Well, it’s been a long time. Apart from my natural laziness, it’s because nothing has happened. Oh, I know that in one sense lots of things have happened, and are continuing to happen: wars, natural disasters, man-made catastrophes, starvation, malnutrition. And those are on the global scale: on the national scale, in the UK, the nothing that continues to happen is a question of chronic inattention: nobody’s eye is on social welfare, care for the aged, revitalising deprived neighbourhoods, the poisonous effects of propaganda of all types.
What is being forgotten, or missed, or evaded, is any serious attempt to address the root cause of all this. I would say it’s capitalism; but lets not be ideological. Let’s say instead it’s inequality. Can any body seriously dispute that? OK. So how do we remedy inequality? By giving all an equal share in the products of their labour. It’s really simple.
Some will say, of course that some do not labour and therefore have no claim on the joint product of the state, or nation, or whatever. But this where the great rule of hospitality comes in. We owe a duty of care o the guest – every one of the world’s religions says it (interestingly, the most richly metaphorical account of hospitality is that of Islam). A simple dynamic: oppose greed with hospitality (as at, to take another example, the Last Supper).
Barry Hill, Andrew Bennett, Stephen Cheeke, Martin Rieser, John Wheway, Martin Pierce, Cato Pedder, Kate Rambridge, Marie Papier Knight, Liz Cashdan, Steph Codsi, Jane Shearer, Rosie Jackson, Lizzie Parker, Barbara Lloyd Smith, Jenny Roberts, Can Murphy, Jack Thacker, Pauline Sewards, Charles Thompson, Tim Burroughs, Richard Devereux – now, I’m not naming you because I expect you to agree with my views, but only because I have been told by more techno-savvy people than I that in some cases you may be keeping a watch out on your name. If this has meant that I’ve contacted you, then do please do take a look at my blog!
David Punter 