In Britain a century ago, it was the exploitation of the industrial working class. These were the issues which moved people in their day, the most important questions which separated those on the side of right from the rest, and inspired struggles for a better world. If we were writing this manifesto in other times, these would have been the issues on which we would have had to take our stand. Ask what the equivalent defining issue might be today, however, and the answer is a lot less obvious. There is very little sense of a clear divide between left and right, or between parties representing different social classes.
Political issues seem to be posed with far less clarity than they used to be.
There is no great clash of competing visions of the future for humanity. Instead, all shades of opinion within mainstream politics now appear to agree that there is no alternative. That general lack of belief in the possibility of changing things for the better has itself become the central issue of our times. Every discussion now seems to be dominated by a debilitating culture of limits. Whether the debate is about the economy, science or social policy, there is an assumption that we are no longer capable of making much progress, of improving the human condition.