It was a great privilege to join with so many others this week  in a belated celebration of Fred Jarvis’ 94^th birthday at the Institute of Education in London.

It was both a joyous and a serious occasion. Far from simply basking in all the affection, Fred was keen to get his many friends to think constructively about the various challenges we face, both locally and globally. He selected the theme ‘what does the future hold?’ and invited a panel of Estelle Morris, Helena Kennedy, Jackie Ashley, Sally Tomlinson, Wes Streeting and Polly Toynbee to get the discussion started.

There is plenty to be pessimistic about in our current context and the speakers’ pessimism ranged over a wide terrain including climate change, the devastation of public services caused by austerity, the likely long-term impact of Brexit divisions on British society, the rise in human rights violations and injustice around the world and the potential for new technologies to disrupt employment and deepen inequality.

This ‘pessimism of the intellect’ was tempered with some ‘optimism of the will’ and the panel identified some green shoots of hope in the people and movements capable of offering an alternative, but the overall feeling was that progress cannot be taken for granted and that things could get a lot worse.

Quite rightly, people at the event expressed great hope in our young people, who seem to represent the promise of a better future. The young clearly have a big stake in the future; after all that’s where most of their lives will be located. Investing in a better future has to include investing in our young people. But no generation has a monopoly of idealism or optimism and we are never the wrong age to consider what legacy we leave to future generations and to do something to make sure it’s better than the one we inherited. People of all ages can come up with world-changing ideas and every generation has the potential to work with others to transform things for the better.

The greatest source of hope at this birthday celebration was Fred himself. In his 95^th year, he is a living embodiment of the clear-sighted, radical and practical idealism which we need. In his contribution he reminded us that we achieve nothing without collective action built on bonds of mutual understanding and friendship.

Fred; the Plaistow boy, the student leader, the teacher trade unionist, the education campaigner, the photographer, the enthusiast and the friend, reminds us, in everything he has done and does, of the life worth living. When the oldest person in the room is so focused on making a better future, the rest of us must surely put aside any despair and cynicism and recommit to life and human progress.

See also:

The best of things (July 2017)