moral basis of the radical left, The
Titlemoral basis of the radical left, The
ReferenceTAPE/177
Date
19-Mar-88
Scope and ContentTony Benn delivers the Tawney memorial lecture, entitled "The moral basis of the radical left". The following is taken from a hand-written synopsis found in a binder.
This tape is of poor quality but audible.
Tony Benn starts his lecture with a brief introduction about his family’s Christian Radical background. Benn sets the scene in 1988, socialism under attack from the media, business, political trendsetters etc.
Capitalism, as Benn quotes Tawney, is basically selfish; it serves its own interests. Benn equates capitalism with militarism, Christianity with socialism. Benn states that modern society belittles those who question its values (ie capitalistic in outlook); the media is used as a modern day established church, using its influence to channel thoughts into acceptable bounds. Fear is used to instil nationalism, xenophobia, racism. Benn states that political dialogue is merely superficial, about personalities exchanging abuse. Anyone who dares question the accepted concepts of privilege is open to hostile abuse, through labelling theory as “loony left”, radicals, Communist etc. Benn moves into collectivism versus individualism. Benn binds Christian ethics with socialist humanism. He attacks massive spending on “defence”, which he states is not protecting our liberties but attacking civil liberties. He makes a cutting analysis of the way the media concentrate upon financial matters, ie the Dow Jones Index, the pound against a basket of currencies – they never give us statistics of kidney waiting lists or how many homeless, how many people injured in industrial accidents. The human condition is subjugated to the higher condition of the financial markets. The public, Benn states, is pacified, petrified and driven into accepting unquestioning compliance and servitude.
The second side of the tape is of very poor quality at the start but it does get better.
Benn states the media politics makes us all spectators instead of participants. He accuses the media of rampant thought control, in making us accept the status quo as somehow sanctified.
There are many publications by Tony Benn in the WCML collection.
This tape is of poor quality but audible.
Tony Benn starts his lecture with a brief introduction about his family’s Christian Radical background. Benn sets the scene in 1988, socialism under attack from the media, business, political trendsetters etc.
Capitalism, as Benn quotes Tawney, is basically selfish; it serves its own interests. Benn equates capitalism with militarism, Christianity with socialism. Benn states that modern society belittles those who question its values (ie capitalistic in outlook); the media is used as a modern day established church, using its influence to channel thoughts into acceptable bounds. Fear is used to instil nationalism, xenophobia, racism. Benn states that political dialogue is merely superficial, about personalities exchanging abuse. Anyone who dares question the accepted concepts of privilege is open to hostile abuse, through labelling theory as “loony left”, radicals, Communist etc. Benn moves into collectivism versus individualism. Benn binds Christian ethics with socialist humanism. He attacks massive spending on “defence”, which he states is not protecting our liberties but attacking civil liberties. He makes a cutting analysis of the way the media concentrate upon financial matters, ie the Dow Jones Index, the pound against a basket of currencies – they never give us statistics of kidney waiting lists or how many homeless, how many people injured in industrial accidents. The human condition is subjugated to the higher condition of the financial markets. The public, Benn states, is pacified, petrified and driven into accepting unquestioning compliance and servitude.
The second side of the tape is of very poor quality at the start but it does get better.
Benn states the media politics makes us all spectators instead of participants. He accuses the media of rampant thought control, in making us accept the status quo as somehow sanctified.
There are many publications by Tony Benn in the WCML collection.
Extent1 Cassette tape
Physical descriptionNWA copy
LanguageEnglish
Persons keywordBenn, Tony, Labour Party, Tawney, RH
Conditions governing accessOpen
Levelfile
Normal locationZ (Room 24)