Keith Hudson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
At 13:42 27/06/01 +0000, Pete Vincent wrote:
(PV)
>>Of course, we haven't been subject to sociopathic
>>right wing idealogues seeking to gut the public sector for the last
>>decade.
>
>It's sad that you've ended your comments by implying that I'm a
>"sociopathic right wing idealogue". This way of emotive arguing simply gets
>us nowhere.
Ack! Keith, I would never imply that of you! I have in mind folk like
the Thatcherites in the UK and the Harris conservatives of Ontario.
We have been fortunate here in BC, to have avoided the recent fad
of doctrinaire laissez faire governments that have plagued much
of the english speaking world.
>The "sociopathic right wing idealogue" examples of, say, ex-President
>Marcos in the Philippines, or the present General So-and-so in Burma
>produce corruption and suffering on a massive scale. But even they don't
>compare with the "sociopathic left wing idealogue" examples of Stalin,
>Mao-Tse and the present President Kim of North Korea who have produced, and
>are still producing, death through starvation of scores of millions of people.
I don't think either side has a corner on population abuse. South
America has a lovely litany of right wing weasels who pulled the
limbs off of citizens for fun (figuratively, of course, but only
barely). Perhaps the unspoken ethos of the right wing excessives -
money is everything, success is amassing the maximum amount - means
that instead of the outright murder of the population, a judicious
application of terror, torture and strategic murders rendering the
population a submissive quivering mass well suited to feed the government
coffers from the proceeds of their labour, is the more favoured
management style. As Brad quotes Weissel "Don't compare! All suffering
is intolerable!"
>I'd much rather discuss facts than be labelled in such a violent way as a
>"sociopathic right wing idealogue".
Of. course. But I think that sociopathic is the perfect word to describe
the policies of right wing ideologues, whose intent is to destroy social
cohesion in the name of the almighty free market. Of course there are
degrees of culpability among them, some are just ignorant toadies following
the crowd, but the architects, the strategists, these are consciously
complicit. They are making war on civil society, and if they succeed,
the world will look little different than if it had been carpet bombed.
The difference will be in the little fortified enclaves where the elite
enjoy the bounty of their plunder. The brave new world of corporate
feudalism, if you like. Royalty on the boards of directors, knights of
upper management, and a mass of indentured serfs grubbing around the edges
of a world wholly owned by the corporate elite.
Pete Vincent
