How good can we be
Don Atkinson reviews an analysis of contemporary capitalism
This book is a rant. But what a rant! It is unputdownable. This is extraordinary for a piece of non-fiction, much as was Will Hutton’s The State We’re In, written twenty years ago. How Good We Can Be: Ending the Mercenary Society and Building a Great Country reads like a pacy thriller and, indeed, that is what it is.
Will Hutton has created his best, most pertinent, analysis and comment yet on our condition. His book is an intellectually challenging and stimulating, yet entirely pragmatic, analysis of our present situation. It does not shirk from stating what the author thinks are our problems, nor what we need to do to rectify them.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about this book, which should be compulsory reading for all politicians, and Friends, is that the author places his premise within the scope of current institutions and organisations.
What Will Hutton seems to be saying is that if we can change our mind-set, alter our sense of what is best, from the individual to society as a whole – and recognise that we are part of one, which Margaret Thatcher denied – we can accommodate the moral imperative and need for equity and justice that most of us share. We can inure our financial institutions against disaster, diminish the growing levels of inequality that exist and return to government by leaders rather than populists. We can reduce, if not remove, the level of cynicism that abounds alongside our natural and normal human attributes and failings, and achieve a level of success far beyond present expectations.
Will Hutton does not hedge his commitment or his beliefs. His words are rare today in their optimism but, despite his constant assertion that we can all do better, he demonstrates a realistic acceptance of the human condition that allows all of us room, with the usual exceptions, to find solutions that are acceptable to both right and left within our current capitalist institutions.
He postulates that the enemy is largely within, that the solutions lie with us all but, if they are to work, then we must be led by people who have a purpose other than shareholder return, who can imbue us all with the need to change from exploitation to investment; in short, those who hold and can sustain the moral high ground that Will Hutton inhabits.
The author is an evolutionary, not a revolutionary. He sees technology as a positive force for good; yet his proposals and prognosis require changes in his fellows’ outlook that will turn our world on its head. They will also demand a complete re-evaluation of attitudes and concerns to be successful. He demands, perhaps above all, that we share this purpose: that the ultimate responsibility of a capitalist society is to society itself, not, primarily, to shareholder returns and individual enrichment.
Although an optimist myself, I find Will Hutton’s approach breathtaking. His own belief in mankind, whilst infectious, I cannot share. But what if he is right? What if men and women in this country can find the true way, if we really can be as good as we can, then what a world Will Hutton conjures up.
This is a fine book: well written; full of pungent analysis and judgements; and worth its price. Whether Will Hutton’s diagnosis is correct is arguable. Whether his solutions will work is perhaps even more questionable, but the true leaders amongst us are already suggesting that we must achieve at least some of the changes Hutton advocates if we are to survive as a nation. What he proposes could work, but only if the minority who move us, and shake us, can get rid of their addiction to greed and self-enrichment. I don’t think they will do so voluntarily.
How Good Can We Be: Ending the Mercenary Society and Building a Great Country by Will Hutton, Abacus, ISBN: 9780349140087, £9.99.
