Manifest Destiny

Ben Wildsmith

The Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year is ‘manifest’. Clarifying that this doesn’t refer to the list of passengers on a ship, the dictionary’s publishing manager, Wendalyn Nichols, specified the word’s usage by the ‘wellness community’.

For them, it is a verb meaning ‘to imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen.’

Dr Sander van der Linden, professor of social psychology at Cambridge University, told Sky News that, ‘the idea of making something happen by “manifesting” it had no scientific validity.’

He said it was ‘what psychologists call “magical thinking” or the “general illusion that specific mental rituals can change the world around us.’

Footling concerns

The singer, Dua Lipa, however used the term on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, so the wellness community can safely dismiss Dr van der Linden’s footling concerns about the institutional endorsement of wishful thinking. Who does he think he is?

Certainly, the UK government seems to have its thumb on the pulse as regards the rejection of empiricism in favour of superstition.

Rachel Reeves’ budget, which you’ll recall was supposed to encourage growth whilst keeping a lid on inflation, has seemingly had the opposite effect. With inflation creeping up and predicted growth estimated down, we are left with only Reeves’ stated ambition for the economy as evidence for its recovery.

‘Sim sallabim, sim, sim sallabim’ the Chancellor replied when asked about these figures. ‘So mete it be…’

But frankly, we all know the UK economy is beyond magical intervention. We’re so used to its inexorable decline that anything else would be beyond our comprehension

The rituals performed over its corpse by successive chancellors have more in common with a night of mediumship offered by your soon-to-close local pub than actual governance.

‘The spirit’s very strong tonight, ladies and gentlemen. Does anyone know a gentleman who has passed by the name of Milton? He’s very keen to get through… I’m getting the word…”monetarism”. What’s that, Milton? He says don’t listen to John Maynard Keynes, he’s very clear about that…’

Ukraine

Meanwhile, on the international front, Keir Starmer says that we will ‘double down’ on the UK’s military commitment to Ukraine. If the dilapidated shambles of British town centres are a visual expression of the irresponsibility of magical thinking, then the casualty figures in Ukraine are a measure of its wickedness.

There is no possible route to military victory for Ukraine and no amount of ‘standing up to bullies’ pep talks are going to change that reality. At the heart of all western delusions of the past decades is the belief that the allies won WWII because their cause was morally just. That confusion of causation and correlation has infused every recklessly bellicose decision since 1945.

Empty posturing

Now, with Ukraine facing abandonment from Trump’s America, and the eastern front all but lost, Keir Starmer’s empty posturing risks not only the lives of Ukrainian servicemen but the safety of the UK.

As Joe Biden’s presidency ends in political ignominy, his decision to permit the use of long- range missiles inside Russia comes safe in the knowledge that the incoming administration can distance the USA from it in short order.

The UK’s position which, astonishingly, has been significantly more aggressive than Biden’s, will cling to Starmer’s government long after Russian-American relations have moved on.

Labour’s election victory was grounded in the belief that the party represented a return to principled pragmatism after years of Tory irresponsibility. With no economic upturn in sight, the government has left itself strategically exposed over Ukraine and ethically compromised over Israel. It is too cautious to turn back towards Europe and sent party operatives to campaign against Trump.

Perhaps, if we all join hands, we could manifest some common sense.