Archbishop Oscar Romero. Flickr/Franco Folini.
Often ignored, Latin America has much to teach us about belief in society and how democratic change is possible.
There is a crisis of political faith. It is not going to fade with the election of a new leader to an exhausted Labour Party because political allegiance is determined by values rather than policies. Faith in society, or lack of it, determines our responses to the course of events. Behind political values lies a metaphysic at counterpoint to the parameters of power. At what is a pivotal moment in our politics the time has come round again to look outward to international experience. That is going to demand serious revaluation of what now seem inadequate assumptions about belief in society. Britain cannot import another culture’s experiences as if they were commodities, but it can learn some unexpected lessons from elsewhere.
