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We have always had a unique relationship with Great Britain. At one time it was the mother country. Then it came to be viewed as an oppressive parent and was violently rejected. In the nineteenth century, Britain was the hub of a world-wide empire and became a model for our own young country. In the twentieth century we shared a terrible economic depression and fought side-by-side in the two greatest wars in all history (so far, at least). After World War Two we enjoyed a "special relationship" based on a common language, similar values (especially free market capitalism) and close military collaboration during the long Cold War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Great Recession has dealt a serious blow to all of the Western democracies, but the senior British journalist Ed Vulliamy argues (in the current Harper's) that the toll has been much greater in Britain. He sees a deeply dysfunctional society, culminating 30 years of national decline, now being pushed over the precipice. His indictment makes for depressing and hauntingly suggestive reading.
The destruction of Britain's once preeminent industrial sector is now complete, due in considerable measure to incompetence, opportunism, and self-defeating actions, and the British working class has been impoverished. Even such British icons as Rolls-Royce, Jaguar, Cadbury's, and Harrod's (the famous department store) are now foreign-owned. Britain's once efficient public services, including the railroads (which the British invented), are mired in high costs, high fares and poor performance. Even its housing sector, recently a dynamic engine of economic growth, has suffered a steeper decline than in our own country.
British government and politics, once the gold-standard for the democracies, has also been corrupted in various ways, while the financiers in "The City of London" (analogous to our own Wall Street) now dominate the economy, the politics, and even the sex life of the nation. And like America, the British government bailed out its banks during the financial meltdown only to see them return to speculative excesses and astronomical bonuses ($22 billion this year).
Most disturbing, to Vulliamy, are the tectonic changes in British social life and values. A society once admired for its civility, its sense of fairness and deep pride in its heritage, has lost all of this, including even its sense of a common purpose as a nation. Ethnic, economic, and social class divisions run very deep in Britain. Looking ahead, Vulliamy sees no great untapped potential for revitalization, only further decline.
Are we destined to suffer a similar fate? The parallels are eery, and the immediate prospects don't look good. Indeed, we face a political Armageddon of sorts in just a few days, when Democrats and Republicans must either fashion a compromise over our serious national deficit problem or else deepen the economic and political divisions and cause further damage to our economy -- and the common good. An escalating civil war, with the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements on opposite sides, seems all too likely.
Yet we need to remember one of the important lessons of history. Renewal and revitalization are also possible. National decline is not inevitable and irreversible. Our great nation still has the capacity for renewal. But we need a new vision (one "candidate" is spelled out in my book, The Fair Society), along with strong leadership and an energized electorate. Revitalization on every front should be our national agenda for 2012.
