An economic recession happens when economic activity goes into sharp decline. If it persists and becomes long term then it becomes an economic depression, when jobs are lost, profits erased, trading confidence evaporates and investment is too big a risk.That has devastating consequences for the prosperity and morale of everyone it affects.
So. Is there such a thing as a political recession? A time when the normal machinery of Government no longer gets the job done, and those charged with maintaining the fabric and structure of our democratic processes have prejudiced public trust? And if that persists would that produce a political depression, a long term loss of confidence in the integrity and capacity of our political system? And who gains most when political process and foundational institutions are discredited? I write this as the news comes in of the first BNP county councillor being elected in Lancashire and Leicestershire.
And. What about an ethical recession? Same problem. When public expectations of moral accountability, personal integrity, and some evidence of altruism, are not only disappointed, but made to look ridiculous, we begin to feel we have moved into a new and dangerous historical moment. When so many of those who formulate our laws and social policies are perceived to be or shown to be self-serving, and claim to have stayed within rules they formulated, and that allow such unchecked abuse, what does that do to the moral ecology of our society? What happens when "flipping" houses generates tens of thousands of tax free profit at the tax payer's expense? And this during a recession? When people are losing their job by the ten thousands? When every house repossession is a family tragedy? And when the cause of so much of the problem has been – well – money and the lengths some people will go to accumulate it. What happens then? Something toxic happens. And that affects the ethical environment we all have to live in.
I remember, long before we became so environmentally aware, as a boy of 9 or 10 living on a farm in Ayrshire, standing broken-hearted beside the burn where I used to guddle for trout, watching dead fish float past. Minnows, catfish, stickleback, trout – all belly up, bloated and dead. I was standing beside the man from the Council (the 1950's equivalent of Environmental Health). Seemingly a farmer further up the burn had (accidentally or irresponsibly – the result was the same) released sheep dip into the water table. The result was catastrophic; the ecosystem was poisoned. It took years for the burn to recover – it was a long time before I was as a child, again able to lie on the banking with a jar tied to string, a cunningly placed rubber lid and some bread, and catch those beautifully marked small shoaling fish called minnows. Because someone had poisoned the system.
I've no party political point to make. I just sense that something toxic and dangerous is happening in the stream and flow of our political systems and social values. The picture of the Prime Minister at the start of this post isn't meant to be a dig either – I'm more interested in the words behind him, about the fight for our future. The economic recession is due to the credit crunch we're told; well in that case the political and moral recessions are due to an integrity crunch. The first might be easier and quicker to fix, and on a different scale of values, cheaper.
Pray God our ethical crisis doesn't deepen into a moral depression of lost values and desperate selfishness. And whatever else the church is doing at this moment in our national history, we should be looking for light and encouraging it, identifying the good and defending them, and praying for a nation struggling with the consequences of moral recession.
Leave a Reply