New market words: patience, ethics, justice…

Wikipedia

The Archbishop of Canterbury has given a major speech on market ethics in the light of the recession. (Here is an annotated Diigo link, if you wish it.)

The archbishop is as careful and subtle as ever in what he says. He speaks of:

• a culture of short-termism;
• an impatience for results and outcomes;
• an obsession, in our culture and in government, with growth, without asking what that growth is for or towards;
• the illusion that, so long as we head towards growth, we are in control;
• and the vacuity or indeed malignity of a goal of growth simply as an indefinite expansion of purchasing power, because it removes scarcity from us and places it at the feet of those who already have little.

Underlying his exposition is a philosophical or religious question, and indeed a question which can hardly be ignored or bettered. What are human beings for? Or (as he says) less crudely, what is the content is of ideas of human dignity and where do we look for their foundation or rationale?

This is a searching, eyes-open enquiry into the very basis of our public life. It’s good that Rowan Williams places himself prophetically in the arena of cultural comment and critique. Let’s hope he gets heard.

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