‘The intuitive responses by which we judge many things to be right or wrong have their origins in the behaviour and feelings of our human and pre-human ancestors and were suited for life in a small group in which everyone knew everyone else. That is very far from the world in which we live today, but many of our deepest moral intuitions persist.’
- Peter Singer One World Now : The Ethics of Globalization
What this election result effectively does is to illustrate Singer’s point perfectly.
Far-right politics is essentially predicated on nationalism, which in turn is a form of pre-rational tribalism, a throwback to an earlier epoch in human evolution.
It is therefore hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with the problems that the world faces today, that include climate change, resource wars, how to deal with China and Russia, the drafting of trade regulations, the preservation and protection of the environment and animal species, the future of nuclear power and the risks posed by nuclear proliferation, economic migrancy, and the maintenance of employment rights, to name but a few.
Of course, this result is also expressive of democracy in action. But it is a shame that the Italians cannot see that a lot of the issues that have motivated them to vote in this manner are actually a long term product of the deregulated, inherently unstable brand of right-wing, free-market economics that demands the free movement of labour across national boundaries, and is corrosive of social cohesion and family life.
Maybe one day the penny will drop. But first of all, they will need to discover that the so-called cure that they have opted for is far worse than the disease.
www.euronews.com