Power we ask Award Winning sociologist Richard Lachlan how Mass Mobilization can now transform the neoliberal world order all this more coming up in todays going underground or 1st all around the world our politicians will today be telling you how to live your lives and not be killed by coronavirus how to decode what theyre saying and bypass the politicized spin incompetence and malfeasance joining me via skype from berlin is director of the Harding Center of a risk literacy professor good. Thanks so much guys for coming on so as i say were going to all be watching our politicians tell us about the fact that they are following the science how should we interpret what those politicians tell us in the in the context of risk and literacy think it would be really important that people themselves think about the risks to get into or only seen. With their behavior im also not sure hope that politicians know whats the best thing to do this is a situation of uncertainty where we came not to calculate the risk but where we can know things and also to relax a little bit and do reasonable decisions rather than heard decisions that prove from fundamentally and this again in the context of for instance massive numbers of ventilators were bought for coronavirus that in turns out we dont need why are we more scared of what is less likely to kill us the a key problem in our society is that we all have learned how to read and write but not how to become risk literate at least to understand the numbers so the numbers that make us feel the numbers of infections of death and also to understand the kind of thinking about what might lead to ward problems youve talked are taking a plea out to interpret mammogram results cancer risk flu risk which ill get onto in a moment have a better just ask you then are we more scared than we should be about coronavirus theres nobody who came to tell you exactly where this virus is going so we need to live with uncertainty but we can protect us against. Reactions that creates more problems so the classic you situation of the obvious 911. 00 Many Americans after 911. 00 stopped flying and what do they use the cars instead ive underlies the traffic statistics and found that for 12 months the most recent went up about up to 5 percent. Mostly on a Long Distance travelling and during that time about 1500 americans more than usual lost their lives on the roads in the attempt to avoid the risk of flying but this is a case to illustrates that our own reaction to a danger can create new dangers or be at the fear flights arguably mean less Climate Change for future generations do you think that that dollar trump then was right to compare when his terms what the chinese have done to the world with 911 and pearl harbor when it came to risk im not sure quite in the same way your comparing risk as regards probability of death wouldnt think there is a point of saying that trump was right we might think about what our own people doing in order to avoid creating more dangerous for instance hospitals all over the world report including to your pig that in number of patients who come into the hospital sort of Emergency Departments with city year or heart problems has decreased and the interpretation is that many people who should go to the hospital dont go anymore because they fear getting infected by the virus. So and that may cause another distro similar to it in the 911. 00 event but in a different way in the uk so it eases the hurt kind of. Be aware. Of behavior were not creating more problems than be already. You see some people might think that on a daily basis even that statement common sense of a kind is what where are you using in fact a lot of people say what politicians seem to be advising our top scientific adviser is everything they say seems a bit like common sense albeit that some of our politicians may not have ordered or prepared for the pandemic properly can you just take me back to the h one n one model that you did which seem to far be far more accurate than the google flu model and that one was using 550000000. 00 search terms how is it that something you can come up in on the back of an envelope presumably can be so much better than a probabilistic determination based on so much data by one of the Biggest Companies on a google flu trends trying to predict the spread of through exactly the flu related doctor visits. Her good idea to people might in the search terms if they have symptoms of it in it it works and it most chiller reason is this is deep uncertainty so that flu puts the swine flu was not in the window but in this some. Prints being calibrated on the pastor couldnt know that so what im working with is the you know using the intelligence of the human prey in which has evoked for many many years to drive other assumes that actually in this case up of who to shoot friends we attest to really simple. Predictive flute related doctor visits which just looked at the most recent data point and that proved to be better than big data whats to listen to listen is the. In chino we shouldnt be impressed by very complex algorithms they work if the route is stable the flip side of a complicated the modeling by multibillion dollar Multinational Companies is the simplistic statements we get at press conferences when Boris Johnson here in britain says hes following the science how should we interpret that and is that an example of harris fix im not sure. But it is always for science its often just an excuse for following a certain direction a certain drop for instance. Currently we are the face d numbers numbers about new infections about death rates whats needed is an understanding where do these numbers come from most of the time the numbers of people would need a and a positive coronavirus test that means they die from the bones or with the virus or some kind of mixture. This type of understanding is important to understand the beauty case fatality rates are but then does that mean that our scientists our top model has. Infected by something i think youve said before that the human brain itself finds it more difficult to understand deaths over longer time period than a shorter time period maybe a genetic predisposition been enhanced perhaps by social and economic priorities in in a new your liberal europe suddenly its in britain in the United States where the death toll appears we have to separate dislike a lot of the principles that make us feel. From the risk literacy a good understanding of numbers and also. From the. Conflict of interest that ended the behavior of politicians so the principle that make us fear they include the anxiety that is caused by dread risks at the same time it is not easy to elicit our fear from situations where as many and more people die distributed over the year for instance in germany we had 2 years ago an estimated 20000 deaths to regular through 20000 that it can cause any big fuss or we havent rolled part millions of people who die on too close or a 1000000000 of people who are under. Basically under under the brink of dying from poverty that doesnt draw much attention so its certain things it is like the difference between. A plane crash which makes the media and cause a exidy and the steady toll of people dying on the roads wage couldnt bother us where much so thats a kind of the psyche politicians when they were on the other hand. Are in a difficult situation today and maybe if you look back today swine flu we can see a politician keen. For instance confronted with a disturbance flying through there was tamiflu which was supposed to help against a severe consequences of. Swine flu but there was no evidence and has stood no evidence for that but the British Government bought tamiflu and you can understand a politician can make 2 errors one is to not to buy it and then something happens and then its your fault or to spend too taxpayers money. It doesnt know whats coming as it is there is one true and thats more or less fired so this cook defensive Decision Making and it end in the u. P. A. There was an estimated 65000. 00 people who died from swine flu and it was it in less than 500. 00 and the government. Burned pritish pounds on medication were we had never proof that it actually helps i understand it was the same model as being used there again in britain for corona virus just finally then do you think theres a class bias in risk analysis obviously over there in germany a much more equal country in terms of gini coefficient. No doctors no frontline medical personnel have died from corona virus here in britain apparently nearly 200 have vain and of course disproportionately its been the poor and not the rich that i mean had by that what we have learnt is certainly true many compared to the u. K. Is that think of a model as that the idea here that a Health System should be optimized is a fatal idea. Sure many has been criticised over years for having too many intensive care beds that were used all the time now we are glad that we are them so one chamber lesson is if youre dealing with a situation of uncertainty dont try to optimize or get past optimization is always going to pass dont and if the future is difference you bust through the same listen hard beam drawn from the financial crisis were banks optimized capital or buy value at risk out of collations and in something unexpected happened then they go bust. So we need to learn this uncertainty and its. Little risk as a guide to grounds i thank you it was a pleasure. After the break as communist china continues to report 0 daily death stooges coronavirus we also would winning sociologist bridget blackman if chinas experience of western imperialism has shaped its approach to crisis all the more coming up about fear of going underground. You cannot be both with the yeah you like. Welcome back well in the 1st half we try to help you understand risk based on official information given to you but if you dont trust what your government tells you today about saving your life from coronavirus here in britain it often falls to Boris Johnsons Health Secretary matt hangup to tell you how to live your life but he arguably has 4 more not being trusted here he is a story culture secretary accused at an official committee of misrepresenting the u. K. s far reaching inquiry into ethics in journalism the socalled never seen report that was sparked by u. K. Media hacking of the phone of a murdered teenager your new secretary of state. And you stood up in the house of commons and you represent its a prime levasseur in this position and i think you misrepresented his position well so and ive told you why because supply leveson fundamentally disagreed with the governments conclusion and those are my words that that theres a surprise in leveson as words so why should i believe you today because everything i said then was accurate and i. And i represented. The position of his letter as a whole that he believed that the inquiry should continue and i was standing up to explain the dying thought that taking everything into account all the changes. Since the leveson inquiry all the changes in law all the changes the fact that it so now exists i take them all to enter into account i decided that the best thing is not to have a i know your position is all working quite well what im saying you know is that is that you miss misrepresent it surprised levasseur this position to the commons on the well thats your view were not going to come to agreement on it i think i faithfully represents it as set out as as you read out and but i i understand i can see that you would rather abide done it differently know what i would wrong that would be would be that you were straightforward and its up to the British Public to decide whether hancock is being straightforward about coronavirus today but his performance at the Bryan Leveson inquiry was widely seen as protecting the interests of britains media all agog like Rupert Murdoch and the barclay brothers and today amidst a Global Pandemic britains newspapers continue to be the least trusted across a European Survey of 33. 00 countries the United Kingdom is below malta and north of macedonia according to your a barometer in the past few days posing questions about what role unarguably captured media plays. When tens of thousands of killed by disease britain of course is also one of the most an equal countries on that list and some media are all agog to maybe feeling today theyre like 1st class passengers on a sinking ship thats the title of a new book by new york sociologist professor Richard Lachman and i caught up with him to ask him about his book some titled elite politics and the decline of great power as richard welcome to going underground to tell me about the 1st class passengers in the sinking ship ok well this is a book that tries to explain why it is that the United States is in decline and i do it with historical comparisons to the 2 previous dominant powers britain and the netherlands and in essence what i find is that elites are able to grab control of not just Government Resources but government powers and in that way it becomes more and more difficult for governments to make Strategic Decisions that allocate resources in ways that are needed to maintain global dominance i should say that in range there are whole numbers of empires that get discussed in the book but for you national decline cannot be stopped by just mass organizing no i think where mass organizing matters is what conditions of life will be like after the clyde will elites be able to become wealthier and wealthier and make more and more decisions or will the mass of people be able through electoral means or strikes or other sorts of Mass Mobilization to be able to demand improved social programs a more Egalitarian Society and with the debates between narrow elites controlling all policy within say the United States or or britain is it a race then between Climate Change and the empire collapsing well i think the empire. Ayers is collapsing regardless of Climate Change but the effects of Climate Change are certainly going to overwhelm many governments around the world and the question is whether in coming decades the u. S. Government will have the so its of resources and flexibility to be able to respond in ways that prevent mass suffering and so just to be clear were talking about hedging was having sort of suicidal imperial. Imperial instincts and theres no real rule for trade unions one little ponies while thats going on you know there there is a role for that there their role isnt to try to maintain their countrys global dominance their role is to be sure that ordinary people are able to lead decent lives and have a larger share of what working people actually are producing but in the context of this book if you want to say the democrat primary campaign a candidate perhaps like son does is is not going to be fit enough to be able to conquer the elite powers that will be trying to constrain even a slightly social democratic model i dont know health care for instance let alone these wider ideas about and the imperialism really the only good news is that sociologists are very bad at being able to predict mass movements they rub it in ways that we really cant predict so you know that certainly is a possibility and there is levels of despair and anger in this country that should provoke widespread social movements whether those will happen in the next few years im not sure but thats really the one way in which the shape of decline can be shifted away. A for. Most people just being more and more miserable and elites getting richer and richer toward one where the decline continues the u. S. Is no longer a dominant global power but ordinary americans lead much happier and more decent lives ok so we shouldnt be really reading the book as a as a manual then but you do appear to be saying that whereas big movements of the working class in the United States have been left to the wayside have declined china and india have learnt from the imperial power over those countries by britain by the United States and that in a way is is one of the reasons the ascending during this decline in. Yeah i mean certainly the historical pattern is the countries that are rising learning how to produce things how to order their economies how to build their governments by looking at the ones that were previously most successful but i think were at a real turning point in global history that over the past 500 years of capitalism when one dominant power lost control there was that a struggle among a couple of rising ones and then 11 out and became the new dominant power i think now were going to be entering an era where there wont be at jamaat anymore that you know it doesnt seem that china or india will achieve that at least in the next decades and were going to have a world that where theres much more flux you know little about presumably the decline in funding for amtrak your National Railway system moving here theyre talking about a high speed rail way system that china has already offered to build in 5 years much less than britain is focusing on for less money what kind of pressure can donald trump. Put on powers that seek their infrastructure being built by china say which it is actually with 5 g. In this country huawei. Threw the phone down on Boris Johnson here can can the United States try and prevent Infrastructure Projects being built by the perhaps future hedge ammans like china i think the u. S. Will try but its going to fail and if trump gets reelected i think countries around the world at that point are going to decide that they have to move very decis