Yesterday, Independent correspondent Richard Hall published an intriguing article: “Donald Trump and Boris Johnson have a special relationship: They were both radicalised by privilege“. This article finally gives an implicit answer to one of my long-time questions: what prevents the 7 Belief systems from radicalization? It’s not privilege by the way.
Last Sunday, the Saudi Crown Prince was interviewed in the CBS program 60 Minutes. He assumed full responsibility for murdering the Saudi journalist James Khashoggi but he denied having any accountability (eg, CNN). Like Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, the Crown Prince’s privileges let him get away with accountability.
The Independent on what binds Donald Trump and Boris Johnson:
“The answer may be that both men have been shaped, radicalised even, by a life of immense privilege. We often talk about the radicalising effects of poverty, but rarely consider how a gilded life can shape a person’s actions and their view of the world.
Neither Johnson nor Trump has ever paid for their failures and misdeeds in the way most people do. Career failures, bankrupted businesses, racism, lies, accusations of sexual assault and corruption – none of it has had any lasting consequence on their rise to the top.”
The absence of accountability, rooted in privileges for the rich and poverty for the poor, is the trigger for radicalization and extremism. This lack of accountability for the rich and the poor must also be a reason why societies governed by extreme inequality, will experience more violence (eg, Hong Kong, Mexico, South Africa, UK, USA).
The middle classes will always be held accountable and responsible for any wrongdoings, if only to set a deterrent example towards others. Hence, disappearing middle classes, like in Germany and USA, must spell doom and in more than one way (eg, BI-2019, DW-2008, Pew-2017, RS-2018, Wharton-2018, my 2018 blog, my 2018 blog).
The ever-accelerating pace of Change, which represents the centrifugal force in nature and societies, would imply that radicalization and extremism are inevitable. However, accountability is the driving mitigating factor that prevents widespread radicalization within the 7 Belief systems.
“It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one’s acts.” A quote by Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), an “Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist”.
NPWA – No Power Without Accountability (2002) by Billy Bragg
artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise
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