An honest insight for an overdue public debate

Ill Fares The Land

Tony Judt, a British historian who spent most of his life in the USA, was deprived of the use of his arms and legs by the ravages of motor neuron disease.

Over many sleepless nights of agony, he drew on his memory to shape this swift and punchy thesis. Each day he dictated his reflections to an assistant. It first appeared as a long essay in The New York Review of Books in December 2009 and was later re-shaped into this book.

The arguments will resonate with Irish readers.

“Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today,” he opens.

In sum he argues that we have wasted the two decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall brought such hope of new beginnings in November 1989.

That time has been consumed by the shamelessly greedy. It has been an era of “political pygmies”.

As we all know to our considerable cost, unregulated markets have crashed. (And Judt notes the Irish nightmare of the ‘property bubble boom of the “Celtic Tiger”’ as early as page 6). Snouts have been buried deep in the trough. Wars, chosen by political leaders more than dictated by the force of events, have left bloody destruction in their wake.

When the book appeared hardback last year it was warmly received.

Part of this reception was down to Judt’s scholarship and for honesty.

A native of London’s east end Jewish district Judt had moved from being an avowed socialist Zionist to being a staunch critic of Israeli policies. His work on post-1945 European history stand and more notably his writings on post war France are revered by Francophiles.

This Penguin paperback version, coming after Judt’s death in August, is to be welcomed and recommended for three key reasons: it is sharply written for quick comprehension; given the author’s background it validly addresses American and European readers; above all it can be a great focus for a long overdue informed public debate.

It is not just a negative critique of modern western society. It offers some hope for the young that there is a better way of ordering our affairs. This is called social democracy, and is better than anything else there is to hand, Judt argues.

Judt advances the case for a more benign state providing the security for which people yearn, replacing the Lord God market’s invisible hand with more visible supportive direction.

Happily, Judt’s book asks many of the questions all of us need to seek answers to about modern politics. Can we frame a new role for the state avoiding the pitfall that states should do everything? Can we put values — beyond utilitarian costs and benefits — back into political debates? Can we engage younger people in politics?

The writer’s final words cannot be improved upon: “Philosophers, it was famously observed, have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.”

- John Downing is a political journalist who has also worked for the government press service.