Blair's moral purpose

[Mr P.A. Van Heusden]

Jim, while I disagree with you on a whole range of issues, I think your
take on Blair is pretty much correct here. Since I've been in Britain
(since April), I've been struck by New Labour's 'politics of
apprehension'. Thundering moral slogans about how Blair 'will not tolerate
mediocrity' fit very well into a regime of normalizing control of every
aspect of people's lives.

New Labour's myth is that 'we're all middle class now'. The reality, I
would argue, is that in Britain many people are living lives which contain
elements which are associated with being 'middle class' - office work, a
relatively higher level of education, a relatively higher level of
goods (e.g. cars, TVs) etc. 

And their lives are still crap - but crap in a way that they often don't
have words to understand. My wife, Rebecca, is busy doing temping work as
a PA. Her work is totally alienating, and she is subjected to speed-ups
just like on any production line. Yet mention the word 'class' or 'union'
or 'organise' to any of her co-workers, and they'd run a mile - after all,
they're 'not working class' in their own minds. Blair's moralism - based
on setting up 'Middle England' as the norm - feeds into the process of
controlling the working class by convincing them they're not working
class. Blair's policies of education help build people who think they
succeed based on their merit, and blame themselves when they 'fail'.

Has anyone written a book on this kind of stuff?

Peter
--
Peter van Heusden : pvanheus at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk : PGP key available
'The demand to give up illusions about the existing state of affairs is the 
demand to give up a state of affairs which needs illusions.' - Karl Marx