Build a society based on needs

I find the letters section the most interesting page. Invariably my passions are aroused and my intellect stimulated.

I am a non conformist, today this is reflected in my social and political views.

The essence of non-conformism is to question and challenge - first one’s own positions, then the prevailing positions in society.

If I have pride in anything it is in the working class who guided and cared for me in my childhood and youth.

As for being an Englishman, I read widely in the history of this country and find many things of which I am ashamed, such as the Highland clearances in Scotland, the witch trials, the way that the members of Cromwell’s model army were treated when they remained loyal to the aims for which they fought when Cromwell deserted those aims and punished those who opposed him. The role we played in establishing the slave trade. More recently the way we have treated the Irish in their desire for their own country, the appalling way we are treating refugees and the level of racism so prevalent in society.

I am proud of those who throughout history have stood up for the common people.

I recently read a short piece by Adorno, the German philosopher who discusses the idea of genuineness in which he states

“the identity of the genuine with the true is untenable”.

His statement is based upon the fact that what we are comes from the society of which we are part. I do not know the background of my fellow correspondents, but I do know the community nourished and sustained me. My aim in life is to be true to them. That makes me a critique of modern life and an advocate of a better society which can only come when we rid society of the competitive basis of capitalism and build a society based on our joint communal needs.

Ralph A. Tebbutt