Nothing more is
demanded from candidates but witty speech-making, assertiveness and showing off
in public, gross flattery, a display of enthusiasm and promises to place the
power about to be conferred on them by the people in the hands of those who
will serve its antipathies and prejudices.
Hippolyte Taine - The Modern Regime (1893)
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are very different characters,
yet each in his own way has been skilfully assertive. Blair was the silver-tongued
orator who relied on finely-judged emotional appeal to sway millions of voters. Brown cultivated an austere image of blunt integrity which would not tolerate compromise.
Assertiveness takes many forms and has many aspects, a fascinating subject in its own right. For example an
educated person may use their education to acquire intellectual status as
Stephen Fry does with such assiduity. Another equally well educated person
may be hopelessly outclassed by someone no better educated but far
more capable when it comes to assertiveness. There are infinite subtleties to the assertiveness game, education merely being one of them.
The fascinating aspect of skilled assertiveness is where it is substituted for other abilities, particularly by those who are very skilled at assertiveness but not so hot intellectually. Blair and Brown are intelligent men, but as far as
one can tell they are far from being unusually intelligent. Both made glaring
mistakes while in office, mistakes which could easily have been foreseen and
indeed were foreseen at the time – unfortunately by other people.
Among many other things, Blair misunderstood the likely consequences of an Iraq war and Brown misunderstood the power of
money as a lever to influence public sector productivity. But Blair and Brown were
skilfully assertive and in the conduct of their political careers they were
successful until they weren't, which was an unusually long time.
We see this kind of thing all the time because many people are at least as intelligent as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Many foresaw the mistakes both men made but by then it was too late. Like a series of sucker punches the mistakes had to be absorbed until the assertive skills of both men were finally defeated by the real world.
We see this kind of thing all the time because many people are at least as intelligent as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Many foresaw the mistakes both men made but by then it was too late. Like a series of sucker punches the mistakes had to be absorbed until the assertive skills of both men were finally defeated by the real world.
4 comments:
Here's an interesting thought about Blair. The thing that flipped most of the Left against him and made him a figure of hate was obviously the Iraq war. If he had not got involved, what would his legacy be now? Nobody criticised him at the time for squandering resources, attempting grandiose reforms armed with nothing more than hot air, and being a hopeless chancer. People - especially Labour supporters - might have looked back to his administrations as some sort of golden age of middle-of-the-road pragmatic socialism. "Like Wilson", they would have said, "the man had his flaws, but overall did a fine job. We were prosperous, and at peace with ourselves..."
Mind you, we'll now get Corbyn. Maybe that's better, though, in a way.
Also, they had both had long experience at The Department of Bright Ideas, the secret civil service section that nearly lost us the war, lost us the British Empire and then ruined the country.
The fascinating aspect of skilled assertiveness is where it is substituted for other abilities,
Such as integrity.
Sam - you may well be right. The Iraq war did obscure Blair's numerous failures which his supporters probably never saw as failures because he could certainly talk the talk. As you say, Corbyn may be better in that respect.
Demetrius - yes, save us from bright ideas dreamed up by people who will never suffer the consequences.
James - to my mind there is an inevitable conflict between assertiveness and integrity. Not easy to balance to two. Many don't bother.
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