Einstein's Theory of Relativity for Dummies

Most people think it was Einstein who, in the first decade of the twentieth century, came up with the theory of relativity as if Albert was quietly working away in his patent office in Switzerland and, entirely on his own, managed to come up with a completely new theory of space and time Actually, it wasn!t quite like that, but because the history of science is a dreadfully tedious sub"ect, we will skip Albert!s many predecessors and get straight to the best bits of the theory of relativity Question: Why is it called a theory of RELATIVITY #ecause time and length are no longer absolutes $ou%ve got your digital watch on your wrist and a metre ruler on your desk &hese seem like absolutes' a second and a centrimetre for you must be the same as they are for me, and the same as they are on Alpha (entauri #ut they!re not )f ) stay on my balcony while you start a career as an astronaut flying round the gala*y at an incredible speed +and it would have to be pretty close to the speed of light' ,--,---km.sec/, and if you could later whiz past my balcony so that we could somehow compare watches and rulers, your metre ruler would be smaller and your watch would be going slower than mine +Actually that wouldn!t be possible because the human eye can!t spot things moving at that kind of speed, and spaceship rockets do nasty things to balconies that are only a few metres away #ut if it were practically possible, it would be fun / 0hile you!re out in space travelling at some unbelievable speed nothing seems to you to have changed )t%s only if you have a chance to compare measurements of time and length with those back home that you see that something odd has happened Q: All the introductions to Einstein tal! a"out the t#in $arado%& What's that 1ne 23 year old twin stays on earth while the other, fresh out of astronaut school, sets off on a space voyage travelling at 4-5 of the speed of light After 6- years in space, with her mission accomplished, she turns round and heads back to earth #y the time she lands she knows from her on7board clock that 2- years have passed She is now 83 years old 9ortunately, her study of relativity has prepared her for the shock when she sees her twin sister, who is now :6 years old (onclusion' Space travel, when it is really, really fast, is also time travel' you travel into the future without getting that much older yourself 'o is everythin( relative ;ot e*actly Actually, the idea of time and length being relative to our speed was proposed first as a way of e*plaining an observation that puzzled everyone Some people in the nineteenth century devised a very sensitive piece of apparatus to measure the speed of light as we on earth rotate in space &he idea behind the e*periment is easier to grasp if we think of spacecraft and the tiny particles of light called photons )f you were accelerating away from the sun wearing special goggles that

enabled you to see individual photons, as you approached ,--,---km.sec you would e*pect to see photons moving ever more slowly past the side window of the spacecraft And common sense would say if you put your foot on the gas a bit more, you should overtake the photons and leave them crawling along behind as your spacecraft e*ceeds the speed of light 0hat the scientists discovered, to everyone!s surprise, was that if you move faster, light doesn!t whiz past your window more slowly )t always whizzes past at the same speed +)n other words, the photons always win nothing travels faster than light / &o e*plain this bizarre finding, scientists +even before Einstein/ suggested the following' the result only makes sense if, the faster you travel relative to the speed of light, the shorter your unit of length becomes and the slower your measurement of time becomes &o an outside observer looking at your superfast starship, the photons might be moving past your side windows really slowly as your speed approaches ,--,---km.sec, but if your on7board clock has slowed down by the same amount and your measurement of length has been compressed those same photons seen from inside the starship will seem to be whizzing past at the same speed as they had when you were still in first gear Is there any $roof for all this $es Although spacecraft are still way too slow for astronauts to notice the effects of relativity, research into the behaviour of subatomic particles gives clear support to the theory &here is a laboratory deep within a Swiss mountain where they watch what happens to subatomic particles as they whiz through a circular tunnel attaining speeds close to that of light 0eird things happen, such as unstable particles staying alive for a lot longer than they normally would, and these weird things can only be e*pained by the theory of relativity

Q: I #ant to live as lon( as $ossi"le& )an relativity hel$ me &ime ticks by more slowly if you travel really fast, but this won!t help you to en"oy living longer 1n the spaceship nothing seems to have changed )f you make it to <-, despite all the health risks of space travel +osteoporosis, e*posure to some really nasty radiation, etc/ you will still look old and wrinkled $ou would, however, be able to come back to earth and find that you had lived longer than your old mates +now at peace in the cemetery/ but that doesn!t sound like fun, so those who want to live longer would be better off sticking to a healthy diet and regular e*ercise, coupled with marriage and a sincere belief in =od +on average, married believers live longer than unmaried atheists/ Is there *ust one theory of relativity >nfortunately, there are two &he earlier one about space and time and the speed of light is known as the special theory of relativity ?ater, Einstein realised he had made a few important omissions' gravity and acceleration +which turned out to have some striking similarities/ So he developed the general theory of relativity to add to and complete the earlier theory Again, Einstein wasn@t the first to say some pretty weird things about light and gravity and space, but we@re not going to bother with the boring historical details ?et!s concentrate on the weird stuff

What's #eird a"out reality accordin( to the (eneral theory of relativity 0ell, for one, space is curved Eh )f space wasn!t curved, whenever we shone a beam of light +like a laser/ it would travel in a line that would seem perfectly straight from wherever you were in the universe, and it would go on for ever and ever in the same direction &his is e*actly as Euclid would have predicted +Euclid being the ancient =reek guy who was the founding father of high school geometry, and who assumed that space "ust had to be flat/ &his is not what happens, though ?ight is bent by gravity, so a beam of light passing through gala*ies curves when it comes close to a strong gravitational field Some people even think that gravity bends the space of the entire universe into a huge sphere )n practise, this would mean that if you tried to shine a laser beam out beyond the edge of the universe, gravity would bend it and send it in a huge circle running round the perimeter of the universe +&here would be no way of looking beyond or travelling beyond the edge of a universe like this / Is that a"out as #eird as it (ets ;ot e*actly &he theory predicted +not for the first time/ the e*istence of black holes )f gravity bends light then it is possible that if a star became dense enough, its gravitational field could be so great that the light it previously emitted could no longer escape Eh ?et!s begin like this' &o launch a spaceship from the surface of the earth, it has to reach a velocity of about 8-,---km.hour +66km.sec/ otherwise gravity will either pull it into an orbit or back to the surface of the earth &his escape velocity increases relative to the size of the planet or the star +or even the gala*y/ and its density 9rom the surface of the sun +much bigger and slightly more dense/ the escape velocity would be A28km.sec &hat would cause problems for terrestrial spacecraft but it causes no problems for light +travelling at ,--,---km.sec/ 0hen stars reach the end of their life strange things start to happen and they start to collapse Eventually the atoms are squeezed together so tightly that their nucleii start to touch one another &hat makes collapsed stars incredibly dense, the consequence of which is an incredibly strong gravitational field )f this were to happen to our sun, and if it were to become so compact that its diameter were a mere 6 8: km, gravity at the surface would be so high that the light of the dying star would no longer be able to escape As one physicist put it in the 642-s' &here could come a time when the sun is shrouded in darkness, not because it has no light to emit but because its gravitational field will be impermeable to light &he sun would have become a black hole +an( on& If a colla$sed star can "ecome a "lac! hole, "lac! holes can't really "e holes, can they

&rue Actually, they weren!t originally called black holes, and the word BholeB is a bit confusing because it makes you think that there is really nothing there, which isn!t true because there is only a black hole when there is something which is either very very big or very very dense Another thin(& Didn't you say li(ht al#ays travels at -..,...!m/sec 0o# you tell us that (ravity ma!es li(ht travel more slo#ly and could even "rin( it to a standstill& )f you were somewhere near a black hole and you measured the speed of light coming from your on7board laser, you would be disappointed to find it was still travelling at the usual speed &his is because gravity also does weird things to the clocks and rulers you would use to measure the speed of light (lose to very strong sources of gravity clocks tick away more slowly and rulers shrink +not that you would notice this inside the spaceship/ &hese distortions of time and space are what they call a warp in spacetime If "lac! holes do #eird thin(s to cloc!s, could they hel$ me live lon(er )f you could find a nearby black hole that was spinning, you could fly your spaceship into the whirling ring of material around it, and then with a quick burst from your booster rockets you could pull the ship out of the orbit before it got sucked into the blackness $our on7board atomic clock might indicate that the hair7raising trip "ust lasted a couple of hours #ut back on the mother ship hundreds of years might have elapsed Again, all your old mates would be dead, which isn!t much fun Cowever, there is a happier lesson to be learnt for those of us back on earth $ou should bear in mind that clocks tick slower in stronger gravitational fields when you ne*t look for somewhere new to live Dhysicists have put atomic clocks +that can measure a billionth of a second/ in the basements and on the top floors of skyscrapers, and they have proved that clocks in basements run more slowly So you should stop looking for a room with a view, you should get all your mates together and share one big flat underground

Heroes and celebrities

#ack in the twentieth century there was a #ritish punk rock song that repeated over and over again the claim that there were Bno more heroes anymoreB (almer critics and

social commentators have agreed that the age of the hero is over )n the past people had heroes &hey were the most prominent figures in the public consciousness 7 people who had achieved great things, people who had done great deeds 7 proud, noble leaders and bold pioneers &he myth of the hero, though, could not survive when public life came to be dominated by the mass media &he mass media killed off the heroes and replaced them with celebrities &o become a celelbrity what matters is not so much the greatness of what you have done but the e*posure you are given in the media &he mass media is not solely responsible for the death of the hero A democratic culture also undermines the idea that certain individuals carry a divine spark and are therefore in a category superior to that of the rest of us ;o one deserves to be worshipped and there is a revulsion at the idea of bending the knee and kissing the hand of another individual &he critical gaze of the psychologist and sociologist have also entered public consciousness, adding to the forces tearing down the statues of the past &he drives of a great individual are seen to have their roots in an unhappy youth, an obsession with his mother or being spurned by a loverE and his great ambition is said to stem from an early inability to simply hang out with the boys and have a good time &he achievements remain but the man himself emerges from the analysis without a shred of nobility Caving killed the hero we have replaced him with a distinctively modern public figure' the celebrity As one commentator put it' the celebrity is a person who is known for being well7known Any e*posure in the media helps to increase someone!s status as a celebrity (elebrities offer e*clusive stories to increase their e*posure, the media promote them to increase their ratings, and we collude by paying so much attention to the glossy features, the e*clusive interviews, and the various scandals and intrigues &hey have no reason to ob"ect to invasions of their private lives because this "ust keeps their names on everyone!s lips, which is all that really matters &o become a celebrity it is more important to have a good press agent than it is to be a big achiever, which is one of the reasons why figures from the worlds of light entertainment and sports are some of the most successful celebrities )t is in these fields that being a household name is the key to clinching the ne*t big contract and the ne*t lucrative advertising deal 0ith cleverly crafted media events in which managers collaborate with magazine editors and programme directors it is possible to give these figures a level of e*posure which is out of all proportion to their actual achievements 9or many people, the heroes of the past were an inspiration, they broadened our horizons by giving us an e*ample of a course of action that could be considered noble (elebrities, on the other hand, with the string of stories about their hardships and their lucky breaks, their affairs and their break7ups, prove to be nothing out of the ordinary Feading about their lives does not inspire us or fill us with purpose )f it isn!t "ust an idle diversion 7 a way of killing time 7 it may well help us to resign ourselves to our own sense of purposelessness )t may be fun, but perhaps something that helped to raise the tone of public life has been lost

#orshi$ 7 to kneel and show your respect for =od aura 7 like a ring of light around something that is unique and special

Brains hooked up to computers

1aralysed $eo$le can no# control artificial lim"s "y thou(ht alone&

2hoo!ed u$ 3 connected to4

Deople are already using a range of devices which involve connecting the brain to a computer 1ne well7known device is the cochlear implant 7 a device like a miniature microphone that transmits sound signals directly to the brain and enables deaf people to hear A completely new application now enables those who have lost an arm or a leg to control their artifical limb by thought alone &he first patient to try out the new technology is Matt ;agel Matt was left paralysed from the neck down after a vicious knife attack four years ago )n the operating theatre a circular piece of his skull was removed and a tiny plate with 4A hair7thin electrodes was placed on the surface of Matt!s brain &his will detect the electrical signals in the part of the brain that usually controls hand movement A thin cable emerges from the skin on his head and runs to a small computer which decodes the signals and converts them into commands controlling an artificial hand connected to Matt!s arm Shortly after the operation Matt is surrounded by the surgeons as he stares at the open hand, thinking B(lose, closeB &o their delight the hand moves and the fingers close, becoming a fist )n that moment Matt ;agel makes history Ce is the first person to have controlled an artificial limb using a device surgically implanted into the brain Since the operation ;agel has been test7driving the technology, seeing what he, and it, are capable of B0e!re evaluating his ability to do a whole range of things 0e!ve hooked him to a computer that lets him turn a &G on and off, change channel and ad"ust the volume "ust by thinking,B says the scientist leading the pro"ect

The )herno"yl nuclear disaster

1n April 2A 64<A, the ;o 8 reactor at the (hernobyl power station in >kraine blew up 9acing nuclear disaster on an unprecedented scale, Soviet authorities responded by sending thousands of ill7equipped men into the radioactive hell A book by Fussian "ournalist Svetlana Ale*ievich tells the stories of eyewitnesses who recall the terrible human cost of the catastrophe 0hen a routine test at (hernobyl went catastrophically wrong, a chain reaction went out of control creating a fireball that blew off the reactor!s 6,---7tonne steel7and7concrete lid &here were ,6 fatalities as an immediate result of the e*plosion and acute radiation e*posure would end the lives of hundreds of others in the days that followed Evacuation of local residents was delayed by the Soviet authorities! unwillingness to admit the gravity of the incident Eventually, more than 6--,--- people were evacuated from the surrounding area in >kraine and #elarus #ags of sand were dropped on to the reactor fire from the open doors of helicopters +analysts now think this did more harm than good/ 0hen the fire finally stopped, men climbed on to the roof to clear the radioactive debris &he machines brought in broke down because of the radiation &he men barely lasted more than a few weeks, suffering lingering, painful deaths #ut had this effort not been made, the disaster might have been much worse As a result of the accident 8<3 villages and settlements in the surrounding countryside became uninhabitable, and :- of those had to be completely demolished, dug up and carried away in trucks to be buried 0hat follows is the story of ?yudmilla )gnatenko, the wife of one of the firemen sent in to tackle the blaze on the night of the e*plosion 0e were newlyweds 0e still walked around holding hands, even if we were "ust going to the store ) would say to him, B) love you B #ut ) didn!t know then how much ) had no idea 0e lived ne*t to the fire station where he worked 1ne night ) heard a noise ) looked out the window Ce saw me B(lose the window and go back to sleep &here!s a fire at the reactor )!ll be back soon B Everything was radiant &he whole sky A tall flame And smoke &he heat was awful &hey went off "ust as they were, in their shirt sleeves ;o one told them that they needed special gear &hey stamped on the bits of burning debris that had been shot into the fields by the e*plosion At seven in the morning ) was told he was in the hospital ) ran there but the police had already encircled it, and they weren!t letting anyone through, only ambulances &he policemen shouted' B&he ambulances are radioactive stay awayHB ) saw him Ce was all swollen $ou could barely see his eyes BCe needs milk ?ots of milk,B my friend said B&hey should drink at least three litres each B B#ut he doesn!t like milk B

BCe!ll drink it now B Many of the doctors and nurses in that hospital would get sick themselves and die #ut we didn!t know that then ) couldn!t get into the hospital that evening &he doctor came out and said, yes, they were flying to Moscow, but we needed to bring them their clothes &he clothes they!d worn at the station had been burned &he buses had stopped running already and we ran across the city 0e came running back with their bags, but the plane was already gone &hey had tricked us 0hen ) got back to the fire station they measured me with a dosimeter My clothes, bag, purse, shoes 7 they were all BhotB And they took that all away from me right there Even my underwear &he only thing they left was my money &he hospital in Moscow was a special hospital, for radiology, and you couldn!t get in without a pass ) gave some money to the woman at the door, and she said, B=o ahead B &hen ) had to ask someone else 7 to beg them 9inally )!m sitting in the office of the head radiologist Fight away she said' BAll right, listen' his central nervous system is badly affected, and his skull B 1I, )!m thinking, so he!ll be a little dizzy BAnd listen' if you start crying, )!ll kick you out right away ;o hugging or kissing Jon!t even get near him $ou have half an hour B Ce looks so funny, he!s got py"amas on for a size 8<, and he!s a size 32 &he sleeves are too short, the trousers are too short #ut his face isn!t swollen any more &hey were given some sort of fluid ) say, B0here!d you run off to@B Ce wants to hug me &he doctor won!t let him BSit, sit,B she says B;o hugging in here B Ce started to changeE every day ) saw him change &he burns started to come to the surface )n his mouth, on his tongue, his cheeks 7 at first there were little sores, and then they grew &he skin came off in layers 7 as white film the colour of his face his body blue, red, grey7brown &he only thing that saved me was that it happened so fastE there wasn!t any time to think, there wasn!t any time to cry )t was a hospital for people with serious radiation poisoning 9ourteen days )n 68 days a person dies 0hen he turned his head, there!d be a clump of hair left on the pillow ) tried "oking' B)t!s convenient, you don!t need a comb B Soon they cut all his hair off ) tell the nurse' BCe!s dying B And she says to me' B0hat did you e*pect@ Ce got 6,A-roentgen 9our hundred is a lethal dose $ou!re sitting ne*t to a nuclear reactor B 0hen they all died, they refurbished the hospital &hey scraped down the walls and dug up the floor 0hen he died, they dressed him up in formal wear, with his service cap &hey couldn!t get shoes on him because his feet had swollen up &hey buried him barefoot My love Sergei Gasilyevich Sobolev 7 one of those responsible for constructing the shield over the (hernobyl power station

&here was a moment when there was the danger of a nuclear e*plosion, and they had to get the water out from under the reactor, so that a mi*ture of uranium and graphite wouldn!t get into it 7 with the water, they would have formed a critical mass &he e*plosion would have been between three and five megatons &his would have meant that not only Iiev and Minsk, but a large part of Europe would have been uninhabitable (an you imagine it@ A European catastrophe So here was the task' who would dive in there and open the safety valve so we could pump out the water@ &hey promised them a car, an apartment, aid for their families until the end of time &hey searched for volunteers And they found themH &he boys dived, many times, and they pumped out the water, and the unit was given :,--- roubles &hey forgot about the cars and apartments they promised 7 that!s not why they dived &hese are people who came from a certain culture, the culture of the great achievement &hey were a sacrifice And what about the soldiers who worked on the roof of the reactor@ ,,A-- soldiers worked on the roof to clear the debris and get it ready so we could build the concrete shield &hese guys got it the worst &hey had lead vests, but the radiation was coming from below, and they weren!t protected there &hey were wearing ordinary, cheap imitation7leather boots &hey spent about a minute and a half, two minutes on the roof each day &hey gathered fuel and graphite from the reactor, bits of concrete and metal )t took about 2-7,- seconds to fill a wheelbarrow, and then another ,- seconds to throw the BgarbageB off the roof &hese special wheelbarrows weighed 8- kilos "ust by themselves So you can picture it' a lead vest, masks, the wheelbarrows, and insane speed ;o one was really supposed to go up there &he "ob was supposed to be done by radio7 controlled robots that the Americans and the Kapanese gave us, but the radiation disrupted their electronics and they broke down after a few minutes &he most reliable BrobotsB were the soldiers &hey were christened the Bgreen robotsB Lfrom the colour of their uniformsM &hey slept on the ground in tents &hey were young guys &hese people don!t e*ist any more, "ust the documents in our museum, with their names Arkady 9ilin 7 one of the so7called liquidators +people whose "ob it was to dig up and bury all the contaminated land and property in the huge area around (hernobyl/ $ou immediately found yourself in this fantastic world, where the apocalypse met the stone age 0e lived in the forest, in tents, 2--km from the reactor &here were between 23 and 8- of usE some of us had university degrees or diplomas )!m a history teacher, for e*ample )nstead of machine guns they gave us shovels 0e buried trash heaps and gardens &he women in the villages watched us and crossed themselves 0e had gloves, masks with respirators and white surgical robes &he sun beat down on us 0e showed up in their yards like demons &hey didn!t understand why we had to bury their gardens, rip up their vegetables when they looked "ust like ordinary vegetables &he old women would cross themselves and say, B#oys, what is this 7 is it the end of the world@B

)n the house the stove!s on, the meat is frying $ou put a dosimeter to it, and you find it!s not a stove, it!s a little nuclear reactor ) saw a man who watched his house get buried 0e buried houses, wells, trees 0e buried the earth 0e!d cut things down, roll them up into big plastic sheets 0e buried the forest 0e sawed the trees into 6 3m pieces and packed them in plastic sheets and threw them into graves 1utside the villages we dug up the diseased top layer of soil, loaded it into trucks and took it to waste burial sites ) thought that a waste burial site would be a comple* pice of engineering, but it turned out to be an ordinary pit 0e picked up the earth and rolled it, like big carpets 0e!d pick up the whole green mass of it, with grass, flowers, roots )t was work for madmen )f we weren!t drinking like crazy every night, ) doubt we!d have been able to take it 1ur psyches would have broken down 0e created hundreds of kilometres of torn7up, barren earth &here was an emphasis on our being heroes 1nce a week someone who was digging really well would receive a certificate of merit before all the other men &he Soviet >nion!s best grave digger )t was crazy

Heaven is in the fourth dimension The 0e# A(e movement

)s a new age dawning in which we will see an end, at last, to pain, strife and human bloodshed@ Might we see an end to the obsessions with power and material wealth 7 a new age of peace and harmony@ &hose who belong to the ;ew Age movement would answer with an emphatic !$es! &hese successors to the hippy movement of the 64A-!s see the golden dawn on the horizon and want to prepare themselves for the coming cosmic shift in human consciousness, when it will take a quantum leap up to another level Someone who fits the ;ew Age stereotype perfectly would be a vegetarian living in a commune in (alifornia who turns not to conventional medicine whenever they are ill but to accupuncture and homeopathy, who is quite mystical about the power of pyramids and crystals, who has hugged trees, who practises yoga or some other form of meditation, and feels inclined towards certain Eastern religions, and who is convinced of alien influences and of a conspiracy to conceal the real truth about what is happening to humanity &he movement is antimaterialistic and believes that what people need most of all is to achieve a higher state of awareness by focusing much more on their inner lives and getting in touch with their inner selves )f your life is a bit of a mess, the reasons are not social or political or economic &he reason is that there is some imbalance, blockage or discord between the inner centres of your self +1ne system 7 the chakra system 7 identifies < different centres which ought to be working in harmony with each other / )n the words of one ;ew Age prophet, #ob 9rissell'

B0e create our own reality )n fact, all we ever see !out there! is simply an outward reflection of our own inner state of affairs )f we see hostility and antagonism, it is because of what is going on within us B )f only we can sort out that inner state of affairs we can create a foretaste of heaven on earth 1ne important step in this process is getting back in touch with the lower, subconscious self, which turns out to be the child within us #ob again' B$ou make connection with this lower self by learning to be playful again )t also means being innocent, sensitive, and allowing your heart to open and reconnect with nature 0e cannot connect with this lower self by approaching life as a sophisticated adult B&his lower self is not "ust our personal subconscious mind, it is the subconscious mind of the entire planet with which we are connecting 0e have lost this bond, we have severed our relationship with the Earth, and we very much need to reconnect B &he world as we know it is about to end &he signs are obvious 7 the most obvious being the natural disasters gaining in magnitude and frequency At the clima* of the crisis the earth!s magnetic field will collapse, millions will die but those who are adequately prepared will find themselves in a new world 7 a world in the fourth dimension where matter has become energy, and where thought and reality are one and the same )n place of conflict and discord there will be global tranquility &he only ones who can survive in the fourth dimension are those who are at peace with themselves and can thereby radiate positive energy &hose trapped in negativity 7 the negativity of fear, "ealousy, arrogance and disdain 7 will immediately self7destruct as their negativity rebounds on them +Apparently, Kesus was trying to prepare us for this by putting so much emphasis on love and peace, and a renunciation of any interest in power and material wealth / Deople like #ob 9rissell know this is going to happen soon, and they are ready for it &hey have been to )ndia and spoken to #aba"i 7 the ,-- year old yogi 7 and they have seen the video of &hoth, who was with us as a spiritual leader for 32,--- years, and who left us on May 8th 6446 once he was happy with the level of consciousness that the guys in (alifornia had reached +they know now how to create their own energy fields that will protect them when the earth!s magnetic field starts to collapse/ 0orried that you won!t survive the electromagnetic Armageddon@ Derhaps you ought to give away your mobile phone and your playstation and get your hands on a copy of the book by Jeepak (hopra which tells us where our chakras are and how to get them in harmony@ &ime is running out

The power of advertising

0here would modern society be without advertising@ )ndividual advertisers might think they are "ust trying to sell a particular product but advertising as a whole sells us an entire lifestyle )f it weren!t for advertising the whole of society would be quite

different &he economy, for instance, would be plunged into a crisis without the adverts and all the publicity that fuel our desire for limitless consumption As 5ohn 6er(er observed in his book B0ays of SeeingB, all advertising conveys the same simple message' my life will be richer, more fulfilling once ) make the ne*t crucial purchase Adverts persuade us with their images of others who have apparently been transformed and are, as a result, enviable &he purpose is to make me marginally dissatisfied with my life 7 not with the life of society, "ust with my individual life ) am supposed to imagine myself transformed after the purchase into an ob"ect of envy for others 7 an envy which will then give me back my love of myself &he prevalence of this social envy is a necessary condition if advertising is to have any hold on us whatsoever 1nly if we have got into the habit of comparing ourselves with others and finding ourselves lacking, will we fall prey to the power of advertising 0hile fanning the flames of our envy advertising keeps us preoccupied with ourselves, our houses, our cars, our holidays and the endless line of new electronic gadgets that suddenly seem indispensable &ensions in society and problems in the rest of the world, if attended to at all, quickly fade into the background &hey are certainly nothing to get particularly worked up about After all, there can!t be any winners without losers &hat!s life 9urthermore, together with the holy rituals of shopping +people get dressed up now to go shopping in the way that they only used to get dressed up when they went to church/ advertising is one of the ways in which we are quietly persuaded that our society is the best of all possible worlds +or at least so good that it is not worth campaigning for any fundamental changes/ Adverts implicitly tell us to get off our fat arses and do some shopping, and the idea that the shelves of the shops are full of the latest products is indeed one of the most effective ways in which contemporary society gets its legitimation Deople like Kohn #erger are also not entirely over the moon about the impact that advertising and shopping have on the value of political freedom 9reedom is supposed to be the highest value in our societies, but in the age of the consumer that freedom is all too readily identified with the freedom to choose between Depsi and (oke, McJonald!s and Ientucky 9ried (hicken, &oyota and 9ord, and people lose interest in the various political freedoms and our ability to participate in the process of e*ercising democratic control &here are lots of criticisms that could be made of modern democracies, but no one is going to pay much attention to them if they are more interested in becoming happy shoppers )n all these ways advertising helps to keep the whole socio7economic show on the road 0e are rarely aware of this because we are too busy working to earn the money to pay for the ob"ects of our dreams 7 dreams that play on the screen of our mind like the little clips of film we see in the commercial breaks

The birth of Santa

Some people question the very e*istence of Santa (laus Nuite frankly, this is foolish ;ot only do we know he e*ists but we also know when he was born Ce was born in 64,6 when a Swedish commercial artist and illustrator working for (oca (ola 7 Caddon Sundblom 7 painted his first "olly Santa &he image was to be used as part of an advertising campaign aimed to boost sales in the winter months when consumption of the famous fizzy drink was at its lowest At that time there was no firmly established image of Santa (laus Some depicted him in furs, others in fairly normal contemporary clothes, while a popular poem of the nineteenth century described him as a little merry elf +a kind of magical dwarf/ with twinkling eyes and clothes covered in ashes and soot &o create an unambiguously positive image for the advertising campaign Sundblom came up with the tall, plump, bearded, elderly but sprightly Santa we know today And to match the colours of the (oke label there was no question that he had to be dressed in red and white &he names Santa (laus or 9ather (hristmas also serve to distance the figure of the rotund man and his reindeer from his earlier identity' that of Saint ;icholas 9ew #ritish speakers hear any connection whatsoever between the name Santa (laus and that of Saint ;icholas, and yet these were once simply alternative names for the same historical figure &he man who perhaps has the greatest claim to being the real Santa (laus was a fourth century bishop who lived in what is now &urkey 1riginally, after becoming a saint, he had no particular connection with children or (hristmas, rather he was seen as a protective figure for many groups including bakers, merchants and sailors &he connection with children derives from a story of him finding three murdered boys and raising them from the dead Some have argued that some north European groups 7 who were certainly not strict (hristians 7 retold the story of Saint ;icholas in the Middle Ages and accorded him some of the attributes of older pagan figures &he habit of flying around the world may have been borrowed from the ;orse god 0oden +or 1din/ )n some parts of ;orthern Europe where (hristianity had a very weak grip he was even depicted as a somewhat sinister figure with horns Any conscious connection with these pagan and (hristian traditions was lost when the Saint became Santa and he started selling (oke Cis image was taken up by many other businesses and that soon became virtually the sole representation of the spirit of (hristmas Jissociated from all its pagan and (hristian references the image was as shallow and meaningless as the adverts it appeared in &he history of Santa sums up perfectly the commercialisation of (hristmas &hat commercialisation is not "ust a matter of the obscene amount of shopping that goes on at this time of year )t is also the way in which commerce redefines the images of (hristmas so that they fit in perfectly with some marketing strategy and then pro"ects

them on huge billboards in bright technicolour all across the country so that pretty soon little is left of the older images and stories that were once a meaningful part of society!s cultural heritage

Chaos theory: the butterfly and the el nino

&o give a vivid image of what chaos theory refered to someone came up with the following imaginary scenario' a butterfly somewhere in Kapan beats its tiny wings, setting in course a chain of events that triggers an el nino in the southern >nited States +&he butterfly is not the sole cause of the el nino 7 many other factors have to be present, but those tiny wing beats might have disturbed the air currents "ust enough to tip the balance and get the ball rolling / &he scenario conveys the idea that minute differences in the initial state of a system can, over a period of time, have huge consequences 1ne important implication is that the behaviour of these systems turns out to be unpredictable Meteorologists can!t predict e*actly when and where the ne*t el nino will occur because, for instance, they can!t gather information about the movements of all the butterflies in Asia Some natural systems can be predicted very accurately &he orbits of the planets, for instance, have been reduced to neat mathematical equations from which the future course of those planets can be precisely predicted 0e can pinpoint their locations on every day of the following yearE but we can!t predict what the weather will be on those days )n contrast to weather systems, which are difficult to grasp, a simpler system that also behaves chaotically is the game of pinball )magine a ball rolling across a frictionless surface and bouncing off circular obstacles )f we assume the ball sets off in a particular direction we can predict the course it will take as it bounces between the obstacles &he problem arises when we try to actually fire the ball in e*actly the same initial direction &here is bound to be some minute discrepancy between the initial conditions in the real system and the system as we described it in our mathematical model &he wing beats of a passing butterfly could be responsible for a discrepancy like this )n other systems this discrepancy would remain practically insignificant, but with the circular obstacles every time the ball bounces off them the difference between the real angle and the predicted angle is doubled )f you begin with a very small number and keep doubling it it doesn!t take long before the number gets very big indeed )n systems like this, because we don!t know with perfect accuracy all the details of the system at any given moment, we can!t predict its future course with any reasonable accuracy beyond a short period of time Joes this mean that science has come up against a brick wall and that the pro"ect of reducing the whole of reality to a single unified theory has been stopped in its tracks@ ;ot at all &here are perfectly good theories for weather systems and pinball games &hey describe perfectly well what generally happens in systems like this 7 we know perfectly well how balls behave when they collide with circular obstacles )t!s "ust that

in practice we can!t use these very neat theories to make the kind of impressive long7 term predictions we can make with other systems &hat!s not because the theory is wrong )t is simply a consequence of our inability to get sufficiently accurate figures for all the forces at work in the system

The forces of globalisation

Most people who watch the evening news on &G everyday will hear about every ma"or natural disaster that happens in the world' every earthquake, every drought, every fatal landslide, every tornado and hurricane Farely will they hear a thing about the two most powerful financial institutions in the world' the I78 +the international monetary fund/ and the World 6an!, and yet these institutions probably have a bigger impact on the lives of more people than do all those natural disasters that we hear about so regularly Cere we present a brief introduction to these two institutions 7 two institutions that are supposed to be the forces of good in the world, though they seem to many of us like the true a*is of evil 0ith so many European cities in ruin at the end of 0orld 0ar )) the )M9 and the 0orld #ank were set up primarily to finance European reconstruction &here was also a longer term goal' to ensure that there was no repetition of the global economic depression that occurred in the 64,-!s +An aside' what does an economic depression look like@ )t looks like a downward spiral 9or one reason or another companies e*perience falling profits so they start to cancel investments and lay off workers >nemployment rises and the demand for goods falls &he government!s income from ta*es also declines, so publicly funded pro"ects have to be cut back All of this makes it even more difficult for companies to make a profit so they make more cutbacks and the spiral continues downwards &his can spread to other countries when they start to suffer a loss of demand for their e*ports / &o avoid the spreading downward spiral of another global depression the idea was that governments could turn to the )M9 to borrow money to help reduce unemployment and maintain demand for consumer goods whenever a local economic crisis started &he ob"ectives of the )M9 and 0orld #ank changed fundamentally in the 64<-!s )nstead of simply providing assistance to market economies that get into trouble, they became instruments of a much more aggressive drive to open up new markets around the world that companies in the more advanced countries could then gain access to and e*ploit #y this time the )M9 and 0orld #ank were concerned less with Europe and much more with the &hird 0orld countries which had previously been colonies and had now gained independence At the time of 0orld 0ar )) those countries had been the sole responsibility of their imperial masters ;ow, when they got into trouble and needed foregn loans, the )M9 and 0orld #ank stepped in &hey had a carrot and a stick &he carrot was the desperately needed loan &he stick was the threat to withhold the money unless the country reformed its economy so that big foreign firms could come in and make money

A key word here is BprotectionB All of the more developed economies used measures such as import controls in the past to protect their agriculture and industry Such controls let companies grow until they are powerful to be able to compete in the international market According to the new philosophy there is no e*cuse for the world!s poorest countries trying to protect their agriculture and industry )f they need foreign loans they must open their markets up to big foreign companies even though their own companies may have no hope of competing )n the light of the original philosophy of the )M9 this makes no sense at all &he influ* of cheap goods from foreign companies may mean a slightly lower cost of living for many families but as local companies close and unemployment rises overall economic activity is likely to fall and levels of poverty will rise )n effect these two agencies have become two of the strongest proponents of today!s form of globalisation 7 a process whereby all the countries of the world are forced to open their markets, thereby ma*imising the opportunties for the largest and most powerful companies in the world Some people have called the new philosophy of the )M9 and the 0orld #ank Bmarket fundamentalismB &his means an insistence upon free markets that disregards the consequences for local communities and their traditional ways of life &ake, for e*ample, the poor African countries that previously subsidised agricultural activities in remote rural areas 0hen they needed help from the )M9 they were forced to stop these subsidies and let the local markets operate without the BdistortionsB introduced by government intervention As a result, incomes in remote rural areas dropped so low that their communities were no longer viable &o the market fundamentalist this is a small price to pay for the intellectual satisfaction of seeing the spread of the free market philosophy )n any case, so the theory goes, the damage is only short term &hose who can no longer make a living doing what they used to do will be motivated to pack their bags and move to cities where new "obs are being created &hat!s the way markets work &he )M9 will also force developing countries to cut back spending on things like education, and perhaps insist that fees be charged even for primary education )n the short term this could seem beneficial for an economy 7 government e*penditure falls making it easier for the government to pay back its debts and sort its finances out 1nly a market fundamentalist would ignore the issue of whether it is fair to make poor families pay for primary education And only a market fundamentalist would ignore the long term effects of a policy that will effectively reduce the level of education in the country &he phenomenon of child prostitution in &hailand is an e*ample of what can happen when so7called structural ad"ustment programmes like these are implemented 0here wages are already less than a couple of euros a day, if families are forced into greater poverty and children are denied the free education they need to find a decent "ob they are forced to resort to desperate measures

So what can we do@ ;othing basically &here is no power on the face of the planet that can effectively challenge the )M9

Foreign debt: A curse on the poorest countries of the world

9rom time to time the media are full of articles about the terrible possibility that a few thousand or a few million people in the rich countries of the world might die from a new flu epidemic #y contrast, very few frontpage articles or prime time &G programmes are devoted to the millions of children who die every year from water7borne diseases 7 diseases that are due to the fact that over a billion people in the world still don!t have access to clean water and sanitation &hese children die quietly and out of sight in some of the poorest countries in the world, and the poverty of these countries is one important factor in all this )f the countries were given the help and assistance they need to develop economically they would be more able to tackle these problems and stop so many children dying of easily preventable diseases >nfortunately such help and assistance is not being given 1n the contrary, many of the poorest countries in the world are effectively trapped in poverty 1ne of the reasons for this is foreign debt Many of these countries can!t use the little money they earn to develop their economies because they owe so much money to foreign banks as a result of loans that were taken out 6-, 2- or even ,- years ago &he burden of foreign debt is almost too much to bear &he Ethiopian economy, for instance, is crippled by a debt that has now reached some 6- billion >S dollars 9or the developed economies this is a relatively small amount of money )t is comparable to the amount Americans spend on cosmetics every year +< billion >S dollars/, and it is the same as the amount Europeans spend on ice cream every year 9or developing economies, though, the sums are huge (ountries like Ethiopia have to pay more money to foreign banks than they spend on ma"or public services like healthcare and education +o# did these countries incur these de"ts (ountries which had only "ust gained their freedom after centuries of colonial rule were not known as being centres of stability 0ith tribal conflicts and no long7established political institutions it was very easy for unscrupulous leaders to take control &hese people needed money to buy political support, to build a well7equipped and loyal army and to ensure their personal prosperity 9oreign banks saw the opportunity to profit from the situation and didn!t worry much about how corrupt the foreign regimes were as long as they were willing to keep the economy open to foreign businessmen who wanted to e*ploit the rich natural resources that some of these countries had Since then, in some countries there have been revolutions and groups have come to power that are genuinely concerned about the plight of the poor All too often, though, they find that so much of the little money the country can make has to be sent abroad to foreign banks &his is one of the reasons why so little has changed in a country like South Africa where the apartheid regime fell in 6448 and the new regime inherited a debt of 23 billion >S dollars

)n 2--3 the political leaders of < of the world!s richest nations decided to cancel some of the debts of the poorest countries 1n the face of it, this is a great step forward &he problem is that debt cancellation is not seen by these leaders as a means of enabling or encouraging those countries to tackle the problems of poverty )t is being used as a means of compelling those countries to open up their economies to foreign investors and businessmen Mozambique, for instance, was told it would have its debt cancelled only if it imposed a fivefold increase in the charges for treatment in the public health service, and if it privatised the water company 7 a move which led inevitably to higher charges and quicker disconnections for people who didn!t or couldn!t pay &he banks also ob"ected to the way Mozambique was protecting its cashew nut industry from foreign competition +measures used by all developing countries at one time or another/ &he country was told that it would have to drop import controls, meaning that the local industry would lose out to cheaper nuts coming in from abroad )t has been estimated that 6-,--- "obs have been lost as a result of this Similar measures will be imposed on all the countries that are being offered some degree of debt cancellation )t is clear from this that priority is not being given to helping the local economy develop on its own terms and to helping it achieve a greater degree of autonomy Although some of the world!s leaders 7 most notably the #ritish prime minister 7 took up the slogan Bmake poverty history!! during the widely publicised debt cancellation agreements, it is clear to those who are prepared to read the unpublicised small print that priority is given to the interests of big businessmen who want to see these foreign markets opened up ;o one can maintain that poverty reduction is a priority when people are being forced to pay more for the necessities of life like water and health care in a country where the average wage is less than a dollar a day and when the immediate consequence of many of these policies is an increase in the level of unemployment

Feed the world but how!

&he assumption in the corridors of power is that the only real hope for the poorest developing countries in the world is to open their economies to big business from abroad &here is no need for these multinational companies to be interested in the future of the developing nations )f they are interested only in profits then the fact that there is money to be made in developing countries will attract them there, investments will be made and those poor economies will develop )n short' "ust make the world economy as free as possible for business and everyone will be happy +Kust to fill you in' people who call for a free international economy also call for a strict international legal system that companies can use to demand compensation from governments when the latter impose policies that constrain the former )t doesn!t matter if those governments are acting democratically and e*pressing the will of the people &he sovereignty of individual nation7states doesn!t count for much in the eyes of those who want to make sure that big businesses are free to carry on doing business / &he idea that there is a perfect harmony between the aspirations of developing nations and the interests of big business is an appealing one )f only it were true Cowever, if we look at what some of the biggest businesses have done, we quickly come to the

conclusion that something more is needed if these countries are to prosper and the gap between the richest and the poorest in the world is to be narrowed 1ne case in point is that of ;estle and it!s dealings with Ethiopia ;estle 7 famous for its milk products, breakfast cereals and ;escafe coffee 7 is Switzerland!s largest industrial company and the value of its annual sales in 2--6 +A- billion >S dollars/ was eight times greater than the value of all the goods produced in Ethiopia )n 64<A ;estle bought a =erman company called the Schweisfurth =roup which had previously been part owner of the Ethiopian ?ivestock Jevelopment (ompany +Elidco/ &hat ownership was lost in 64:3 when the Ethiopian government nationalised the company Although this had happened 66 years before ;estle bought the =erman company, ;estle still took the Ethiopian government to court and insisted that ;estle should be compensated by the Ethiopian government Jespite its huge economic problems the government offered the Swiss company 6 A million dollars ;estle re"ected the offer Bas a matter of principleB and insisted on a figure of A million dollars, arguing that anything less would indicate that Ethiopia was not serious about recognising the the rights of foreign investors &hey argued that the payment was Bin the interest of continued flows of foreign direct investment which is critical for developing countries B 0hile popstars like #ob =eldof were desperately trying to persuade people to donate more money to help those on the verge of starvation in countries like Ethiopia, the managing directors of ;estle, sitting in their comfortable offices in =eneva, refused to sacrifice a tiny - -65 of their annual turnover Ethiopia needed help &he average wage was less than a dollar a day, 68 million people didn!t have enough food to eat, and one in ten children were dying before they reached their first birthday #ut there was Ba matter of principleB, and according to international law Ethiopia had to respect the rights of foreign investors ;estle said it was acting Bin a spirit of fairnessB )s this the spirit which will save the millions who are condemned to a life of poverty, disease and hunger@ Jo the actions of ;estle prove that if big businesses are left free to do what they want in the poorest economies then those countries will develop and people will rise out of poverty@

"aptops for the hungry

1ne of the problems faced by the poorest countries in the world is that of child labour (hildren who ought to be at school getting an education are out working because there is no other way for their families to earn enough to make ends meet &he hours are often very long +6- or 62 hours a day/ and the conditions abominable &here are children as young as ten years old in #angladesh, for instance, sitting outside for ten hours a day breaking old bricks +the broken bits of brick are used in a cheap form of concrete/

Aside from this, there is the even more widespread problem of access to clean water and the provision of good sanitation 7 something that over a billion people still don!t have &his is the world in which the >nited ;ations announced in 2--3 that it was setting a goal according to which every child in the developing world would have a laptop by 2-63 A company had designed a very simple and robust laptop that would be powered by a wind7up mechanism so it could be used in areas that don!t yet have electricity, and assuming at least 6-- million would be ordered, the final price tag would be no more than 6-- dollars &he plan is for governments and charities to buy these laptops and distribute them to children in the poorest areas of the world )t is not yet clear what software will be installed on the laptops, but it will surely include one or two games &hose children in #angladesh will be delighted to know that after a long day breaking bricks they can rela* with their laptops playing their favourite computer game 0hen hearing announcements like this it is not easy to avoid being cynical 1f course it would be great if everyone had a computer and access to the internet, but is it right to make that a priority now when so many children are currently deprived of the most basic education@ And when so many children are falling ill and dying from water7borne diseases isn!t it much more urgent that this problem be sorted out@ )t is hard to believe that there isn!t some kind of hidden agenda At a time when the ;ew 0orld 1rder +or the ;ew American (entury, as it has also been called/ is becoming the focus for a violent reaction from other social groups perhaps the laptops and their software can subtly persuade the youngest and poorest kids in the world that the 0est is unquestionably the best 1ne of the snags with the plan concerns what families are likely to do with the laptops &he hundred dollar price tag is equivalent to an adult wage for three months in many cases &hese families are much more likely to try and sell the computer and get money to buy grain or fertilizer or food, than to let their kids play with it in the evenings while the rest of the family sits listening to their stomachs rumbling

Chain gangs are back

)n the 644-%s some American states re7introduced chain gangs for inmates of its prisons +(hain gangs were first instituted in America in the seventeenth century / =roups of up to 63 prisoners are taken out of prison to do menial, manual labour outdoors A metal band around the left ankle of each prisoner connects him or her to a heavy chain to keep them together when they are out doing "obs like weeding public parks and picking up litter in the city streets )n Arizona prisoners volunteer to work on the chain gang for eight hours a day, seven days a week for ,- days to end their detention in the most crowded prison cells +four prisoners in a cell 2 3m by ,m/ 7 a form of detention called lock down used as a punishment for prisoners who break prison rules Inowing he has over <-5 public approval for his scheme, the police chief responsible for the prisons in Arizona is quite outspoken' B9orget all that stuff about rehabilitation

)!m not an educator )!m not a social worker )!m a cop Drison is punishment, so let!s punish B &his was the man who decided to e*pand prisons by putting hundreds of prisoners in tents in a desert climate where temperatures can reach 3- degrees in the summer Ce banned coffee and tobacco, replaced hot meals with sandwiches, stopped showing films and limited &G to one set per 4-- inmates Jana Stanley, aged 2<, a prostitute and one of the inmates on the first female chain gang was quick to condemn the practice when the group was allowed to speak to "ournalists BDutting women on a chain gang is wrong )!m only doing it so ) can get back into the main "ail ) was put in lock down "ust for talking to the men, which is prohibited, but then ) don!t think prostitution should be a crime anyway B Another woman, serving a one year sentence for shooting at her abusive husband +she missed/ said she didn!t know whether the idea of chain gangs was inhumane, but whe was unrepentant about her own crime She vowed, B)!ll get him ne*t time B Although the harsher prison regimes are very popular with voters there is no evidence that they have deterred criminals (rime levels in areas with the most punitive regimes are no lower than those in areas with more liberal regimes &here is also no evidence that the e*perience of prison regimes like that in Arizona reforms criminals and persuades them to turn over a new leaf ;o politician dare speak out against them, though, because only those who advocate getting even tougher on crime get reelected

#ust dreaming: The two poles of contemporary political life

)n the 0est, ideas about politics basically come down to a stark contrast between the dreamers who look forward to a world of peace, love and social harmony, and those who see themselves as realists, who accept that society is, and always will be, made up of individuals who are out for what they can get &hese two camps are well represented, on the one hand, by Kohn ?ennon, with his song O)magineP, and, on the other hand, by Adam Smith a world famous realist with his book O&he 0ealth of ;ations P )n his song, ?ennon admits' O$ou may say )%m a dreamer,P And then adds' B#ut )!m not the only one ) hope someday you will "oin us , And the world will live as one PB &his is the big dream' unity, harmony and world peace 1ne of the biggest philosophers of the Enlightenment +Iant, writing in =erman over ,-- years ago/ also thought that every rational person shared the ob"ective of world peace as something to struggle towards ?ots of people +but not everyone/ agreed &he tricky question was how to achieve that peace ?ennon had some ideas about this 0e had to scrap private property

;o possessions,P he sang and we had to stop getting so worked up about religion, and start imagining a world with, B;o hell below us, Above us only sky PB )f you ignore property, religion, nationality, ethnicity, language, gender, se*ual preference, musical taste, hair colour and all the other things that identify us with certain groups and not with others, it%s possible to say' OCey, we%re all basically the same 0e!%re all "ust people 0hy don%t we "ust live in peace@P &his is altruism $ou forget about yourself and your little local faction, and you identify with humanity itself (ynics will raise a question about ?ennon!%s sincerity Jidn%!t his deeds contadict ever so slightly the words of the song@ )t was his song, he wanted the copyright, and he signed a contract to make sure he got his share of the profits from it Joes this matter@ Derhaps not, but it does help to show +if help were needed/ that ?ennon%!s dream is "ust a bit too far removed from reality 1f course, we need dreams, and dreams are part of reality, but the dreams we need are those that lead us towards something we can really achieve, otherwise we are O"ust dreamers P #efore leaving the dream, it is worth remembering how important a very similar dream was for one of the most powerful movements on the left wing of politics' communism Mar*ists were aiming for something similar to ?ennon' universal harmony with no possessions +or at least no private ownership of the means of production/, no religion and no divisive nationalities or racial and se*ual pre"udices #ut whereas ?ennon thought we could "ust drop everything and love each other, the communists thought there would have to be a big fight before world peace could be achieved Nuestion' who would fight for this ideal world@ Answer' people who had nothing to gain from the present world #ack in the nineteenth century the growing working class seemed to fit the bill Mar*ists looked closely at the economy and made some predictions' factories and mines were going to get bigger, the bosses were going to get richer, wages were never going to rise, and millions and millions of workers would still be working in appalling conditions for at least ten hours a day and living in grotty little rented houses with outside toilets Cence the slogan' BO0orkers of the world unite $ou have nothing to lose but your chains PB 9or some reason, the nineteenth century social theorists failed to predict that the workers of the 9irst 0orld, at least, would end up with their own houses +complete with indoor toilets, hot and cold running water, central heating, air conditioning and double glazing/, cars, satellite dishes, JGJs, home computers, microwave ovens and &G dinners As a consequence of this, lots of workers started to think that all that stuff about chains was a lot of old hat and as they set about planning the repayments of their various loans and credit deals, they quickly forgot the old rallies and the calls for world unity

&he other side of the 0estern political spectrum is one that would like to think of itself as being the most realistic )nstead of dreams and songs and slogans and people hugging each other in the streets, we have a cold, hard, scientific look at everyday economic reality 7 at least that is what it was supposed to be Adam Smith was one of the first to develop a science of economic life, and over ,-- years later his ideas are still hugely influential According to Smith, no one does anything for purely altruistic reasons &here%s always some self7interest there At root, we are selfish creatures 1ther people had seen this and had drawn some very pessimistic conclusions Smith was more optimistic and developed a theory about the way a market economy that relied on private self7interest to drive economic development would be the best for everyone in the long run A quotation from his book B&he 0ealth of ;ationsB +published in 6::A/' BO)t is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we e*pect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest PB )n other words, if individuals are free to start businesses and sell things, their interest in their personal profit will motivate them to produce the goods that people want to buy &he promise of profits inspires people to be creative and take initiatives, looking for new markets or looking for more efficient and profitable ways of making goods that already e*ist &here is no need for huge, e*pensive and often corrupt systems of central control to ensure that producers produce the type and the quantity of things that consumers need And there is no need for altruism Selfishness works "ust as well (onclusion' the best way of achieving the public good is by giving free rein to private self7interest >p to a point, Smith "ust has to be right about selfishness Even altruistic guys like ?ennon are interested in themselves Surely fame and fortune were at least part of the reason he set out to become a popstar And lots of altruistic people want to have their own house and their own car ?ennon had his flat in ;ew $ork, and they don!%t come cheap &here%!s something quite natural about wanting to buy things like this and say they!%re yours Deople certainly seem more interested in looking after their own things than in looking after things they can use but cannot call their own &here is also a certain selfishness in everything we do &hat!%s to be e*pected, and there%!s nothing wrong with it )t is pure pie in the sky to e*pect mere mortals to pay no attention whatsoever to the way they might be rewarded for the good things they do on earth Even supposedly altruistic (hristians believe in the Jay of Kudgement when the =ood will rise again and en"oy the fruits of the ;ew Kerusalem )t%!s part of what it means for an action to make sense that there is something in it for you Cowever, there is a problem with Smith%!s ideas, and it%s the same problem as the one with ?ennon%s dream &hey are both abstractions Smith gives pride of place to self7 interest and considers talk of benevolence as so much hot air, whereas ?ennon wants pure altruism and seems to put self7interest in the same category as the desire for world domination and Aryan supremacy #oth of these abstract from a social reality that, at its best, combines both self7interest and altruism &here is an element of self7interest in everything we do, but people who care about being civilised and not slipping back into

barbarism have broader horizons &he popularity of songs like ?ennon%s illustrates that many people want to work towards a world in which they can look around and say' O&his is good &his is the way it ought to be P &hey are not "ust butchers, brewers and bakers interested in selling as many goods as possible &ake your own house, for e*ample Almost everyone wants to be able to own their own homes, which could be utterly self7interested and Smithian #ut people also want to live in a lovely neighbourhood &hat requires that people don%t "ust build what they want and do what they want with their property &hey have to accept planning controls and respect the environment, and volunteer to help out in various neighbourhood pro"ects &he strange thing is that people are willing to do this &hey want to do it &his is a small way in which people demonstrate that they can combine self7interest with a concern for the public good Deople want to be able to have their own things and en"oy themselves &o that e*tent Smith is "ustified, but people concerned about civilisation also want to feel that while working to pay off the mortgage they are also contributing to a social order that they can approve of (all it a desire for meaning Deople want to feel good about what they are doing, and it is not enough to see the money coming in and the bills being paid Smith pays no attention to this, but it is a need as deep and as legitimate as the self7interest he bases his theory on

$hat is reality!
&he scientific worldview which so dominates our contemporary consciousness is not as innocent as it may at first seem Arguably, it conceals as much as it illuminates )t gives us a distorted picture of what reality is 9or science, reality is supposed to be made up of ob"ects and events that are entirely independent of the observer )t is assumed to be 6--5 ob"ective 7 not shaped in the least by our perceptions of it #ut is this what reality really is@ ?et!s take the e*ample of a tree 0hat is a tree@ &o the Jruids +a primitive society found in ;orthern Europe some 2,--- years ago/ certain trees were sacred 7 they were dwelling places of gods &o a child who has a tree house, the tree is a place to play and perhaps also a place of refuge &o the artist it is a thing of beauty &o a lumber"ack it is timber, and to the logging company it is a source of profit &o a scientist, by contrast, it is "ust a living organism capable of both respiration and photosynthesis with a specific place in the botanical ta*onomy Joes the scientist tell us what a tree really is, or does he "ust give us one possible way of looking at a tree@ Must we say that the tree is not really holy or really beautiful 7 because these concepts are too sub"ective 7 and that the only truly ob"ective concept of the tree is the scientific one@ 0hat science does to the significance of things is truly bizarre Since our ancestral apes rose up on their hind legs we have been trying to grasp the significance of things for us &he bright light shooting across the sky 7 is it a good or a bad omen@ Everything had to have a human significance

Science now tells us that in truth ob"ects and events like this have no significance whatsoever 1ur "ob is not to interpret them and give them a place in our social lives 7 rather our "ob is "ust to e*plain their causes and try to predict the future course of events )s this the truth about reality@ )f you found a tribe that still worships trees you would have to admit that trees really can be sacred Anyone who stubbornly refused to admit this and who proceeded to take a chainsaw to one of the sacred branches would soon appreciate his error &he point here is not that there are lots of different views about reality &he point is that societies constitute their own reality &ake the e*ample of human rights 9rom the scientific point of view there is no such thing as human rights 7 there are individuals with genes and hormones and drives, but no rights #ut if a society has the right laws and the right institutions for implementing and upholding those laws then human rights become a social fact Feality for us is first and foremost a social construction, but all too often we forget that, partly because of a peculiarly scientific view of what is truly ob"ective