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In June 2004, Kenneth Mann, a 63-year-old man was found dead in his council flat in Carless Street
in Walsall, England. The last time Kenneth was seen alive was in the accident and emergency department of Walsall Manor Hospital, where he had been admitted after a drunken fall. The doctors had carried out an ECG test and Mann was found with one of the pads from that test in his socks. After his death Mann was described as a bit of a “loner” and a “bit of an eccentric” by those who knew him. You might say ‘so what, people of Mr Mann’s age and lifestyle die all the time, what’s so special about this case?’
The significance of Kenneth Mann’s case is not that his body had been discovered in June 2004, or that he had been drunk the day before, but rather that he had actually died on 23 September 1998, some six years earlier. After the inquest, Walsall Council’s chief executive Annie Shepperd, said the discovery would have been made sooner if the flats had not been due to be demolished, as the flat would have been rented to another tenant. When societal obligation to a 63-year-old is reliant on rental agreements, it is clear that there is something seriously awry.
Today society is wealthier than any generation before, technological innovation is expanding at a
rapid pace, and people are living longer. Cases such as that of Kenneth Mann unsettle us, making us question at what cost this progress is achieved. In this hypermobile, consumption-driven society, it is no surprise that the vulnerable will often fall through the ‘responsibility gap’. As we live our lives
on the move, with less time to lay down roots, the effect on communal ties is regrettable, but
also predictable. Yet it is becoming increasingly apparent that individualism has, to a great degree, weakened our moral bearings. We live in a society where the annual exotic holiday, the second car, the latest electronic gadgets at times take the place of family obligation, helping the community and societal well-being. The deleterious effects of such individualism are witnessed in the breakdown of the family, the abdication by fathers of their parental responsibilities, the escalating levels of adultery, the record number of abortions, and the neglect of the elderly.
Since the dawn of the age of ‘enlightenment’, secular liberalism has increasingly come to dominate both private and public morality. For decades its core message of liberty, the pursuit of happiness and material gain has been a seductive one. Yet despite numerous attempts to pigeonhole religion to a private arena, millions of people in the Muslim world, in Africa and North America are now beginning to question the underlying credentials of the secular world order. The death of Pope John Paul II sparked an outpouring of religious fervour not seen in recent times in Europe, and is a direct reaction to the emptiness of modern society. This huge void is a direct result of a secular order that cannot give people a true sense of purpose. From this void we are now seeing, across the globe, an unprecedented growth not just in religious observance, but in demands that religion, or at least religious values, play a greater role in the political arena. “God is back among intellectuals,” says Aleksander Smolar, a leading European thinker who heads the Stefan Batory Foundation in Warsaw and teaches at the Sorbonne in Paris, “You can feel there is a problem of soul in Europe; people are conscious of a void and there is a certain crisis of secularism”. Secularism is showing signs of wear, argues Jacques Delors, who once bemoaned Europe’s lack of “soul” when he was president of the European Commission. “I fear that the construction of Europe is sinking into absolute materialism,” he said. “Things aren’t going well for society, so society is little by little going to start asking itself what life is for, what death is and what happens afterwards?”
As this issue argues, secular democracy is actually on the retreat as we see both a roll-back in the western world and increasing evidence of opposition to these ideas across the globe, especially in the Muslim world. This may sound counter-intuitive as we have recently witnessed elections in Iraq and Afghanistan, but as is argued by Javed Ansari and Salman Ahmed, elections held under military occupation in Kabul and Baghdad should be discredited if viewed objectively. We also have articles addressing the Sunni-Shi’a question and the perceived militancy of Islam, issues which come up constantly when a discussion of an Islamic political alternative is discussed. I also welcome the articles of Joe Bord and Brad Evans, who bring alternative views towards political Islam and the War on Terror. I am glad to receive these contributions, as it has always been the goal of the magazine to promote an inclusive debate. Debate is much needed, especially to avoid our society moving headlong into complete fragmentation. As coroner Robin Balmain said, reflecting on Kenneth Mann’s case, “Society needs to ask how such a situation could arise in the 21st century.” We agree.
Sajjad Khan
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