It has become a commonly acknowledged fact in today’s age that we live in a confused era. From the barbershop to the bakery, the bank to the bar, our daily discourse seems to deal mainly in dirt and doss. Scandal trumps substance. Headlines bounce back and forth between fear and fury. And the collective output of our society seems to amount to nothing more than a collective babbling of tongues.
This isn’t an isolated issue. It’s a phenomenon we’re experiencing all around the globe. The pandemic brought the world order to its knees. Short term thinking at had its consequences, and the countries and groups with the shortest time horizon had the toughest recovery cycles. No place can this be said of more plainly at the moment, than in the UK.
As a country, we seem to have lost our way. Since the days of the Brexit referendum, and the streak of division that tore through the country at that time, life on ground has conformed neither to a grander narrative nor a coordinated plan. If it were put in market terms, the country’s stock has swung sideways and traded down. The symbols that the country once held dear appear to be in decay. From the strength of the pound and confidence in our academic institutions, to social structures such as the NHS and affordable public transport systems. A recent study even found that 70% of britons agree with the statement that the UK is in decline. Culturally, it seems that the nation of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Henry Royce has lost its identification with science and engineering. In its place, a reliance on finance, banking and trading has reigned supreme. It leads us to ask …
Where are our poets ? Our Shakespeare’s and Byron’s ?
Where are our laureates ? Our Dicken’s and Blake’s ?
Where are our scientists ? Our Lovelace and Crick’s ?
Where are our businessmen ? Our Burberry’s and Goldsmith’s ?
On the surface, it looks like they are relics of a bygone era. A sanctimonious smattering of past figures that aren’t fit for today’s society.
These musings might be dismissed as a romantic, but impractical reverie. Nothing more than an escape from the harsh realities of pending inflation, taxes and energy bills. Indeed it is true that, in this era, we must deal with the current realities of more austerity, higher inflation, taxes and bills. It is also true that our country is going to have a difficult time dealing with it. But, I also think it’s true that we are missing a greater point all together. That within every crisis, are contained the seeds of opportunity.
In today’s English, the word crisis means “a period of intense difficulty, trouble or danger”. But if we really take a deeper look at the word, we find out that there’s a deeper meaning of crisis. That word comes from the Greek krisis, or “decision”. In Chinese, the same word for crisis, 危机, is composed of two brush strokes. The first brush stroke stands for danger. The second stands for opportunity. In Eastern cultures, there is an appreciation for how each moment has both light and shade. And with that frame it makes it possible to look at this moment of crisis, as a moment of opportunity. A moment to make new decisions. A moment to reimagine what we can be. Who we can be. How we can be. And to begin to truly architect and co-create that vision.
This isn’t the first time the world has faced a deep set of crises. Only 100 years ago across the pond in the US, inequality was on the rise and there was a lack of social security safety nets. Then the stock market crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression followed. While it was a terrible period of time. That series of events provided the opportunity for the Americans to reimagine their economic system and safety net. The New Deal was created in the aftermath of the Depression, which restarted the economy and created the Social Security Administration to ensure that the most vulnerable were supported. It left that country both richer and more equitable at least for the following decades.
From my perspective, this moment of crisis represents an opportunity too. At its core, it represents the kind of opportunity that comes only once in a generation. I am a black man. British born and of Nigerian ancestry. Hungry to see the world after the pandemic subsided, I spent much of the last year travelling to different countries. One of the strongest conclusions I came to on the way back from my travels, was that there are few places on earth where black people are more successful and respected than in the UK. In fact, I concluded that it was likely that the number of black people per square mile in London in high positions was probably the most densely packed in the world. It made me think that there’s a real opportunity here for the UK to define itself as the world’s first truly diverse super power. Not long after, we saw a prime minister of Indian ancestry sworn into office. Whether or not we agree with the method by which he got there or his policies while at the top of the government, it remains true that for Sunak to have risen to the top of British politics is a sign of how open the country is. And a sign of the potential that it has if it really leans into this more. Of all the major powers, the US sits in a divided position, with its pendulum swinging between its liberal and conservative wings. The likes of China, Russia and Japan do not have a particularly inclusive agenda on the books anytime soon. Neither is this really the case with other European and Scandinavian countries. The UK, perhaps as an unintended consequence of its colonial past, finds itself in a position to create a new narrative that embraces the histories and the cultures and the perspectives of the people who make up its numbers. It has a once in a lifetime opportunity to use its multiculturalism for great.
Again, what is needed is a new vision of what it means to be British. One that takes into consideration the UK’s old notions of empire, but takes a positive spin on it. One that argues that in light of this, we have such a wealth of resources and ideas to draw from. On a long enough time horizon we can be respectable again. But the politicians will not lead us. By its very nature, the time horizons of politicians are too short term. Their vision muddied by crisis management. Our elders will not lead us. They belong to a different age. One that is not steeped in the internet, artificial intelligence, analytics and technology. It is up to us. It is up to the youth, to lead us now. We must become our own saviours. We must take control on an individual level, and a community level. And when we do that, we will start to see a change in this country. In fact, I’ll highlight a major change right now …
What can we change, now ?
While on the surface level, the problem facing the country is that there is a tax burden and confusion around leadership, there is a deeper issue at play. The most urgent and important problem in the economy is not the tax burden. The problem is the under-supply of everything. And that is a problem caused by under investment over many years. It’s something we can feel every day. The government hasn’t invested enough. Businesses haven’t invested enough. Right now, taking a train into town is hard. Turning on heating is hard. Getting luggage at the airport is hard. Buying a house is hard. Everything is hard !
In an effort to stop doing hard things, one could argue that our country has become less competitive. That instead of doing the hard things, we have created a nation of consultants and traders. We have become a nation of human resource managers and pencil pushers. These people are of course useful, they often just don’t drive the kind of value creation that is needed to improve a situation. They give us what we want, but perhaps not what we need.
In times like these, we need to be frank. Our economy, and many other developed economies, have created synthetic growth without enjoying a real improvement in productivity or living standards. Just as we live in a world of fake likes on Instagram and interaction bots on Twitter that don’t result in tangible engagement. We have deluded and faked ourselves into the idea of economic growth.
Britain’s economy needs to become a lot more productive. If the UK is massively underproducing engineers, then we need to drive to make science a larger part of the UK culture. We need to make engineering and design a larger part of the cultures that the UK consists of, and we need to encourage people to make things here. That can be from the manufacturing of goods and services, to the production of media and culture. All the same.
In a new vision for the UK. One based on including and encouraging all of the cultural groups within it, we can create a narrative around manufacturing. A narrative around production. A narrative around making and selling, that has until now been swept under the rug. A nation of producers. A nation of contributors. A nation of cultures. I feel like we will do it.
I feel like we will reimagine what it means to be British.
I feel that we will take the opportunities in front of us.
I feel that this will only be the beginning.
Eloka
