We used to be able to think that if we obeyed the law, "they" would leave
us alone.. I doubt this was ever true. When the "social contract" is
broken the idea is that we revolt. The threat of this revolt is supposed
to control those in power. "Mob rule" has changed over the years and we
have great fear of revolution and perhaps now view it in terms of the
famous Russian curse 'may you live in interesting times'. Molly framed
this in terms of 'cops and robbers' - the largely black protests about
their treatment by cops and the Establishment - yet seen as riots against
police violence. This situation is complex, not least because most of us
want protection against so many of the people the police take action
against. Tony gets a lot of this right in his question about whether you
want to call cops or a mob. Writ larger than this we have seen the old
Soviet empire collapse and the Arab springs. Democracy and transitional
economics have not worked even though many 'braved the bullets' and we have
seen elections. The election situation is close to that in Germany when
the Nazis and Communists were putting themselves up for election with the
express intent of having no more elections - think the Muslim Brotherhood
and the situation in Iran.
I think we should be overthrowing government. Yet I hardly want the
'interesting times' many in the Middle East are suffering or the riots in
Baltimore or those in the UK, which spread like wildfire after the shooting
of Mark Duggan. I want an end to the state terrorism that has long existed
in "empire". There are only 22 countries (out of about 180) that Britain
did not invade in empire days, the US having almost caught up on this list
of shame. Yet I also don't want to live under foreign jackboots or Sharia
Law.
In recent UK elections I voted Green. I would have voted for the Scottish
National Party, given the chance, but I live in England. This is because
the SNP is a Scandinavian-style social democratic and anti-austerity
party. Our Labour Party in now an anachronism and fit only for
dissolution. I had no real vote for anything I would support and our
first-past-the-post system is a paradigm in decadent decay - to the extent
Britain feels increasingly fascist. I say this having lived and worked in
the old Soviet block best described as the USSR (four words four lies) and
Middle Eastern terror states (best described by an old Iraqi friend
disgusted by Saddam, but who said 'at least he keeps the Mullahs off our
backs). Political choice in the UK and US is really no choice at all - we
essentially "choose" one form of neo-liberalism or the other. This is
really not unlike the "choice" in Soviet or third-world voting systems
where there is a one-party state. Karl Popper said it mattered much less
who we elect and much more what control we have over those who get in
power. We have lost a great deal of this control. Blair was elected here
on our democratic urges, yet became Thatcher in drag and a disgusting war
criminal. I even suspect Thatcher would have kept us out of Iraq and
Afghanistan. Of course, we never got to vote as a public about the wars
since WW2,that have claimed more than 25 million and have many more living
in "interesting times".
Now, many living in these interesting times are trying to flee them and we
face massive immigration pressures from countries freed from the Soviet
yolk and various dictatorships we have deposed. There is other blow-back
too. Francis mentioned the 'rough beast' of WB Yeats the other day and I
now dream of something vile to come - the the dream content is empty of
what this will be. I think this content may be empty because it is played
out in the main media theatre that flows past our eyes. We are hands-on in
almost nothing these days, as clueless as undergraduates in the theatre of
corrupt higher education. Hardly any literature tries to deal with the
reality - there is no Belassario producing anything other than government
propaganda.
We are living in an Emperor's New Clothes age. I defy anyone to read and
understand company accounts and what is passed in front of us government
statistics. It takes me days to find killer entries in the accounts of
even disasters like Tesco and even then one can only find the money trail
to a £250 million hole that is really £6.4 billion one. I can vouch that
we are being lied to on the economy and could argue this on the quants, but
there is almost no point in a society where most are innumerate. Much
business accounting and economics is expressed like this:
1. The Conservatives won a majority in the election.
2. Forget this 'majority' is 37% of those eligible to vote.
3. Forget that 10 million we not registered to vote ("majority" down to 20%)
4. Lots more forgetting that votes only matter in 14% of our constituencies
and only 20% of people in them ...
The "majority" is achieved by influencing perhaps as few of 5% of the total
population.
Freedom has fallen because we are not capable of rational discussion.
Answer - lets educate everyone to be capable of rational discussion - a
great Catch 22 as we are obviously no good at education. Arghh!
--
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
""Minds Eye"" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
