Political naivety

[smokingboot]

I watched the inauguration yesterday and felt...a sweetness and a kind of envy in all that belief.
The waving and the Paternoster, faces full of hope, praying, really wishing. And I wondered about us.

I suppose one might argue that the cynicism, the weariness endemic to British politics stems from it being a much older political entity than the States. We've seen it, we know it doesn't work seems to be the attitude. Maybe we're right. What we have done though, is absolve ourselves from the effort of trying. Our great art is the Comic Whinge. And sport.

I remember attackers of socialist doctrines telling me that socialism just can't sustain itself. And now apologists of capitalism are saying, 'Well of course capitalism can't work on a stand alone basis...nothing does!' So it was bad when socialism couldn't work by itself, but it's not bad, it's only to be expected when capitalism fails in the same way. I spy the covering of bottoms, beeeeeg bottoms...

I see what happens when greed goes insane, the evils of laissez-faire, the truth that the market does not regulate itself, it becomes a feeding frenzy for sharks. In the end everyone suffers cos there's always a bigger fish.

I see the warnings of Orwell regarding socialism, the overlegislation, the erosion of civil liberties, nulabour = nucrimes for all. Try anything and see what happens. IDs and databases, someone somewhere's got to keep an eye on you, the government knows what's best, so eat what's good for you, be abstemious, be a good role model, don't say nasty things, be good. Fuck off Nanny, I'm down the pub with a swearword on my tee-shirt, a pint in one hand and a rollie in the other (possibly somewhat extreme, I don't even smoke) it's somehow hard to take the dangers seriously because our politicians are a bit funny looking. How can Crash Gordon be dangerous, looking so lumpy and absurd? But he is.

Are the alternatives any better? David Cameron seems full of ideas. But the grass root members are the same bunch who voted in the disgraceful legislation of care in the community and other ways of cutting money to the dispossessed, aka probable non-tory voters. My abiding memories of the Thatcher years are the beggars suddenly flooding the streets of London, 13 year old kids selling their arses around Piccadilly at midnight, and the cardboard box towns under railway bridges. Even if Cameron isn't the spawn of Baroness Davros, his party's track history worries me.

The Lib Dems seems so nothing right now. What are their dynamic policies? Where are they? I don't see them.


I suddenly envy America its new hope; we could wait, sour and knowing, for the messiah to show his feet of clay, and quote endlessly the corruption and callousness of American life perceived by us, in stark contrast to the American Dream.

But what's our dream?

Comments

[cat-that-walks.livejournal.com]

For every 'up' there is a 'down'. Mankind has tried every type of government that can be thought of from A for anarchy through S for socialism and of the lot democracy (as Churchill said) 'is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried'.
There always is a bogeyman whether it`s the tribe in the next cave or the country next door. Take the current whinging about 'the youth of today', the Romans were saying similar things two thousand years ago.
The current mess will get sorted, not by some hero riding into town on a white horse as the Americans seem to view Obama at the moment but by average people doing average things.
Give it time.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Hmm...I can't help thinking that average people doing average things leads to average results - if we're lucky. Known mediocrity is certainly our default. Once upon a time we had ideas...was the creation of the NHS (an achievement I think we should be proud of) the result of people thinking average things? Why are we so afraid to believe in the hero? I suppose because heroes are dangerous. I don't think we should blindly follow them but why not be them and really try?
The road to hell may be paved to good intentions, but one can still end up there, without any intentions at all...

I agree with you that time cures much if not all.

One thing I am very interested in. Where has anarchy been tried as a form of government?

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

Anarchy tends to work quite well for short periods in smaller communities - it has I believe been tried by various 'communes' throughout the ages and by some religious communities. I can't think of anyone applying it to a nation though.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Me neither. Hmm *scratches head*

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

The root problem always ends up being human nature alas. We are a pretty sorry lot sometimes, though I still hold to a belief that we can also be exceptional.

[cat-that-walks.livejournal.com]

Can`t think of a country but it was tried by the Spanish during their civil war, plus I think the Paris Communes?
For another thought -
'The reasonable man persists in adapting himself to his enviroment while the unreasonable man persists in adapting his enviroment to him, therefore all advances depend on the unreasonable man.'

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

I agree.