Brian Eno shares New Year’s Day message, urges public to push for equality

"And if we want thoughtful politicians, we should stop supporting merely charismatic ones," he wrote.

Brian Eno has shared an extensive New Year’s Day message, urging the public to push for equality.

Taking to his Facebook page today (January 1st), Eno addressed the “pretty rough year” of 2016 and questioned whether it is “the end – not the beginning – of a long decline”.

“This decline includes the transition from secure employment to precarious employment, the destruction of unions and the shrinkage of workers’ rights, zero hour contracts, the dismantling of local government, a health service falling apart, an underfunded education system ruled by meaningless exam results and league tables, the increasingly acceptable stigmatisation of immigrants, knee-jerk nationalism, and the concentration of prejudice enabled by social media and the internet,” he wrote.

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He blamed the “huge wealth inequalities” for the decline of democracy and urged readers to “start something big”.

“It will involve engagement: not just tweets and likes and swipes, but thoughtful and creative social and political action too,” he continued. “If we want social generosity, then we must pay our taxes and get rid of our tax havens. And if we want thoughtful politicians, we should stop supporting merely charismatic ones.”

He concluded that “inequality eats away at the heart of a society, breeding disdain, resentment, envy, suspicion, bullying, arrogance and callousness,” before adding that “if we want any decent kind of future we have to push away from that, and I think we’re starting to.”

2016/2017The consensus among most of my friends seems to be that 2016 was a terrible year, and the beginning of a long…

Posted by Brian Eno on Sunday, January 1, 2017

Last June, Eno urged British citizens to vote “remain” in the EU Referendum. The musician explained in a Facebook post that he feels compelled to share his views on the issue because “recent polls seem to be showing ‘Leave’ and ‘Remain’ are neck and neck”.

“I have a lot of misgivings about the way the EU is run, but they don’t make me want to ditch the whole idea,” the pioneering musician and producer explained.

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“I feel the EU is one of the only restraints on the kind of neo-liberal market fundamentalism that has seen inequality rising throughout the world. I feel that it has been a net force for good in promoting enlightened social and environmental agendas. It could and should be doing a better job at all these things, but to do any job at all it needs our support.”

“The only good outcome of this referendum is that it might remind us what the original mission of the EU was, and might motivate us to actually make it happen,” he added. “So…please vote. And please ask your friends to do the same.”

 

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