Review of the cultural,
spiritual and healing potential of the drama: “Brexit: An Uncivil Debate”.
The fractious malaise of current times, underpinned by a
lack of valuing and cultivating the skills of cross-tribe dialogue, action
planning and review is the last thing I wish to perpetuate in reviewing the
pithy drama: “Brexit: An Uncivil Debate”. It doesn’t even matter to me whether
the key individual dramatised as the well-spring of the “leave” result, Dominic
Cummings, was accurately portrayed. I do not wish to write about Benedict
Cumberbatch’s acting for modern media is over-obsessed with actors etc rather
than unfolding the themes to get at the underlying values and then holding
these values up to the light of the standard of the highest an individual can
become, which, for me, as a Buddhist, is a Buddha. First one needs to become a “true
individual” and James Graham‘s drama was foremost for me a plausible account of
what happened behind the scenes of the Brexit vote, showing the immense impact
a “true individual” can make; in this case summarised as “the largest political
upset since the fall of the Berlin Wall”.
I could just cut to the chase now and show that what we need
for healing are more Dominics. I refer you to the work in Brazil etc of my
friend Dominic Barter, recognised in the “Radical Efficiency” report as one of
ten project leaders whose projects have cut through the conventional
state/politician-led ways of working and found cheaper, more effective ways of
working. Dominic Barter and Dominic Cummings (as portrayed in James Graham’s
drama) are, for me, both archetypal examples of the application of the key
concept in Stephen Covey’s culminating work, which added a third dimension to
his previous blockbuster of living and working from deep spiritual values (The
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People). Covey’s swansong work was “The Eigth
Habit”, which all too gliby can be summarised as “Find Your Voice and Help
Others Find Theirs”. For me, this ideology of how to empower people was the
strapline underpinning the drama “Brexit: An Uncivil Debate”. The tragedy of
what happens when people rally round the concept of “Take Back Control” only to
have Westminster politics undermine the kind of Brexit they had mythologised
was the closing of this drama (set in 2020, when Dominic was being held to account in a fictional
Independent Review of the Referrendum); and the rolling of the credits was
preceeded by endnotes on Cambridge Analytica and another company engaged in “creative data use”(my phrase, seeking a
better one), the funders and the election of Donald Trump.
To enhance this
review, I may well follow the link to watch the programme on Channel 4 and pull
out the quote from Dominic about how poor a form of politics a Referendum is,
as it creates a false ‘black and white’, polarising much more nuanced matters
to be worked through collectively. If you are watching the programme, I’d be
grateful for your pulling this out, for me.
One of the compliments I value most highly in my 3.5 year relationship
with my partner, who, like me, is not ashamed to declare her vote as having been
Remain, as she sat watching Dominic ‘own’
the managing board that was attempting to sack him is that few people could
handle a meeting like that but that I was the only person my partner knew who
could do what Dominic did in this meeting; no spoiler alerts needed –but watch
it if you ever intend to plan a coup or make any difference in the world
(#Textbook).
What I take away from a night reflecting on this drama is the importance for healing dialogue of engaging respectfully with that theme that galvanised so many, and for which "Europe" (however understood) was just a symbol: Take Back Control. My intention dialoguing with Brexit voters is to talk more about the wish for and techniques of community empowerment. As for dialogues with the "rabble rousers", some as bizarre to me as Jacob Rees Mogg (to whom I was simply polite on my last encounter), I'm wondering how they can be spoken to more effectively in service of "Good Will To All Men"? (NB It was Christmas Day when I had my poignant hour with Jacob Rees Mogg…)
The Buddhist movement to which I belong runs retreats
entitled “What the World Needs Now”, all
of which arrive –spoiler alert- at a very different answer to John Lydon in his
song with the same title. The political and economic (& dare I say
ecological/spiritual) upheaval indicated by the Brexit vote has decades to run
its course (which fits nicely alongside my plug to focus your energies as I attempt
to on http://2066.info). My greatest of many
mentors, Sangharakshita, effectively said that what we need are whole
communities of “true individuals”, more Dominic Cummingses and Dominic Barters
etc etc, not less: Look up on FreeBuddhistAudio.com “Evolution or Extinction?”
and absorb and live this template for how we get out of this Brexit / Climate
Change / power in the hands of e.g. Donald Trump, Vladimir Putins... Once this
teaching is observed, and it will take decades, my greatest fear is voiced well
in the Leonard Cohen “First We Take Manhattan”:
“You know the way to stop me, but you don’t have the discipline”.
