The purpose of Blair was to squander the immense and dangerous majority of 1997 and thereby drain away the popular opposition to neo-liberalism. Given yesterday's local election results, the plan has worked superbly.
vendredi 2 mai 2008
Justice
Berlusconi, Sarkozy Thatcher, Blair, Chirac. . .they live on in fine health, near enough. Some friends get ill. It makes you reconsider why for a second once, one believed in Leibniz's notion that 'everything happens for the best in the best of all possible World' and didn't think he meant it, as he surely did, ironically.
Back in the USSR
It is an argument gleefully tossed around by the right. The dreadful USSR put paid to any form of socialism, so the predicatable argument goes, it collapsed because it was inherently evil and the whole idea of revolution terminates in mass slaughter. Thus capitalism emerges, by default, the 'superior' system.
A friend, another exile, who grew up in the former Soviet bloc and now lives in Wimbledon, visits. 'London is so expensive. There are so many rich there. It is crazy'. Later, he describes the subsidised housing, free transport and equality he experienced during the seventies and early eighties. His rent in London takes up over half his wages. 'Even the food prices seem to be going up.' On the TV UN troops are firing at hungry rioters. 'I don't believe in either', he says and goes outside for a cigarette.
On the march I take a leaflet from someone. It's called 'Germinal'. It's addiction to the weird and ghostly has meant that it is suggesting a sympathetic reinterpretation of the former Soviet Union and that its social benefits at least had the effect of putting the fetters on Western governments who wanted to impose neo-liberalism on their populations. It's too just-so, of course. But how long before the 'evils' of communism are outweighed by the crimes that capitalism has committed, is committing and will commit in the near furture? And even if the idea of communism is surpressed, as the article points out, the very behaviour of the system brings it closer.
A friend, another exile, who grew up in the former Soviet bloc and now lives in Wimbledon, visits. 'London is so expensive. There are so many rich there. It is crazy'. Later, he describes the subsidised housing, free transport and equality he experienced during the seventies and early eighties. His rent in London takes up over half his wages. 'Even the food prices seem to be going up.' On the TV UN troops are firing at hungry rioters. 'I don't believe in either', he says and goes outside for a cigarette.
On the march I take a leaflet from someone. It's called 'Germinal'. It's addiction to the weird and ghostly has meant that it is suggesting a sympathetic reinterpretation of the former Soviet Union and that its social benefits at least had the effect of putting the fetters on Western governments who wanted to impose neo-liberalism on their populations. It's too just-so, of course. But how long before the 'evils' of communism are outweighed by the crimes that capitalism has committed, is committing and will commit in the near furture? And even if the idea of communism is surpressed, as the article points out, the very behaviour of the system brings it closer.
Rubbish
Rubbish is in fashion. Some jumped up little rubbishy fascist gets elected as Mayor of Rome and some jumped up piece of trash gets elected as mayor for London. Yes, REL is being ad hominem but these people are just scum. The worst thing to do would be to start blaming the people like some chums did over here when Sarkozy got elected, though. Firstly, turnouts aren't 100%. Secondly, the political parties are a social control cartel and finally, the real power is in the streets.
jeudi 1 mai 2008
M'aidez
Not massive but people are saving themselves for the strikes coming up in a few week's time. . .I picked up some interesting leaflets, one from the new anti-capitalist organisation Olivier Besancenot is trying to get going, an anarchist pamphlet and someting from an organisation called 'Germinal'.
Rozzer is never very far away - they must have felt threatened by the Leninst terror front that is the CGCT French union and that kid...
Determinism
The story of our lives begin before we are born. The free will proponent gets down from the table, 'There! I bet you didn't predict that I would do that!'. The determinist reaches into his pocket and hands over a piece of paper on which is written, "To try to prove determinism false, the believer in free will will get on the table and dance the Polka."
The first three minutes of life are the most risky. The last three minutes of our lives are minutes we have no control over either. Even the suicidee faces the moment when doom is inevitable. And what of the three minutes before that, and so on. But freedom is a stubborn, even necessary, illusion.
The first three minutes of life are the most risky. The last three minutes of our lives are minutes we have no control over either. Even the suicidee faces the moment when doom is inevitable. And what of the three minutes before that, and so on. But freedom is a stubborn, even necessary, illusion.
Inscription à :
Comment Feed (RSS)
