‘Politics has become pointless’ – Frank Furedi says people’s responsibility to ensure an alternative Frank Furedi, emeritus professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, talks to Going Underground host Afshin Rattansi about the future of party politics in Britain. Cautioning that public debate has become ‘feeble’ in this country, he believes that debate events such as the Battle of Ideas can create an environment where people feel it is their duty to think, reflect, and speak out on the issues of the day. Politicians have ‘switched off’ and are ‘driven by media trainers’, and are ‘merely concerned with getting elected’ than what their policies actually mean, hiding behind evidence-based policies to avoid being exposed to the real issues of the time. He feels the parties are inventing issues which are marginal, and we need to understand that there is actually an alternative. He says that there is a general consensus on war, only as long as it is very limited - ‘the kind of wars that governments like are ones where they basically sit behind computers and let drones do the business’, they want it ‘almost like a Hollywood dramatisation of a war’. He also says that the protests we have at the moment, like Occupy, are ‘kids’ stuff’ compared to the radical movements of the past, lacking at a grass roots level. The NHS, which so many people say is the reason they are proud to be British, has ‘some very major problems’ and cannot compare to the healthcare of France or Germany. And the only way to get clarity on the big issues of the day is through a clash of views, which we rarely get. https://youtube/watch?v=63NKG7GSq60
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 16:37:24 +0000
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