Letters: Roger Scruton and the meaning of life

Wonder and gratitude

Sir: Roger Scruton, in a very personal and moving portrait of his year (‘My Strange Year’, 21 December), reminds us that crisis is opportunity; and concludes that the meaning of life is gratitude — something we may only realise when, as Virgil put it, ‘mentem mortalia tangunt’.

I think that language may betray us a bit on this great question and that there is no meaning of life. Rather, the meaning is life. Our response to this is-ness — this amazing, often painful gift — may be to turn aside into the ressentiment which Nietzsche warns against; or — as Roger Scruton does — to feel wonder and sheer gratitude at what is, might never have been, and one day will not be.
Hugh Hetherington
Sandwich, Kent

How to empower workers

Sir: Corbyn may be on his way out of frontline politics but Corbynism is still live and kicking and it would be fatal for the Conservatives to ignore the damage it could still do (Rod Liddle, 21 December). One of its more insidious objectives was ‘democratic control of workplaces’, a cause now taken up by Corbyn protegée Rebecca Long Bailey in her leadership pitch to ‘democratise society’. Of course, this is hollow propaganda. A ‘democratic’ workplace does not empower workers, but abdicates their responsibility to a trade union apparatchik.

We already have a mechanism for democracy in the corporate world — anyone can buy shares in a traded company and vote on their directors and policy. This is proactive, genuine democracy. Share-owning used to be widespread. In the 1960s, half of UK shares were held by individuals. Today the figure is just 12 per cent. The Conservatives have a chance to change public culture and encourage people to buy shares again.