Runaway world : how globalisation is reshaping our lives
Anthony Giddens Profile Books 1999

There is a tendency within modern intellectual discourse which we are here to abominate. It used to be - and probably still is - in the genre of revivalist preachers to claim that the world is whirring out of control and that the solutions offered by politicians and scientists can no longer save us. To prevail upon people to be re-born is to convince them that their old life is irretrievably corrupt. That, we might suppose, is the preacher’s job. But when the intellectual manipulates notions of malaise to fan confusion in the audience, we critics must take offence. For this is the cheapest mental stunt, a sleight-of-mind, a device for bringing ghosts and goblins into the home of reason. And it is very common these days. We really wish publishers would take a blue-pencilled stand against it.

To our tale. Hark to Anthony Giddens, Director of the LSE and, according to the fly, an “intellectual powerhouse”. He litters his theses on the effects of globalisation with statements like :

“Rather than being more and more under our control, it (the world) seems out of our control - a runaway world”. Or :

“…we are being propelled into a global order that no-one fully understands”. Or :

“Many of us feel in the grip of forces over which we have no power….The powerless we experience is not a sign of personal failings, but reflects the incapacities of our institutions”. Or finally :

“Is global warming occurring and does it have human origins? Probably - but we won’t and can’t be completely sure until it is too late”. (Emphasis added)

Throughout the book, such statements - and this is but a selection - are dropped like little slices of pre-packaged darkness into a text that self-consciously aspires to clarify global truths. At worst, this tawdry obscurantism speaks directly to the worst neurosis of the reader : the neurosis that the world is indeed unknowable and that those who talk of powerlessness and drift probably have wisdom on their side. At best, this is the sheer cheek of talking down to your audience. For in the main, such statements here go unseasoned with anything approximating supportive fact or creative analysis. They cling and they clog like the platitudes they are. Where academic torpor meets tabloid trivialism, a terrible bullshit is waiting to be born.

Who says that we all feel powerless in an out-of-control world? Where is the objective proof of this? Tracking surveys? Interviews? Focus groups? Interesting information perhaps from studies of contemporary labour markets? Giddens does not really bother himself with anything so humdrum. Popular presumptions are, alternatively, given the reverence due to established facts. The insult to the reader is monstrous.

The book is meant to be about how globalisation is changing our lives - a perfectly worthy theme but one poorly served by an attitude to the conventional tools of analysis that is breathtakingly contemptuous. In the approach to science especially, Giddens shamelessly lets urban myths pass for truisms. We offer here, from the chapter on “Risk”, the worst paragraph in the whole sad story.

“Consider red wine. As with other alcoholic drinks, red wine was once thought harmful to health. Research (sic) then indicated that drinking red wine in reasonable quantities protects against heart disease. Subsequently, it was found (sic) that any form of alcohol will do, but it is protective (sic) only for people above aged 40. Who knows what the next set of findings will show (sic, sic, sic)?”.

Now, anyone who actually takes the trouble to visit and study original sources here - ie digests of the scientific evidence relating to the effect, by quantity, of alcohol on tissue and organs - finds a much less volatile story than Giddens suggests. A heavy preponderance of research confirms that, all in all, alcohol is indeed not good for us. Very small quantities may do no harm. The medical profession is, in the main, perfectly clear about all this. (No GP actually prescribes Beaujolais). The scientific data does not confuse at all; on the contrary, it illuminates marvellously. But Giddens quotes no sourced studies, no biochemist or doctor, no book. The fact is that the real story about the “value” of alcohol has become mangled into dangerous quarter-truths and modern folk-tales. It is surely, above all, the business of our intellectuals to bring lucidity and balance into the questions that detain us - not to act as glorified retailers of saloon-bar sophistries.

Runaway World does not compete on any level. Chapters on subjects such as the future of the family or the workings of democracy are contaminated by chat-show banalities. “Relationships function best”, the Director of the LSE tells us, “if people don’t hide too much from each other – there has to be mutual trust. And trust has to worked at; it can’t just be taken for granted”. (You may be asking yourself what such worldly wisdom has to do with the future of globalisation. We are unable to tell you). Or elsewhere : “..television and other media tend to destroy the very public space of dialogue they open up, through a relentless trivialising and personalising, of political issues”. Once again, no facts, no data, no proof (and precious little grammar) - but lots of cliched phrasings exposing straight-to-video ideas.

In the world of commercial consultancy, if anyone were to package and present an analysis in the way Anthony Giddens does here, the outcome would be dangerously disgruntled clients, contracts going un-renewed, falling revenue and, frankly, sackings. We have here an academic at work who has no-one to please but himself. And, God, does it show.