domain. His defenders claim that he is projecting uncomfortable attitudes that exist and that he is dealing with urges and impulses that we often try to suppress.

This is a very moving film about a broken family, mental illness and art as therapy.

6. It's a Wonderful Life - Frank Capra (USA, 1946)

This is quite possibly the most famous film on this list - indeed, many people watch this on Christmas day. Capra often took the side of the underdog and the little man and how he overcomes adversity. In this film, George Bailey is frequently hounded by a banker called Potter. After the banker steals his money, Bailey wishes that he had never been born and his guardian angel appears to console him.

The supernatural element usually holds people attention the most, but I really like the politics of the film. Bailey's family company 'Building and Loan' mirrors the kind of social institutions that existed at the time. They help people buy mortgages and protect people from destitution. Potter tries with all his might to close the company down and he is often satirised. Bailey symbolises the citizen who wants to protect the community whereas Potter symbolises the predatory entrepreneur. Indeed, after the Great Depression bankers were forbidden from mixing with insurance companies. As such, many people have called this a piece of propaganda for the New Deal. They would not have been able to make this film in the McCarthyite 1950s.

Capra's hero is loyal to his community. At a time of booming opportunities - social mobility hit a record high in the USA at this point - George chooses to stay at Building and Loan and to marry his wife. It is a true utopia, as the institution is miraculously saved by contributions from the entire community.

This film makes you believe in shared human values, such as generosity and fairness. And, yes, it always makes me cry.

5. A Matter of Life and Death - Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (UK, 1946)

A Matter of Life and Death is about a pilot who crashes his plane. As he does so, he speaks to an American woman over a wireless. He mysteriously avoids death, as there is a glitch in heaven! There is a trial in heaven to determine whether or not he should he return to heaven or remain in Earth. Several famous people from heaven are shunted in to defend him in his trial. He later marries the woman woman.

The films captures the politics of the time. UK had just voted for a Labour government and voted Churchill out. The film captures the community spirit of the day and the need to create a better society. At the same, it makes it apparent that Britain is the birth place of liberalism. In a trial scene in heaven, Britain faces the USA and asserts that it truly is the place that grands individuals the most rights.

It is also a film that makes interesting comments about the afterlife and it mentions both Plato and Aristotle. It is suggested that the afterlife is a repository of ideas rather than souls. Indeed, several thinkers harbour and they debate their ideas. Christian ideas about the immaterial soul are rarely mentioned.

Heaven is shot in monochrome black and white whereas earth is shot in bright technicolour. The set pieces in heaven are grand whilst the scenes in earth often employ spectacular optical illusions that even look impressive today.

This film captures the optimism of the time, both its theme and content are ingeniously creative and it has some playful ideas about the afterlife. A true gem from the golden era of British cinema.

4. A Man Escaped - Robert Bresson (France, 1956)

Bresson wanted to distance himself from theatre. To do this, he hired non-professional actors. He described them as 'models' and sought to reduce as much drama from their performances. His shots often focus on particular objects via close-ups and he often shoots door knobs via slanted angles. As such, this process as being described as 'ascetic.'

Despite this, there is a lot of dramatic propulsion in the film. There is a voice-over that describes the character's interior monologues. The non-dramatic expressions and the camera angles often invoke interior feelings. As such, Bresson has been described as a literary filmmaker.

The film follows a political prisoner in WWII France. He often overcomes several improbable obstacles. As such, there is a sense of the supernatural about it, as escape is very improbable. Despite the lack of drama, it does make for very cathartic viewing, especially its use of Mozart's Requiem. A truly captivating and overpowering film.

3. Andrei Rublev - Andrei Tarkovsky (Russia, 1966)

Although Tarkovsky was not an especially political person, his film came to be seen as a political statement. His eponymous character is an artist and, as such, this is a form of creative expression that the Soviets sought to control and suppress. He is also an individual who sought to express himself - once more, the Soviets sought to create a homogeneous society. Finally, the film has a strong religious message and the Soviet Union was an atheistic society that sought to proscribe all forms of religion. As such, they edited the film when it was released and the full version was only restored very recently.

The film is set in medieval Russia. It has some scenes which are shot in an astonishing way - scenes of Mongol invasions, of pagan rituals and the construction of a bell. It also has a historical breadth to it that recalls War and Peace. However, that novel sought to recreate an entire nation and the spirit of the Napoleonic wars whereas this film recreates the lifetime of an individual.

Bells were very central in medieval Russia. Entire communities were centred around it and they alerted them about plagues or important events. The film ends with the construction of a bell. A young boy constructs it, despite not knowing how to do it. As such, there is a sense of the miraculous about it. Andrei Rublev breaks his vow of silence and vows to continue painting which, once more, has a sense of the miraculous. The film bursts into colour and reveals some of Rublev's paintings. Like Bresson, Tarkovsky was a religious person who used the medium of film to express this. Like A Man Escaped, the film depicts a miraculous event that transcends the laws of nature.

2. Blue Velvet - David Lynch (USA, 1986)

Lynch's film reveals a dark subculture lurking beneath the veneer of a calm suburban neighbourhood. A young man finds a severed ear and starts to do some independent research. Soon he uncovers psychosis and murder.

Previous directors like Hitchcock similarly filmed suspense films where something sinister happened. However, Hitchcock would suggest it via subtle clues. Lynch, however, graphically reveals it in all its monstrosity. We see rape and murder in graphic detail.

Lynch recreates 1950s via billboards and recreates the ambience of American suburbia. You become reacquainted with clichés - the peeping tom, American teen film, crime, etc. - but then subverts them with something bizarre. (Severed ear, bizarre drug inhalation, etc.) This makes it all the more seductive. Lynch also recreates 1950s cinema through typical close-up shots that reveal, say a femme fatal or male gaze, but it often subverts them via bizarre dream logic.

When I start watching this film, I start to think that it's naive and childish, but by the end I am always taken by it. This is my favourite Lynch movie.

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick (USA, 1968)

This is my favourite film for a number of reasons. It is a film that I can analyse and think about endlessly. You could make the case that it is the most well-made film ever - its attention to detail, scientific accuracy, its expensive set-pieces, its grand shots. I also find it to be emotionally overpowering - my heart races every time.

The film is about how extraterrestrial entities help humans transcend the rest of the animal kingdom. They help them do this by developing technological weapons. Finally, they help them transcend humanity by becoming superhuman and becoming a non-material idea.

The film is about ideas which underlie matter - as such, the film is about Platonic ideals (I wrote an essay about this). Also, the extraterrestrials help them regress to a more advanced state that precedes birth. They also help them to leave their caves and encounter enlightened knowledge.

Then there is the ending, which takes you to another place completely. Also, optimal use of R/J Strauss and Ligeti!