A Wiser Politics: Psyche, Polis, Cosmos [Paperback]

Jean Jacques Rousseau in The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right asks himself the question "What is the nature of the form of government fitted to create a people that will be most virtuous, the most enlightened and the wisest, in fact the best, taking this word in its widest sense?" This is the question of this book, and one which is ever more urgent today.
Our Politics does not serve us well. There is an increasing feeling that we need a wider and wiser vision for the earth: A sense that otherwise we are travelling fast towards our own destruction, through greed and violence and exploitation of natural finite resources. We know this. But what can we do?
We have always made sense of the world and our place in it through stories. The problem is that political philosophies are myths that have hardened into doctrine. Can we not rethink our politics, to serve us better?
In this well reasoned book Hardy argues for a more connected politics, that embraces the Cosmos (universe and earth), the Polis (Greek for political and social world), and the Psyche (who we are). In Part One she describes and explains how modern politics has been moulded in the last 400 years by the lives and times of those who wrote it, and does not embrace all these things. She shows how historically the politicians have rejected "the other", the feminine, the natural forces, the earth - and have seen man as inherently warlike and competitive, needing an authoritarian society, always chasing wealth and glory and power, owning and exploiting the earth as if it were there for our own sole use. Politics has been largely secular and rational, and has assumed the superiority of the white rich male, usurping all those others, the feminine, the indigenous, the spiritual, who in all probability held a deeper and superior vision of life.
In Part Two Hardy describes in more detail those five elements that are missing in our political philosophy, and why these are important; the feminine (politics still being largely male dominated), indigenous wisdom, consideration of the earth and all its creatures, a sense of the spiritual and the holistic, and an appreciation that concepts of human nature and behaviour are subject to new knowledge and now understood differently. Most interestingly, and important in this respect, Hardy draws attention to the psychological effects on children of their upbringing. There is plenty of evidence now that we are shaped by how we are nurtured, that the empathy and love bestowed upon us in our earliest years is crucial to the way we behave in later years. A pattern emerges of the childhoods of those men who shaped today's political world, showing that they suffered discontinuance, trauma or uncertain childhoods by any definition, lacking in the security of emotional ties. Indeed, it would be legitimate to argue, and Hardy does, that the root of all war lies in the lack of time and perception given to children, and in the positive neglect, disruption and cruelty experienced by others. It is certainly easy to see that most if not all world problems can be traced to the agency of humankind, and could be solved by changes in our behaviour.
Then in Part Three these elements of the argument are all brought together to call for a new way of governance, to embrace the conscious and unconscious, the dark and the golden, a greater breadth of knowledge across all disciplines. The separation of science from religion, person from universe, feeling from intellect, are now being questioned. Depth psychology is showing us a way to a kinder, wider and deeper way of relating to the world. We need more interconnectedness, relationship with the spirit in all things. We need to demolish the myth that success is measured by material wealth. Modern science, politics and economy between them are powerful, but unsustainable and even immoral. We don't love the earth enough so we need legislation to protect it from ourselves - and so on. The book concludes with a list of 14 proposals for the framework of a wiser politics.

Throughout the book Hardy includes carefully chosen poetry to illustrate the greater depth of feeling and understanding, of instinct, imagination and spirit, which only poetry can bring. This, together with the insights of other writers, adds a valuable dimension to the whole. She tells us she set out to write a carefully reasoned but also intuitive and feeling book, and she has succeeded. Whilst it is written around British politics, it is of a far wider relevance, because Western economic and political values have become pervasive throughout the globe, affecting the lives of the vast majority of people now living.
Here is another book that is essential reading for all who are concerned for the future of the planet earth, and want to do what they can to ensure that we continue to be a part of it for generations to come. In Hardy's image of such a world, the "male figure is not denied: but he is just part of everything else -the female is just as significant, the spirit runs through all things, the earth and indeed the whole universe is the container of all activity: humans, far from being in control, are held within an infinitely greater whole." Nothing short of a massive global shift of heart, mind and soul is called for, something I emphasise in my own book, Healing This Wounded Earth: with Compassion, Spirit and the Power of Hope, and an idea therefore close to my own heart.

May it be!

It is a shame that there are a few copy editing hiccups but these can be put right in the next print run and in no way detract from the vital message of this important book.