I’ve just heard George Osborne making the ‘we are better off now than at any other time in history’ argument. The last time I heard this made was at a formal dinner at an Oxford college. /1

It was made by a white male prof. Only those who live in privilege can make this argument & believe it. The thing I hate about it the most is not it’s complacency. 2/

It’s the way it naturalises progress & history. As though if just left to their own devices, things would get better. But no. 3/

Things get better — especially things that matter, like socio-economic conditions for the vulnerable & exploited — because people (often those vulnerable & exploited people) fight for it. /4

It was tiring to have to make these arguments over dinner & it is tiresome to hear them now. Of all moments I’ve lived for, now is not the time for the ‘slow march of progress’ position. Change is fought for, grabbed, insisted upon, angrily forced. /5

Of course Osborne would make this argument. & I was glad to hear him robustly rebuked. But, come on, this is the time for imagination. Not for resignation & self-congratulation that you were lucky enough to be born in the 21stC (& a rich white man with power).

Argh. Typo.