A charming evening at the Frontline Club focused on a remarkably difficult theme: increasing disparities between rich and poor, powerful and powerless, and what they imply for our future.

Director of the think tank ResPublica, Philip Blond hosted the event, infusing it with humor as he led the panelists in a debate about the documentary Four Horsemen, which premiered in London at Frontline on 27 April. The documentary blames neoliberal and neoclassical economic theory for paving the way to an increasingly unjust, unstable, and unequal world.  Last night, the film’s director Ross Ashcroft elaborated its points with clarity and passion.

Daniel Ben-Ami journalist and author of Ferraries for All:  In Defense of Economic Progress, argued that the documentaries biggest mistake was to underestimate the role of the state in today’s crisis. Emeritus economics professor Victoria Chick, meanwhile, commented on the documentary’s suggestion that we return to the gold standard.  

"I sort of flinched," she said.  "Everything I’ve always known about the gold standard was so repressive, and it was a very deflationary regime.  [I] like the courageous quality of Minsky who said, ‘alright, I know banks are unstable, but they’re worth it, because they provide productive investment.’  Well that was when they did lend for productive investment.  And now they no longer do."

Giving voice to the sentiment of the evening, Mark Braund author of Four Horsemen:  The Survival Manual complained,

"We have democratic institutions which aren’t delivering democratic outcomes.  And that’s because I think too few people are interested enough to engage with what are quite complex ideas about how the ecomony works."

"X-box, cheap lager, and mass media" were Ashcroft‘s culprits for the public’s malaise in the face of a system that he believes is increasingly stacked against them.  

At several points, panelists emphasized that change would have to come "from the bottom up," but as one audience member regretted, what change "from the bottom up" really meant seemed hard to elucidate.

Amidst today’s troubling trends, Blond noted with optimism that ethics had returned to conversations about society and economics:

"This is an exciting time we’re in:  the left is arguing for ethics, when for many years ethics was akin to fascism and authoritarianism and being oppressive…  I think that’s genuinely a transformative, interesting moment."

Yet he ended the night on a sadder note, recalling a recent trip to his hometown of Liverpool:

"I was going around the northern neighborhoods, and people there haven’t worked since the first wave of globalization.  The deindustrialization there has essentially condemned three generations to endemic poverty.  What’s going to happen next is there’ll be a second wave, or a third wave, or a fourth wave, of automation, and that will take out middle class jobs.  And that’s already happening:  teaching, accounting, lawyers, etc….

Watch the full event here:

Is the Western world reaching an epochal shift? New documentary Four Horsemen argues that it is – and that in order to produce a fairer, less dysfunctional world we need to understand the systems that govern us and begin to question them.

The film presents the many problems we face – “a rampageous financial system, escalating organised violence, abject poverty for billions and a looming environmental fallout”. But what emerges is not a doomsday scenario but the suggestion that although change is urgent, the conditions for it have never been more favourable.

Join us for this special event bringing together the film’s director Ross Ashcroft, co-author of the accompanying book Four Horsemen: The Survival Manual, Mark Braund, contributors and others to map out the argument for change and ask whether we have reached the age of consequence.

Chaired by Phillip Blond, a British political thinker, theologian, philosopher, and director of the think tank ResPublica. He is the author of Red Tory and research fellow at NESTA.

With:

Victoria Chick, Emeritus professor of economics at University College London, where she has taught for nearly 40 years. She has written on the economics of Keynes, money and economic method.

Ross Ashcroft, co-founder of the London based independent production company Motherlode and the website Renegade Economist. Four Horsemen is his feature debut.

Mark Braund, a freelance writer and an economic philosopher. He has a specific interest in the prospects for transformative social change towards a more just, inclusive and sustainable society. He has worked in the private, public and voluntary sectors, and spent three years as an advisor to the government of Mozambique. He also is regular contributor to the Renegade Economist and the Guardian.

Daniel Ben-Ami, journalist and author, he has contributed to numerous national, specialist and international publications. An extended edition of Ferraris For All, his book defending economic progress, has just come out in paperback and on Kindle.

“They’re getting away with all kinds of legal thievery. People are starting to get angry but not angry enough.” So says former World Bank Economist Herman Daly, one of 23 international thinkers who lift the lid on how power elites operate in today’s global economy.

The Four Horsemen charts how the majority of people worldwide have been made to pay for what the filmmakers describe as “the greatest heist in history” and that, rather than a failure of capitalism, this is in fact the system working perfectly.

As the modern day horsemen of socially organised violence, debt, iniquity and poverty continue to ride roughshod over them, is there hope of re-establishing a moral and just society that could improve the quality of life for billions of people?

**IDFA: Official competition for First Appearance**

The film will followed by a live link to Oxford University where a panel discussion will be boradcast to audiences in 10 participating venues. The panelists include:  

Megan Murphy, Investment Banking Correspondent at the Financial Times                     

Dr. Ha-Joon-Chang,  author of the best selling book 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism and Reader in Politics at Cambridge University

Tarek El Diwany , former trader and head of the Islamic Finance Department at Prebon Yamane.

Professor David Vines, Economics  Professor at Oxford University, formerly a director of Channel 4, and expert in sustainable financial recovery.

Directed by: Ross Ashcroft

Year: 2011

Length: 97′ 

In association with OXDOX International Documentary Film Season: 27th April- 25th May 2012