David Runciman on the Internet: "the enemy of informed public discussion"

What a twit:

The new information technology, with its cascades of rumour and limitless outlets for personal histories, is more often than not the enemy of informed public discussion. In the face of an endless readiness on all sides to heed the unmediated voice of personal experience, it has become harder to sustain the bigger picture needed for any plausible defence of progressive politics. This shifts politics, inexorably, to the right.

Runciman teaches political theory at Cambridge, and judging from his closing remarks in his article on US moves to repeal the estate tax, he is bitterly unhappy with Tony Blair's lack of ideological purity.

One bright note (for them) which Runciman and other critics of repeal have never, to my knowledge, noted: Over time, repeal will create plenty of hugely rich anti-capitalists who can use their wealth to attack the capitalism they so little understand. As a pragmatic issue, the pro-repeal faction ought to be thinking about the long-term negative consequences of their success, and about how to minimize them.

Perhaps I overemphasize the potential political importance of socialist centi-millionaires and billionaires, and just plain old fashioned rich fascists seeking to use government to maintain their inherited wealth, but I think the potential is real for anti-free market actors on the left and right to have increased influence.

Tip: Arts & Letters Daily