The Reith Lectures
I have just been reading http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18456131. This is the first Reith lecture by Niall Ferguson. It is amazing how much rubbish one man can write in one short essay. For a man who is meant to be an academic it is amazing hwo he can write a whole sequence of assertions with no justifications.
Like many people with a strong political view he has no concern for facts or logical argument. His writing appears to be entirely polemic with no concern for rational argument. I read that he was/is a Thatcherite and I assume his advice to young people in America to join the Tea Party is tongue in cheek but he might know that saying such things will help him sell books, In that way he reminds me of John Charmley, write controversial stuff with a right wing bias and you will sell. The Daily Mail of history?
Anyway back to the first Reith lecture, he has some interesting figures for what has happened to debt as a percentage of GDP over the last 12 years and it has increased dramatically. He also asserts that this cannot be blamed on wars, perhaps he doesn't live in the same world as me but both Britain and the USA have been involved in wars over this period and I don't know what it has cost but I am sure his researchers do know and perhaps it will appear in a later lecture.
However one of his more right wing themes is that this debt is bad for our children or grandchildren. Well I have both, he is probably too young to have grandchildren. What is clear to me is that if we followed his recipes, I assume close the the Tea Party, my grandchildren will have no society to grow up in. To me the most important aspect of any society is that it treats people with dignity, that is what we have been striving towards for a long time.
Perhaps it is hard to be a right wing historian, perhaps you yearn for an older world and imagine that you would be a top dog and so think it would be great. But most people lead hard working lives with little money, food or shelter. Mr Ferguson might wish to return to such a world but I do not. It appears that his next lecture might give his explanations as to what went wrong but looking at the BBC website it look like he will blame regulation! It is interesting that when a thief breaks into our house we blame the thief not the fact that there is a law against it!
Like many people with a strong political view he has no concern for facts or logical argument. His writing appears to be entirely polemic with no concern for rational argument. I read that he was/is a Thatcherite and I assume his advice to young people in America to join the Tea Party is tongue in cheek but he might know that saying such things will help him sell books, In that way he reminds me of John Charmley, write controversial stuff with a right wing bias and you will sell. The Daily Mail of history?
Anyway back to the first Reith lecture, he has some interesting figures for what has happened to debt as a percentage of GDP over the last 12 years and it has increased dramatically. He also asserts that this cannot be blamed on wars, perhaps he doesn't live in the same world as me but both Britain and the USA have been involved in wars over this period and I don't know what it has cost but I am sure his researchers do know and perhaps it will appear in a later lecture.
However one of his more right wing themes is that this debt is bad for our children or grandchildren. Well I have both, he is probably too young to have grandchildren. What is clear to me is that if we followed his recipes, I assume close the the Tea Party, my grandchildren will have no society to grow up in. To me the most important aspect of any society is that it treats people with dignity, that is what we have been striving towards for a long time.
Perhaps it is hard to be a right wing historian, perhaps you yearn for an older world and imagine that you would be a top dog and so think it would be great. But most people lead hard working lives with little money, food or shelter. Mr Ferguson might wish to return to such a world but I do not. It appears that his next lecture might give his explanations as to what went wrong but looking at the BBC website it look like he will blame regulation! It is interesting that when a thief breaks into our house we blame the thief not the fact that there is a law against it!
Labels: Historians
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