Summary
Donald Trump claims to have a better understanding of coronavirus following his own diagnosis and treatment. In a video message he said, "I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school. This isn't the let's read the books school. I get it and I understand it.” There are those who believe that directly experiencing a social issue makes for better, more empathic, political decision-making. Critics of the President’s handling of the crisis, however, would argue that it should not have taken a threat to his own health for him to “get it”, and that empathy is something you’ve either got or you haven’t. This has wider implications; “lived experience” is a central tenet of social justice. It has become an established part of the way we interact, debate and reason in the public square. Is there something irreplaceable about experiencing what others merely intellectualise about? Should lived experience play a greater role in policy-making? It is often argued that someone’s opinion lacks legitimacy if they have not been directly affected by the issue at hand – whether poverty, racism or disability – and that it is often through emotional human stories that these issues can be truly tackled. Others believe that while subjective experience can illuminate a problem, it can also cloud moral judgment and should not be presented at the expense of objective evidence. Moreover, the idea that only certain people are allowed to opine about particular subjects, some say, is potentially divisive and dangerous. To what extent should the lived experience of a person give them moral authority? With Alan Johnson, Prof. Jonathan Portes, Ash Sarkar and Prof. Sharon Wright.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good evening. President Trump emerged from hospital this week, claiming that catching the coronavirus was not just an act of self-sacrifice, but the mark of true leadership. I knew there was a danger, he said, but I had to do it. I stood out in front and led. Nobody that's a leader would not do what I did. Wittingly or not, the president was harnessing the currently fashionable idea that what matters most is lived experience, |
| 0:23.6 | that you can only truly understand an issue and empathise with those involved if you've been through it, really know what poverty say or disability means unless poor or disabled yourself. |
| 0:35.6 | It follows for those who believe lived experience to be essential |
| 0:38.3 | for social justice that the opinions of those directly affected by an issue should be privileged |
| 0:43.3 | in the national argument and given more moral weight in the decisions being made about it, |
| 0:48.1 | even to some that those unaffected have no right to an opinion at all. Others say this trend prioritises the emotional over the rational, |
| 0:58.2 | the subjective feelings over the objective evidence, |
| 1:01.0 | that it's divisive and a means of shutting down debate. |
| 1:04.3 | The moral authority of lived experience. |
| 1:07.3 | Moral Mays tonight, the panel, Anne McElvoy, |
| 1:09.5 | senior editor at The Economist, Mona Siddiqui, |
| 1:11.8 | Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at Edinburgh University, |
| 1:15.7 | the historian Tim Stanley and the chief executive of the RSA, Matthew Taylor. |
| 1:21.0 | Anne McElvoy, does Donald Trump, or Boris Johnson, for that matter, having had coronavirus, |
| 1:26.2 | necessarily make them better able to handle it? |
| 1:29.8 | I think you see in the different reaction of these two leaders who've had the virus, |
| 1:34.5 | that lived experience isn't really the decider. Of course, it should inform the way that we look at key issues and what we do about it. |
| 1:42.2 | But lived experience is always inherently going to be |
| 1:45.3 | very personal. It's going to reflect existing biases. So I would be approaching this from the |
| 1:51.1 | position of someone who thinks it's only part of the mix. And at the moment, I think it's being |
| 1:55.8 | exaggerated, frankly. Matthew Tanner. My wife alleges that I once said to her, |
| 2:01.7 | darling, please don't interrupt me when I'm talking about feminism. |
... |
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