Stephen Hawking questions our attitudes toward wealth and the role they played in Brexit

[LongTomH]

Guardian UK: Our attitude toward wealth played a crucial role in Brexit. We need a rethink. There are some interesting parallels in Prof. Hawking's article and the issues that Bernie Sanders raised during the US campaign.

Does money matter? Does wealth make us rich any more? These might seem like odd questions for a physicist to try to answer, but Britain’s referendum decision is a reminder that everything is connected and that if we wish to understand the fundamental nature of the universe, we’d be very foolish to ignore the role that wealth does and doesn’t play in our society.

..........//snip

Here's the 'meat' of the article:

So I would be the last person to decry the significance of money. However, although wealth has played an important practical role in my life, I have of course had a different relationship with it to most people. Paying for my care as a severely disabled man, and my work, is crucial; the acquisition of possessions is not. I don’t know what I would do with a racehorse, or indeed a Ferrari, even if I could afford one. So I have come to see money as a facilitator, as a means to an end – whether it is for ideas, or health, or security – but never as an end in itself.

Interestingly this attitude, for a long time seen as the predictable eccentricity of a Cambridge academic, is now more widely shared. People are starting to question the value of pure wealth. Is knowledge or experience more important than money? Can possessions stand in the way of fulfilment? Can we truly own anything, or are we just transient custodians?

These questions are leading to a shift in behaviour which, in turn, is inspiring some groundbreaking new enterprises and ideas. These are termed “cathedral projects”, the modern equivalent of the grand church buildings, constructed as part of humanity’s attempt to bridge heaven and Earth. These ideas are started by one generation with the hope a future generation will take up these challenges.

I hope and believe that people will embrace more of this cathedral thinking for the future, as they have done in the past, because we are in perilous times. Our planet and the human race face multiple challenges. These challenges are global and serious – climate change, food production, overpopulation, the decimation of other species, epidemic disease, acidification of the oceans. Such pressing issues will require us to collaborate, all of us, with a shared vision and cooperative endeavour to ensure that humanity can survive. We will need to adapt, rethink, refocus and change some of our fundamental assumptions about what we mean by wealth, by possessions, by mine and yours. Just like children, we will have to learn to share.

If we fail then the forces that contributed to Brexit, the envy and isolationism not just in the UK but around the world that spring from not sharing, of cultures driven by a narrow definition of wealth and a failure to divide it more fairly, both within nations and across national borders, will strengthen. If that were to happen, I would not be optimistic about the long-term outlook for our species.

In many ways, this is a continuation of Hawking's concern about the dangers than human stupidity and greed pose to our survival.

[LakeArenal]

1. Steven Hawking is my hero..

What a man. What a genius. Truly someone who can see the past, present and future.

[cprise]

2. Combine this with Hawking's recent warning against hostility.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/stephen-hawking-aggression-could-destroy-us-10057658.html

Ironically, the UK was the most hostile, war-prone member of the EU and its military adventures in the Middle East helped precipitate a humanitarian/refugee crisis for Europe.

Add that to the drumbeat heralding an Age of Austerity and increased inequality "for your own good" -- with Greece as a stark example -- and you get a highly toxic mixture.

The further irony is that the EU is probably the best example of internationalism around. The typical Free Trade Agreement is anti-prole bludgeon by comparison.