Not sure what makes you think it was aimed at Stan. It wasn't. I don't like May either and have been hugely disappointed by her since she became PM. She clearly isn't up to it. I too see some merit in most political viewpoints, but I do worry about the way people and especially the young have been completely brainwashed by the far left version of socialism. It has never worked imo and has ruined many Countries in the process Eg: Greece/Venezuela. However, the young in particular seem to think that Corbynism is the answer to everything. What a mess we're in!!
My mistake, Col. The problem with most ideologies is that they'd be great in an ideal world where everybody is prepared to buy into 'em. These socialist or communist countries are all controlled by nepotistic, paranoid despots surrounded in their opulent grandeur by sycophants, whilst the rest live in relative squalor. Why are such ideologies still so popular with our so-called educated elite?
Can't answer your final question, Ubes - it's a good one, though. The sort of socialist/communist countries you're referencing are authoritarian regimes where they have (or have invented) an "enemy" that can be used to justify all sorts of freedom-curtailing laws that the mass population will accept in the name of holding onto freedom, and a blurring of the people, the state and the party into pretending it's all the same thing. Ultra-right authoritarian regimes or religious authoritarian regimes also have the same characteristics. We're drifting down that road ourselves at the moment. Stopping it would be a patriotic act, IMHO. Helping it along its way would not be.
Are you saying we're drifting down the road to an ultra-right authoritan regime, BD? If so, what evidence?
The question we have to answer Col is why so many young people buy into Corbyn and the militant tendency version of socialism? Which I agree would be an unmitigated disaster, the ideology never added up, as Ubes points out would demand a totally unrealistic level of not only agreement but enthusiasm from the vast majority of the population to work without violence, and is even further from the mark in a globalised world. But many of the things which, for me, are a mark of a civilised society, are socialist in inspiration - state provided healthcare and education for all, welfare for the needy, state pensions, all sorts of stuff like free libraries and museums. These have been part of the fabric of society since 1945, longer in some cases. A lot of it has been under implicit and explicit attack since 1979. I think it's this kind of stuff which inspires kids, not the ownership of the means of production stuff and wholesale nationalisation. Until 1979 Tory governments bought into the mixed economy, not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because they realised a healthy, well housed, decently educated workforce is good for capitalists. Just like in the nineteenth century capitalists read Marx, understood that his analysis of economics and class was compelling, and rather brilliantly wiped out his predictions by offering just enough in terms of better working conditions, better living conditions and votes to stave off the revolution. The balance got out of kilter in the seventies when the workers got above themselves, hence the backlash since then. Now we are in a really new situation, which neither Thatcher style cult of the individual Toryism or old style class based democratic socialism can cope with. Increasingly, over the next couple of decades, with automisation, technology and access to cheap labour abroad, we won't need a healthy, well housed, well educated workforce. We will not even need taxi drivers, bus drivers or our own cars in the not too distant future. We'll need a much smaller workforce. We'll have to pay everyone else not to work, and enough to make sure that they keep consuming, otherwise capitalism collapses. A few clever places like Finland are already experimenting with universal incomes. It will demand a whole new way of thinking about tax, the purpose of the state, the relationship between money, companies and consumers. Hey, we might end up with a type of non ideological socialism which just happens organically. From what I've seen none of our current politicians are asking themselves these types of questions. But if we don't address these changes, caused by the mix of capitalism and technology, we really will face violence and attempted revolution, because so many will be excluded from the benefits. For me it's very exciting, though hugely risky. With climate change the big things we need to tackle, everything else - Brexit, terrorism, the aging population - as immediately critical as they are, are ultimately distractions.
It's remarkable how many old people seem to be terrified by the thought of a government that seeks to provide properly funded public services and to re-nationalise the natural monopolies that should never been sold off in the first place. It's not Marxism for ****'s sake, it's just capitalism with the hard edges taken off.
Actually, I'm not focusing on left or right here. Authoritarians exist within every ideology. I wouldn't welcome a far left authoritarian regime any more than I'd welcome a far-right one or a religious one.
We've had it drilled into us for decades that nationalisation is bad and privatisation is good. You'd think the 'patriots' would be all for it.
Lots of misunderstandings and poor understanding about the 538,000 figure - Sky News have done the best explanation I have seen so far.
A true Marxist state might be great Col. But no one agrees on what a true Marxist state would be, presumably one where the state has 'withered away' as unnecessary, and I can't imagine even starting the trip without huge amounts of violence and ending up in a dictatorship, which has happened with every attempt so far. Took me until I started working to conclude it's just a dream, but I was very taken with it as a youth. Mind you it was the seventies, I have some excuse. Saw Corbyn giving his peace, love and social justice message at Glastonbury. He's quite good at speaking to a large friendly crowd, impossible to imagine May going any where near something like this. He did the spiel about the dispossessed seizing power (through democracy) and that stuff. He thinks he's Salvador Allende, as far as I am aware the first and only elected Marxist president, who the CIA got rid of in favour of Thatchers mate Pinochet. I suspect the same would happen here if Corbyn gets in and tries to be genuinely Marxist.
Congratulations. Worldwide conspiracy to Russians trying to take over the world through war. Any more tired old themes to air?
