Matt Dickson

Matthew Syed has decided it's time for us to rethink compassion, in his attempt to provide a moral case for the government's plans to reduce disability benefits and to cast people that need benefits as lazy liars and selfish scroungers. "what we really need is a moral recalibration, particularly in an age of rising military conflict. We need to rethink what we mean by compassion. We need to rethink what we mean by “essential” services. We need to rethink foreign aid when we are giving money to nations with space programmes. We need to rethink human rights and, perhaps even more importantly, individual responsibilities... In short, we need to cut our moral coat to the cloth of the age or, to put it another way, embrace realism. Our future as a civilisation depends on it." I take issue with Syed on a number of grounds. 1. Firstly, rethinking morality based on circumstances is called situation ethics and is a flawed philosophy because you most need your morality when you are under pressure. Changing what is right based on circumstance is how some justified killing prisoners of war, rape as a weapon of war and exterminating jews. 2. Rethinking human rights because of economics also seems like the worst of folly. Because we have mismanaged our public health system, our economy and immigration system Syed suggests we should cut benefits. We make the poorest and most vulnerable in our society pay for the mistakes of some of the wealthiest. There's no reference or apparently understanding of the lives of ordinary people who are facing incredible pressures now. 3. "Cutting your moral coat to the cloth of the age" is terrible advice. It sounds like going with the flow. It sounds like not having the moral courage to see that the emperor has no clothes, let alone no coat. In difficult times we need our morality more than ever. What next will he be telling the Ukrainians to stop fighting tyranny? Or the world to ignore the 13000 dead children in Gaza or the genocide in Sudan? 4. The idea that rethinking compassion is necessary to preserve civilisation is an oxymoron. Civility is all about recognising the dignity and worth of others. Compassion should drive us to sacrifice on behalf of others and should not be ditched for the purposes of self preservation. I seek to base my moral framework on Jesus who personified compassion and was criticised most heavily for his compassion to all the groups of people that everyone else sought to ignore, oppress or marginalise. It was Christ's compassion that lead him to feed the hungry, heal the leper and welcome the stranger. It was Christ's compassion that lead to him being killed on a cross to offer forgiveness to all who want it. To cast compassion as mindless and against civilisation is another instance of the Orwellian newspeak which turns words on their head to serve political goals. We need more compassion not less as times get harder for so many of us...