No alternative

Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Sellers, Roger Moore, Orson Welles, Joan Collins or Ringo Starr: Everyone decided to change their marital status at Caxton Hall, the London Central Registry Office located in Westminster between 1933 and 1978, the place chosen by celebrities and High society members to get married. The future Prime Minister Anthony Eden passed through his rooms with the niece of then Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Clarissa Spencer-Churchill. Even Sir William Beveridge succumbed to fashion in 1942, the same year in which the liberal laid the foundations of social security as we know it today in our country. The bases that served the Labor Clement Attlee to launch the welfare state after winning the Churchill elections after World War II. It was also in Caxton Hall where, since 1907, the British suffrage movement held, at the beginning of each parliamentary session, a symbolic Women's Parliament, which concluded with a march to the Houses of Parliament to personally deliver their request to the Prime Minister, something that They never succeeded.

Thus, it is not surprising that Caxton Hall was also chosen by Bertran Russell to make public the Russell-Einstein Manifesto , signed by a group of prominent intellectuals , including the main Nobel Prize winners. It was ten years after the United States launched the Little Boy bomb in Hiroshima, and Fat Man in Nagasaki, with the result of more than 100,000 civilians killed. In that manifesto they denounced the great risk of a nuclear war between blocks on a global scale, and asked world leaders to seek peaceful solutions to international conflicts. The manifesto gave way to the Pugwash Conferences founded in 1957 by Bertrand Russell and Joseph Rotblat, and funded by the enthusiastic Canadian businessman Cyrus Eaton in his hometown of Pugwash, in Nova Scotia, Canada.

In our country, manifestos, even in which intellectuals participate, are usually made primarily against someone , and not, or secondarily, in favor of something. Perhaps this is why its effect is divided between the apathy of the citizens who listen to them and the disdain of those to whom they are addressed. Because of their specialized experience and knowledge, intellectuals have a greater responsibility for leadership over the rest of the forces that shape our society. Among those who follow a path of particular interests, even lawful, but which does not take into account its negative consequences; and a citizens habitually disenchanted, resigned, and sometimes, even deceived, are the intellectuals. It is up to them to demand that they be heard in a coordinated manner and alert of situations that put the general interest at risk.

A clear example of concerted action by intellectuals was the aforementioned Russell-Einstein Manifesto and subsequent Pugwash Conferences. And a clear example of a particular path was the Brexit campaign, in which the opinion of most economic experts was of no use. The one who best represented the evil that afflicts us was the then Secretary of Justice of the United Kingdom Michael Gove when he said: "People in this country have already had enough experts." It is the same Gove who said that the United Kingdom sent 350 million pounds to the European Union every week, knowing that this figure was false, as the United Kingdom Statistics Authority pointed out. The same Gove that until 2008 described the Iraq war as "a success of British foreign policy." And, despite everything, then practicing the same post-truth policy that Donald Trump uses regularly, Michael Gove today heads the Cabinet Office in the Government of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

It is just an example of the many that exist. It is not surprising that the politician creates distrust in the average citizen . Discarded those who live in permanent discrepancy, and those convinced as standard, the vast majority simply accept the inevitable, knowing that they are only heard in each electoral process and out of necessity. For that majority, there is no alternative.

But it is that majority that must be conquered. The politician can hold the potestas , but to get the auctoritas , beyond the exemplary nature that is obviously required, no matter how much it has been infringed by some, it is necessary to develop and support the use of evidence-based policies, focusing on areas where there are risks of very negative consequences in the short and long term.

If those who have acquired the representation of citizens do not enjoy the necessary experience and knowledge, their responsibility is to listen and then develop cooperative and forward-looking policies . For its part, the responsibility of experts is to stick to the contributions to solve the problems that society has, leaving aside political arguments. The natural skepticism and distrust that exists between the political class and the scientific community can only be overcome if the only interest that moves one and the other is that of citizenship. Knowledge in general, and science and research in particular, are not a problem from left to right, but should serve the cause of peace, progress and prosperity of mankind.

Joseph Rotblat, the only Manhattan Project scientist who resigned for moral reasons, and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. In his acceptance speech and Nobel conference, Rotblat cited the last passage of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto : "We call on human beings as human beings: remember your humanity and forget the rest." It cannot be summarized better. The politician and the expert must be constantly reminded of their humanity. There is no alternative, because the alternative is unacceptable.

Rubén Moreno was Secretary of State for Relations with the Courts.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• United Kingdom
• WWII
• European Union
• Donald Trump
• Boris johnson
• Canada
• U.S
• Iraq
• LOC

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