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July 10, 2007
Martin Leet has an article at the Brisbane Institute entitled The Contradictions of Reform. He says:
For over 200 years, we have been conditioned to believe that time does not just pass by. Rather, it possesses a structure and a direction, it spirals upwards, it is a vehicle of improvement and progress. We do not just live in time, but use time in a process of continual refinement.
Reform refers to improvement in the sense of if we do not reform, even if we merely slacken off the pace, there will be a calamity. We will fall behind the rest of the world, our living standards will drop, our children will be the poorer for our failure to exercise more initiative, and so on. Leet adds:
The non-revolutionary political left monopolised this modern concept of reform for much of the last century. It had in mind for reform the stultifying effects of liberal institutions and conservative traditions, obstacles or perhaps way stations along the way to genuine emancipation and a future of universal equality. Since about the late 1970s, however, the political right has called most for reform, arguing for the eradication of hindrances blocking the operation of free markets. The broad consensus within policy circles today is that market principles, extended to an ever-wider range of activities, will provide us with the solutions to our problems.
Thii is pretty right.
He says that the problem with the modern understanding of reform is its simplistic conception of the dynamics of human societies:
The central, underlying metaphor of reform is the smooth and frictionless operation of a machine. The aim of policy thus becomes the progressive adaptation of human beings to this machine. And yet, as we consider how to 'optimise' our human resources, the machine metaphor soon becomes very inadequate for working out what is required. In contrast to machines, healthy forms of human life require a considerable amount of friction. If human resources become too responsive to the demands of the market, if it is too easy to move them around, then they are taken out of the web of social relationships that are required for health, wellbeing and inspired participation.
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