‽istis wonders
at confidence (weekending October 1st 2022)
Listening to the round of local radio interviews
with the UK’s Prime Minister[i], ‽istis admired the
laser-guided questions from local radio station presenters and their listeners which,
if not quite cutting through the prepared phrases and references invoked to
explain the financial crisis that seems to have broken like a wave (‘global
crisis’, ‘Putin’s war’, ‘energy costs’, but strangely not ‘tax cuts’, ‘bankers’
bonuses’, ‘Government borrowing’, ‘lack of supporting information or
independent scrutiny’, ‘uncosted’, ‘poorly communicated’, ‘unapproved by Parliament’,
etc.), at least forced that sin of radio: a moment or two’s silence from the
PM.
Yet ‽istis also rather grudgingly admired (and even
envied) the apparent sheer display of self-confidence:
·
from one whose mandate came:
o
not from ‘the country’ (who had had no say)
o
not from the party’s MPs (who had had a say and had
rejected, favouring the ex-Chancellor who may well be struggling not to
proclaim from the roof-tops or into the radio silence: “I told you so!”)
o
but from the party membership with its much-touted
relatively small number and apparently geographically-located, gender, age,
social and views-on-certain-issues bias[ii].
·
from the new and seriously impressively qualified chancellor[iii].
So ‽istis started to
wonder about confidence and where it comes from…
Perhaps dividing a seemingly
slippery concept into self-confidence - v - others’ confidence is a bit too binary even if the gap between the
two can help us understand the apparent financial crisis that seems to have followed
in the wake of the ‘mini-budget’ (possibly as much a ‘fiscal event’ as invading
Ukraine was a ‘special military operation’?).
Maybe a division of self- from
others’- confidence is a bit too simplistic? Perhaps self-confidence
starts with unconditional approval but then builds and is internalised through repeated
validation, achievement, awards and rewards, approbation, acclamation, meeting
and surpassing targets and tests – a transfer of ‘confidence-capital’
from provider to recipient?
And yet, and yet ‽istis wonders
whether there is a confidence trick to be careful of: the danger of reaching a
tipping point where someone/s now believe/s that they can trust or have implicit
confidence in their judgement, their ability, their sense of the right way to
go about things – no longer thinking that they need external validation from,
say, a body established to ‘give independent and authoritative analysis of the
UK’s public finances’[iv], from peers, from other
experts and, as the latest polls seem to suggest, from stakeholders including
those:
·
who may be the most severely affected
·
whose pensions may be jeopardised
·
whose vital services may be reduced and cut - either
to pay for the borrowing or because profits can be taken out in the future by the
pay and free-to-soar bonuses of CEOs and the rewards by dividend paid to the private
shareholders and those who could hedge their bets – new privatised ‘owners of
the means of provision’[v] who can profit when market
forces are unleashed to rescue apparently failing and inadequate state
provision, softened up and needing saving and saviours[vi]
·
whose mortgages may be lost or unpayable – whose very
homes may be lost
·
whose support you perhaps, possibly, maybe lose at your
peril.
Rampant displays of hubris (perhaps
just the right word for confidence internalised beyond the point of the others’-confidence
which possibly produced and sustained it, or can justify and support it) maybe
contributed to the demise of the previous UK Prime Minister, could it sooner or
later also do for another, or at least a Chancellor?
© ‽istis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and
past blog entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t
necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’:
@Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...
[i] Brought
together by ‘Newscast’: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0d3flmh
[ii] https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/tory-party-demographics-revealed-ahead-of-leadership-election-and-they-make-for-pretty-grim-reading-329194/
[v] ‘Owners
of the means of provision’ – perhaps a modern day counterpart in a service-heavy
economy v ‘owners of the means of productions’ in a goods-producing-heavy economy; profit privatised
for some, none-the-less?). ‽istis doubts whether this is an original phrase, more research needed, but may be a useful addition to and a modern counterpart to 'owners of the means of production'?
[vi]
Is this the long term game plan, perchance?
