Dehumanisation of marginalised groups is now part of political discourse, but there are ways to restore compassion to society
Look at British politics in recent years and one thing stands out: an ever-dwindling supply of compassion. Migrating people who are left to drown as ministers send in patrol boats. Disabled people going hungry as social security is targeted. More divisiveness, via online abuse and anti-immigration sentiment, provoked by Brexit. And while the pandemic has in some ways brought communities together, it has also seen chilling callousness, as clinically vulnerable people die in large numbers with little fuss. Even topics that you would expect to guarantee compassion, such as growing child poverty, often descend into point scoring – or people turn a blind eye, suggesting we might now be desensitised even to a toddler going cold in the winter.
This is hardly to say cruelty is a new phenomenon for Britain. But the feeling that things are getting worse is hard to shift. The public share the concern: a 2019 survey from Action for Happiness found 60% of people believed Britain had become less caring over the past 10 years. In a new book, How Compassion can Transform our Politics, Economy, and Society, a range of writers and public figures – including Alf Dubs, AC Grayling, Pragna Patel and me – attempt to figure out how we got to this point and outline ways we could build a more compassionate society. There has been a normalisation of suffering in modern Britain – or more accurately, certain people’s suffering. I have been writing about poverty and austerity for almost a decade, and at times it feels as if the worse it gets, the harder it is for some people to care.
Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist and author of Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People
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