We're not evil, just wicked - Owen Jones' generosity (and logic) falls a bit short

By Mark Wallace
Follow Mark on Twitter.

It's generous of Owen Jones to concede in today's Independent that we Tories aren't evil. Unfortunately, he does so on the basis that the term "evil" is too kind - a comforting excuse that neglects the supposed fact that we cause misery and suffering intentionally in order to preserve privilege and inequality.

Owen's article decries naive, simplistic critiques of:

"Tories as a cabal of upper-class sadomasochists, spending their evenings plotting ever more devious ways to hunt children on council estates like rural foxes."

Which is kind of him, but having done so, he rather chickens out a bit. Just in case his readers might think he's going soft, he then explains that moving in exclusivey upper class circles allows Tories to justify a selfish worldview by:

"...worshipping “self-reliance”: the idea that all should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, the implication being that those who fail to do so are personally to blame. Easy, then, to justify policies that benefit the rich (who you see as noble wealth-creators) and punish the poor (who you see as those too feckless to climb the social ladder without prodding)."

In short, we may not be evil, but we are intentionally wicked.