Political naivety
Jan. 21st, 2009 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootI 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?
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?
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-22 12:26 pm (UTC)Neither capitalism nor socialism satisfy me today.
Society must look after the poor and the sick, the old or disabled. There are some people who will always require looking after, with dignity, respect and comfort.
But these things are expensive. So...
Those who create wealth must be encouraged, so that the balance of tax and personal gain is never so punitive they lose heart and leave, taking their skills and cash with them.
But neither can the system be so loaded in their favour that somewhere far below them, in sweatshops and on streets, waits a huge underclass with no hope of joining those who make money and enjoy it. These must have the chance to aspire and succeed. For that, they need homes, education, opportunities, healthcare.
Again, expensive. So, those who can sustain themselves must do so, surely, as a matter of principle, or our society ends up as some kind of halfwit vampire biting its own wrist in the hope of sustenance.
And you think your words were stream-of-consciousness!