Road to Somewhere

The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics by David Goodhart, 233 pages

In 2016, when despite the opposition of every major political party and the media establishment, the British people voted to leave the European Union, a commonly heard reaction from those who had smugly assumed Remain would win was that they didn't recognize the country anymore.  Several months later, on the other side of the Atlantic, after Donald Trump overcame the establishments of both parties to win the US presidential election, the same chorus was heard.  As David Goodhart reveals, however, both of these electoral earthquakes were the consequence of even more people feeling that their country had already been deformed beyond recognition.  For Goodhart, the major division of the early twenty-first century is between "Anywheres" and "Somewheres", the latter group finding their identity in their local community and culture, the former inventing identities out of their own will and desires.  While the Anywheres have been ascendant for the last few decades, the Somewheres have not disappeared nor even, according to polling, appreciably diminished in numbers.  Indeed, Goodhart maintains, the fundamental divide between a small Anywhere group and a somewhat larger Somewhere contingent is an enduring reality of modern societies, a reality made invisible and therefore dangerous by the Anywhere bubble of the elites.

It is worth noting that, if Goodhart is writing to call attention to the existence of the Somewheres, he is himself an Anywhere, and to some extent a prisoner of Anywhere cant and prejudice.  Thus, he uses "reason" as shorthand for the efficient pursuit of a purely material self-interest, so that the prioritization of family or faith over material gain is "irrational" even if it actually makes people happier, and when he struggles to come up with something the British people can be proud of having in common, the best he can offer is the welfare state.  Underlying it all is the belief that the meritocratic arrangements of liberal regimes function largely as advertised, efficiently filling positions with the people best suited for them, a naive faith that does not seem as if it could survive an encounter with the history of the past two decades.  Given that Anywheres are the target audience for the book, this may all be for the best.