Michael Atherton - pushing back against "woke" excess

The ever-sensible Michael Atherton puts one away

This post is to channel a thought from the ever sensible Michael Atherton. This is from his column in The Times, which unfortunately is behind a paywall. So here is the punchline:

"The increasing tendency for people to define themselves by identity (ethnicity, race, gender etc) was undermining empathy among Britons... the challenge is to ensure we don’t end up in a siloed world where everybody is hypersensitive about their own individual interests.

The key issue is how do we move beyond the ‘I’ to the ‘we’, how do we think of ourselves as citizens in a country or in the world .”

The context for Atherton's comment is the very English issue of social class in cricket. Cricket has long been unfairly, sometimes absurdly, portrayed as an upper-class game, which it never was. 

But at a moment when the biggest controversy in English cricket is the racism Azeem Rafiq says is endemic in Yorkshire, when the two hundred year old tradition of the Eton vs. Harrow game at Lord's has been cancelled, Michael Atherton has touched on a truth which is much bigger than cricket or even England. We become a better game/ country/ world by focusing on the humanity that unites us, rather than the many million identities that divide us.

The "TATA" IPL: the IPL is no longer a "shady operation"

 

Nine years ago, the historian Ramachandra Guha asked the question – “why is it that companies like the Tatas, the Mahindras, or Infosys have not promoted an IPL team?”

Ram Guha just got his answer.

I’m watching the Tata IPL auction on TV right now.

That’s right. The Tata IPL.

India’s most sacred, most sanctified, most celebrated corporate brand is now the IPL’s title sponsor.

Ram’s point nine years ago was that the IPL was a “shady operation run by shady characters”, that “the IPL is representative of the worst sides of Indian capitalism and Indian society. Corrupt and cronyist, it has also promoted chamchagiri (sycophancy) and compliance”.

With the Tata’s now lending their name, there is no way the IPL can be described as “run by shady characters” or as “representative of the worst sides of Indian capitalism”.

What happened?

Time elapsed.

My inner amateur historian (Ram Guha is a professional historian) has noticed that most innovation starts outside the establishment. People associated with the innovation are vilified as “corrupt”, “cronyist”, “shady operators”, “tasteless”, “cheats”, “frauds” etc. This vilification intensifies as the innovation gathers momentum. Until, at some point, the innovation is simply adopted by the establishment, the former “shady operators” become “visionaries”, and pillars of the establishment like the Tata’s, Mahindra’s and Infosys lend their name to that innovation.

I guess that has now happened to the IPL. It is now one of the pillars of the establishment, proudly wearing its Tata badge.