As we sink deeper into a 1930s-type depression and growing
unemployment, particularly of the young, what Western governments
ought to fear more than anything else is subversion from within, not
riots, marches or street occupations. If the latter become too
extreme or untidy they can be dealt with by rubber bullets and water
cannons (or even armoured cars and light tanks, such as those Prime
Minister Tony Blair caused to be parked menacingly at Heathrow
Airport only a few years ago after a fit of paranoia).
No, what's to be feared are conspiracies by young individuals with a
deep and genuine concern for the unemployed who proceed over years to
penetrate the highest levels of the power elites. In the 1930s, there
was, apparently, a ready-made solution in the form of Russian
communism, so there were communist spy cells in all the Western
countries. In England we had intellectuals such as Blunt, Philby,
Maclean, Burgess and Cairncross (the "Cambridge Five") and, in
America, there were Greenglass, Fuchs, Hiss, White, Silvermaster,
Browder and the Rosenbergs. In Europe, the communist parties of
various countries became very powerful and, after WWII, some became
voluntarily enfolded within the Soviet system while others, such as
Italy and France, came close to voting for independent communist governments.
Communism of the former totalitarian, top-down, highly centralized
nature of the former Soviet Union or Chinese Republic doesn't seem to
have found favour so far with young intellectuals today, although
there was a brief flurry of excitement some years ago about a vaguely
similar ideological movement that was known under the ponderous name
of communitarianism. But this was, and remains, such a Liquorish
Allsorts type of movement without any political consensus between its
proponents that it has little direct influence.
But there are stirrings of something similar to Marxism rising again
in the Western world. The name of Marx is beginning to be mentioned a
little more frequently than, say, ten years ago. Despite the
predominant philosophy of the last 20/30 years that "Greed is OK" and
the increasing corruption of politicians, officials and the banking
sector there is still something about the ideas of communism or
socialism that resonates. And, of course, this is likely to be the
case. Millions of years of living on the African savanna have, for
maximum efficiency and survival, shaped our species into living in
small social groups and our genes into giving us quite detailed
physiological and psychological specifications. As to the latter we
are generally altruistic rather than tyrannical, although strong
social stratification came to the fore at times when adolescent boys
became too boisterous or if a neighbouring group tried to invade our
food gathering territory or steal our pubescent daughters.
This, and a great deal more about human nature, is now known by a
still microscopically small proportion of evolutionary
biologists. In order to describe ourselves realistically we no
longer need the sort of philosophical debate of the last few thousand
years, or the political ideologies of the last hundred years or so as
highly centralized nation-states came into existence as byproducts of
mass warfare (internal or external).
I am not, of course, suggesting that "cells" of evolutionary
scientists are going to secretly invade the various centres of
political and business power within the elite, or what I term the
20-class, in order to carry out some form of coup-d'etat. But the
children of this class, rather than the state-educated 80-class
(increasingly innumerate and illiterate), educated in private schools
(each competing for quality) are going to be the first to absorb the
more realistic notions concerning our evolution, and thus best
governance. Indeed, the more successful modern corporations are
already paying attention. Able to recruit the creme-de-la-creme of
the elite universities, they no longer pride themselves on massive
multi-tiered organization charts but are learning to lateralize into
smaller specialized groups.
However, the new "movement", if it is not a conspiracy in the
old-fashioned sense, will still keep a low profile for some time yet.
Political correctness, which has rapidly advanced since WWII, is
still too deep, pervasive and governmentally imposed, to be overcome
directly. As always with defunct institutions, the old culture has to
start breaking down first. But as almost all advanced governments are
already technically bankrupt with no financial solution to hand, save
yet more money-printing, we can assume that only those with realistic
ideas will be drawn into the vacant spaces.
Keith
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com
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