Innocence and Authority

Abstract

John Berger and others write in conclusion to their book Ways of Seeing: ‘Capitalism survives by forcing the majority, whom it exploits, to define their own interests as narrowly as possible. This was once achieved by extensive deprivation. Today in the developed countries it is being achieved by imposing a false standard of what is and what is not desirable’.¹ In this social system, social and sexual identity is constituted by financial power and capacity for monetary income, the psychological reflection of which is the work ethic; and a person’s definition in relation to self and others is largely determined by one’s response, degree and means of submission to the priorities of capital, which influences possibilities of interaction, influence and integration into an ideal of community.² Barker’s early trio of radio plays examine ways in which the majority are forced to define their interests, with an increasing sense of individual isolation which moves from the splendid to the deadening.

The essence of government is the establishment of rules which the governor himself has no intention of keeping. Universal approbation of principles like justice, law, democracy … suffuse the mass consciousness, enabling the governors to practise duplicity to their heart’s content

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