Self interest or the greater good?

I am a patriot but I’m not a nationalist. By accident of birth, I am British and part of a heritage that goes back centuries. In the words of the Scottish poet Alistair Gray:

This is my country,

The land that begat me.

These windy spaces

Are surely my own.

And those who here toil

In the sweat of their faces

Are flesh of my flesh,

And bone of my bone

I am privileged to be born into a country which gave birth to parliamentary democracy, and which has championed human rights and individual freedom across the world.

I am humbled by the enormous sacrifices my parent’s generation endured to oppose fascism and Japanese Imperialism in WWII.

I am inspired by the genius and creativity of my fellow citizens, the scientists, engineers, inventors, writers, poets, musicians, reformers, and so on who have enriched not only our country but the whole world.

I delight in our culture, our unique sense of humour, the way we applaud the underdog, our sense of fair play and our sheer bloody-mindedness.

But I also see myself simply as a member of the human race, in Theresa May’s unfortunate term, a “citizen of nowhere”.

I was brought up in rural Methodism and became a fervent Christian for many years. Though no longer an orthodox believer I take my core beliefs and inspiration from the teachings of Jesus. His central message was about love and forgiveness, and the universal nature of humanity. He also taught strongly about the corrupting power of wealth. His teaching inspired reformers including the founders of the Labour Party. Keir Hardie, a lay preacher from a Scottish evangelical background, framed socialism in moral and religious terms.

But there is a much greater force opposing these do-gooding, idealistic principles, the force of evolution – survival of the fittest. This is the biological process by which human beings arrived on this planet and has always been the main driving force in human society. 

Our first concern as individuals is our own survival; we are programmed for self-preservation and self-interest; it’s part of our DNA, but as citizens of nation states our personal survival is linked to the survival of the nation. 

Survival of the fittest is the name of the game - nations, businesses and human institutions all play it. This is why the Conservatives are better at winning elections than Labour. They appeal to our self-interest whereas Labour appeals to our altruism. On the one hand you have, “every man for himself” and on the other, “we’re all in it together. The Brexit debate was basically along these lines and the movement of migrants over the centuries is simply the survival instinct playing out.

The survival game also plays out in global competition. Businesses succeed or fail, small businesses are swallowed up by large ones, wealth begets more wealth. Global capitalism has become so powerful it has taken away the ability of governments to act in the best interests of their citizens. Democracies, constrained by the rule of law and individual freedom struggle to compete against authoritarian regimes which have no constraints, and they are slowly losing the battle. According to a recent report, autocracies now outnumber democracies, 91 to 88. Only 29 countries are identified as liberal democracies, marking a significant decline in democratic governance. The USA is clearly moving towards an autocracy. Will the UK follow?

Over the centuries survival of the fittest has pitted one group against another, tribe against tribe, nation against nation and religion against religion, leading to wars, destruction and suffering on a huge scale. Global and continental institutions designed to bring a halt to this, such as the United Nations and its various agencies, NATO, Conventions on Human Rights, the International Court of Justice, UN Peacekeepers, the IMF, international aid systems and so on are all under threat and getting weaker. The self-centred interests of nationalism and capitalism have no concern for the good of humanity or the good of planet Earth but only in making sure they have their slice of the pie and the bigger the better.

Competition and conflict, or cooperation and conciliation? National self-interest or the greater good of humanity? Is our fate sealed by our biology or will higher ideals win out?