Matt Goodwin's Values, Voice and Virtue
Helen elsewhere
I stopped doing updates about my non-substack writing a while ago, mainly because established newspapers and magazines have their own distribution channels that I simply can’t match.
However, I’m making an exception for a piece I’ve written for Law & Liberty on Matt Goodwin’s controversial bestseller, Values, Voice and Virtue.
Goodwin’s latest book (he has written or co-written several others) divided and enraged the British commentariat in ways that become cringeworthy to watch. Many reviewers engaged in personal attacks on Goodwin himself. Unsurprisingly, he returned service.
There was some gold among the dross, however. Two writers I admire reviewed Values, Voice and Virtue in a measured way, Ben Cobley and Thomas Prosser. If you want some commentary in addition to mine, follow those links. If you want to see Britain’s Great & Good make monkeys of themselves, well, any internet search engine is your friend. There’s also a Twitter (where else?) lowlights reel in my Law & Liberty piece.
No-one likes a mirror held up before them with “you’re ugly” scrawled across it in red lipstick. In some ways, this is what Goodwin does: he hangs a series of portraits on the wall and then forces us to look at them.
If wishes were horses etc. Full disclosure: I'm NOT riding.
But what I wish for is someone--an American--to as clearly lay out for us and our "lived experience" what you--using Matt Goodwin--have laid out for the UK experience. I discovered in the year of Brexit as a visitor in England that there was a general willingness to "ask the Yank" both about Brexit AND Trump. In those always delightful and sometimes overly earnest discussions, I discovered in England what I know to be true in America: "Urbans" are NOT the same people as "Non-urbans" even though they sport the same passports. What I heard in London that year, was decidedly NOT what I heard elsewhere in my travel around England. [PS: The Londoners I talked with were decidedly REMAINS]
I don't have stats to "back up" my gut, BUT....speaking very generally (and generously, I think):
"Elites" are Urbans and decidedly NOT in tune with Non-urbans. And the bureaucracy (capital "B"?) that runs the US is just as clearly--and intentionally--out of touch with all those whose credentials vary from (and aren't "up to") those of the Elites and their Bureaucrat toadies. IMO.
Again thanks for all you (and Lorenzo Warby) do to keep lights burning.
Thanks for the kind mention, Helen :-)