We all sense that our society is currently not in a good place. We feel the divisive nature of our political discourses, the increasing racism and intolerance, and we bemoan the lack of community, as though that were something that has been robbed from us without our say so. In Fractured, Jon Yates takes a cool look at why our society feels this way. Suggesting how this came about, what the primary causes are. Though at times sobering, the book actually has a strong vein of optimism running through it, that we can and must find a way to reverse this drift towards division and uncivil conflict
These days it's quite common to blame it all on social media, but Jon Yates says that really is simply another symptom of a social move towards individual isolation, that we already had become people living within bubbles of the like minded. People Like Me syndrome has had a long presence within human society. Our liking to surround ourselves with folk we agree or are in sympathy with, are educated similar to us, have similar tastes, social status and aspirations to us, is not in principle a bad thing. But, if this is the only thing that binds us then it becomes a major social driver, where we are unable to talk with people from a different background, class or race, and may even find ourselves feeling instinctively hostile towards anyone who is remotely different from us. We all bare a measure of responsibility for how this situation has arisen. For what Yates encounters as he reviews our parlous state, is a society lacking in much sense of a shared common life.
In past eras, when we lived in smaller villages and social contexts, we moved around less, so you really had to get on with the folk around you, even if you disagreed with them or they lived lives very different to oneself. This rubbing up and along with individual differences is actually good for us, and it's vital in cultivating a more cohesive sense of society. In the past they also shared the common religious context of a faith. In this country this was Christianity, this gave everyone a sense that despite our differences there was something else that asked us to work at getting over them, of even transcending them. Such rural communities were effectively torn apart during the population exodus caused by the Industrial Revolution. This produced a huge amount of social disruption and divisiveness. And there was a period when this newly urbanised society was in danger of falling apart and tipping into revolution. What in the end stopped that from happening, was an explosion of community based voluntary organisations,charities, clubs, societies, associations, social and political initiatives that brought together all types of individuals, and this slowly brought into being a more cohesive sense of urban society emerging.
Post World War 2, this network of social voluntary organisations has been in gradual decline. People don't join them in quite the same numbers anymore. Television means we just don't go out and socialise as much, if at all. Pubs are not the local focal point they were, we don't join voluntary associations, we live a more singular and socially isolated lifestyle, even from our neighbours. Before the internet arrived a shared communal life was already endangered. Social media has merely accelerated this pre-existing trend. But like the period of change and upheaval post the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, we are, in Yate's opinion, in an interregnum, where we painfully feel this lack of cohesion and don't know if it can be restored, or how. Any social movement towards correcting this lack of a shared common life has not yet formed itself. Human society, however, can not survive without closer communal relationships, so Yates is confident it will eventually emerge, but whether it will arrive in time is the question.
As you look down your street at the people who are your neighbours, are they pretty much the same class, race and education, with similar aspirations to you. If so, this has not happened by accident. We might believe we live in a multi-cultural society, but the UK is quite effectively socially, economically and racially segregated. Analysis says its as segregated as some of the the worst cities in the US.. Racists may complain about immigrants not learning English and living amongst their own culture, but fail to notice that, regardless of race, everyone is separating themselves off from people that are not like them in cultural, social or economic ghettos of one sort or another. Yates says this is all an expression of People Like Me syndrome, and an ever increasing demand to have a choice where, how and with whom we live. Racial homogeneity in a culture is not really the solution to creating a sense of a common life that some people believe it to be. Humankind is generally too full of a radically wide range of different, potentially difficult people. We can all be a bit of a pain in the minds of other folks.
There are two drivers then, that are slowly destroying the shared sense of a common life, and a sense of connection with people not like us. First, a major social or economic upheaval or crisis, and second increasing choice about where we live, where we are educated, and who and how we socialise with other people. Left to choice, People Like Me rules everything we do. And collective communal contexts become habitually avoided, because we fear conflicts, of encountering differing viewpoints to our own.
The knock on effects of this expands outwards. Innovation requires us to be open to working with other people and their ideas, productivity needs us to be able to work effectively in teams with all types of people, schools which are not substantially mixed in class and race, don't cultivate the sort of skills and abilities to network and work well together.. Instead we are hurtling towards further division, as the gap between richer and poorer widens, and equality of opportunity becomes stifled. If our economy is currently stalled, its because when wealthy people become wealthier they tend to bank their money and live off the interest, whilst working class spend money as and when they have it. The later is a major driver of our economy. Too much money is currently in too few very wealthy hands and our economy is stagnating as a result. It's no wonder the very poorest in our society are sick of the constant struggle to make ends meet, and are getting angrier and more disruptive with every passing year. So the lack of a shared common life is actually a much bigger deal than we give it credit for.
Yates concludes his book by outlining a few options for a way forward, and their pros and cons. We could just sit this current phase out and wait for the backlash and a more communal focus to re-emerge. Or we could try to engineer more communal initiatives. A characteristic of the emergence of charities, societies, clubs and associations was they were entirely voluntary, which is both their strength and weakness. There are very few mandatory communal requirements placed upon us these days, jury service is probably the only one. But what if, at a pivotal moments in your life, in childhood, adulthood and retirement there was an obligation to explore ways you could serve your society in the company of a wide range of people. It maybe the time is not yet right for such ideas. So lacking such initiatives currently, Yates concludes his book by outlining - Thirty two things you can do right now.
Fractured is accessible and brilliantly written with an immensely convincing exposition for how we got here, but it's also clear what direction we need to start heading in to turn the situation around. I found this has already affected the way I view the turbulence of our era. It's an inspirational book, that has set me thinking about many things, a lot of the time it's what small step I could take, to break out of my little retirement bubble?
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