I'm sure that somewhere, in the temporal chasm between, there is a life. I just don't remember it.
That's the power the DWP has over your life. A cabal of people ill equipped and uninterested in actually doing the one thing they claim to be able to do. A bit like expecting a serial killer to explain human empathy or offer marriage counselling. How can they help? They are structurally not built for it. The system created them to gatekeep a supercilious bureaucracy that exists to deny you the one thing it exists for - and the one thing you need to live. Money isn't for you; it's for your betters.
How insane is that? We live on a world that, once upon a time before we fucked up the environment, was a corncucopia. We should be able to provide for people's needs. Unfortunately expecting something as simple and straightforward as that is less important than creating a vast bureaucracy to facilitae dealing with the people capitalism cannot cope with. The people surplus to its requirements. A steadily rising demographic, increased by automation (or, ironically, innovation).
Today, less than a week before Christmas (for what it's worth), I received another summons to a Work Focussed Interview. I must attend in three weeks at this time and this place on pain of...well of course they don't come out and tell you, which makes the implied threat all the more insidious. But we all know what happens if you don't attend.
What gets me is the total lack of flexibility. That just further proves how inadequate this system is. I have no idea who the appointment is with other than a first name, 'Tracy', but I am damned sure they are not in any way able to do anything. They will have no expertise in mental health and no understanding of the issues facing people with mental health problems today. If they did I am fairly certain they wouldn't be working with the DWP.
Could they not meet me somewhere less intimidating? You might be forgiven for thinking that people asserting they are there to help might be willing to at least meet me half way. Even though this entire undertaking is doubtless a waste of time I would feel measurably better were it held more conventiently, at the local doctor's surgery (issues of merging helthcare and welfare notwithstanding - and while we still have a surgery!) for example. But I somehow doubt that such options will be forthcoming.
So what message does that send? It tells me that people who profess they are there to help and work with you are interested in neither. How can they be within a system that insists on mandatory attendance within the intimidating indiscreet halls of officialdom. How can they be when there is no opportunity (I imagine) for flexibility? This system isn't designed for help; it's designed for capitalist triage. Patch up the wounded and get them back at the coalface. Arm them with a telephone and have them wield it like a pickaxe to badger the elderly into buying insurance schemes or scams (more accurately).
It is such a small minded, unambitious process. More concerned with its own administration and bureaucracy than with actual help. If I were, and I might just, ring up (apparently I could email, but they didn't provide me with an email for 'Tracy') and say "i can't attend because I can't cope" I have no doubt they will view that, shall we say, suspiciously.
And that's the problem: rather than address people's needs purely and plainly, they view them with suspicion. Why? Because that's how they're trained. So tell me again how that is a helpful attitude.
Yet every six months these wheels spin and I, like everyone else in this position, has to go through this nonsense. A performance review where I'm expected to justify my life and my entitlement to draw breath before people who are, unwittingly or otherwise, merely gatekeepers for a system that cannot help and only serves to divide people and keep them from having their basic needs met.
Think how muhc better things could be otherwise.
Thursday, 20 December 2018
Tuesday, 13 November 2018
Food FIght!
Note: I a not a vegan, I make no apology for that. However I believe that vegans have every right to eat what they choose and shouldn't be bullied or denigrated for that. I do not - at all- subscribe to the vapid misogynist 'soyboy' trope that has become quite popular of late.
Now then it seems another section of the great and the good advocates for a tax on red meat. This is based on two reasons: first and foremost the alleged environmental impact of the current method of producing it, and secondly the alleged health issues.
I do not agree with this tax. It is, as it always is with this approach a blunt instrument wielded by those with no thought for the poorest who, as ever, will be hit the hardest. Red meat, in many forms, is a healthy staple. It is also more affordable than many alternatives advocated by the liberal intelligentsia. Beef, for example, is among the most nutrient dense food sources available to us, and, like all meat, has what we need in forms the body can better and more easily process. This, I'm afraid, is not the case with many non-meat altnernatives.
Offal has been demonised, along with fat, for many years. Meanwhile we are witnessing a sweeping health crisis in the western world casued by the standard western/American diet. We have tried the low fat approach and clearly it hasn't worked. Good fat is not just healthy, it is essential. Fat soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids are required for life. On the back of this, a concerted attack on red meat is of great concern to me. I eat a low carb high fat diet and it has been very beneficial. Meat has been a major staple of this diet, including pork and beef as well as liver, which is also one of the most nutritious foods you can eat.
Attempts to demonise red meat culminated in a report from the WHO claiming that it is a 'probable carcinogen'. This is not accurate. Even if the claims were true the relative risk is so small as to be insignificant. However the study is observational, based on highly debunked questionnaires. Can you recall what you ate accurately enough over a period of months and years? Look here for more information on this study.
The environmental impact is of course important. It is clear, by all the evidence, that we are facing an unprecedented climate crisis that, in all honesty, we are not going to be able to avoid. At this point it is merely a matter of how overcooked do you want your planet. Our leaders are not capable of addressing this and the change required is too vast for any of them to comprehend (even assuming they accept the science, which America doesn't) and too close to avoid without losing power. However the context within which the claims about red meat are made are based on the current model of farming. I do not necessarily agree with industrial capitalist factory farming, it turns cows into commodities and the alienation of the workforce is a breeding ground for the kind of disgusting barbarism vegan activists rightly point out as cruelty within the industry.
It doesn't have to be this way, even on a planet as densely populated as mother earth (a problem, one that we have created for ourselves unfortunately). Meat should come from animals raised in their natural environment and doing so allows soil to grow fertile which also helps deal with carbon emissions. Without the need for an alien diet, grains imported to feed cows that should be eating grass, land is freed up. Not all land is suitable for growing vegetables and fruits (and not all of us want to eat them!).
A world devoid of a meat industry, for all its problems (and there are many) would be impossible. It would not be a world free of animals killed in the name of food either, nor would it be a world free of industrial agriculture (pesticides and the like). Vast industrial infrastructure would be required to ship foods that can only grow in particular places (tropical fruits for example) around the world. Britain for instance would still need to import the majority of its food as it cannot produce enough. Likely, given the relatively low nutrient density of plant food, it would need to import more. Then there would be the effects of communities devastated by the removal of meat as their livelihood, such as nomadic or rural cultures forced into cities as a result (a problem climate change can only exacerbate).
This ius a very simple look at the issues. I don't have all the answers. I could very well be wrong. I am not gospel on this issue. All I know is that persecuting the poor, while maintaining the capitalist system that underpins these problems, is a terrible idea. But, for the ruling elite, it is the only idea they will countenance. If we don't deal with that and instead fall for bad science then not only will the climate continue its inexorable decline, but so will our quality of
Eat what you like, plants or meat. But don't fall for the propaganda of biased sources as well as the ruling class who don't know what it's like to eat frugally. I have long been sickened by the toff foodie culture that abounds - especially when, after a period of pretentious eating thanks to the likes of Heston Blumenthal, it came back around to try and co opt working class meals by way of venerating 'locally sourced organic food'. To these people that's just another fad, but to the rest of us eating locally is what we do naturally. It's not a cultural artifact to be commodified by poverty tourists and television stars.
Now then it seems another section of the great and the good advocates for a tax on red meat. This is based on two reasons: first and foremost the alleged environmental impact of the current method of producing it, and secondly the alleged health issues.
I do not agree with this tax. It is, as it always is with this approach a blunt instrument wielded by those with no thought for the poorest who, as ever, will be hit the hardest. Red meat, in many forms, is a healthy staple. It is also more affordable than many alternatives advocated by the liberal intelligentsia. Beef, for example, is among the most nutrient dense food sources available to us, and, like all meat, has what we need in forms the body can better and more easily process. This, I'm afraid, is not the case with many non-meat altnernatives.
Offal has been demonised, along with fat, for many years. Meanwhile we are witnessing a sweeping health crisis in the western world casued by the standard western/American diet. We have tried the low fat approach and clearly it hasn't worked. Good fat is not just healthy, it is essential. Fat soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids are required for life. On the back of this, a concerted attack on red meat is of great concern to me. I eat a low carb high fat diet and it has been very beneficial. Meat has been a major staple of this diet, including pork and beef as well as liver, which is also one of the most nutritious foods you can eat.
Attempts to demonise red meat culminated in a report from the WHO claiming that it is a 'probable carcinogen'. This is not accurate. Even if the claims were true the relative risk is so small as to be insignificant. However the study is observational, based on highly debunked questionnaires. Can you recall what you ate accurately enough over a period of months and years? Look here for more information on this study.
The environmental impact is of course important. It is clear, by all the evidence, that we are facing an unprecedented climate crisis that, in all honesty, we are not going to be able to avoid. At this point it is merely a matter of how overcooked do you want your planet. Our leaders are not capable of addressing this and the change required is too vast for any of them to comprehend (even assuming they accept the science, which America doesn't) and too close to avoid without losing power. However the context within which the claims about red meat are made are based on the current model of farming. I do not necessarily agree with industrial capitalist factory farming, it turns cows into commodities and the alienation of the workforce is a breeding ground for the kind of disgusting barbarism vegan activists rightly point out as cruelty within the industry.
It doesn't have to be this way, even on a planet as densely populated as mother earth (a problem, one that we have created for ourselves unfortunately). Meat should come from animals raised in their natural environment and doing so allows soil to grow fertile which also helps deal with carbon emissions. Without the need for an alien diet, grains imported to feed cows that should be eating grass, land is freed up. Not all land is suitable for growing vegetables and fruits (and not all of us want to eat them!).
A world devoid of a meat industry, for all its problems (and there are many) would be impossible. It would not be a world free of animals killed in the name of food either, nor would it be a world free of industrial agriculture (pesticides and the like). Vast industrial infrastructure would be required to ship foods that can only grow in particular places (tropical fruits for example) around the world. Britain for instance would still need to import the majority of its food as it cannot produce enough. Likely, given the relatively low nutrient density of plant food, it would need to import more. Then there would be the effects of communities devastated by the removal of meat as their livelihood, such as nomadic or rural cultures forced into cities as a result (a problem climate change can only exacerbate).
This ius a very simple look at the issues. I don't have all the answers. I could very well be wrong. I am not gospel on this issue. All I know is that persecuting the poor, while maintaining the capitalist system that underpins these problems, is a terrible idea. But, for the ruling elite, it is the only idea they will countenance. If we don't deal with that and instead fall for bad science then not only will the climate continue its inexorable decline, but so will our quality of
Eat what you like, plants or meat. But don't fall for the propaganda of biased sources as well as the ruling class who don't know what it's like to eat frugally. I have long been sickened by the toff foodie culture that abounds - especially when, after a period of pretentious eating thanks to the likes of Heston Blumenthal, it came back around to try and co opt working class meals by way of venerating 'locally sourced organic food'. To these people that's just another fad, but to the rest of us eating locally is what we do naturally. It's not a cultural artifact to be commodified by poverty tourists and television stars.
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Cold Days
And so it is winter again. A bit unexpectedly early, but then our climate is in meltdown so who knows what it will be like over the coming months.
As the world turns colder (or at least the northern hemisphere), it seems also to turn darker. Fascism, call it what it is, is on the ascent. One of the largest countries in the world, and a developing economic powerhouse, has just elected a human nightmare to lead it. All under the aegis of the Trump 'revolution'. Bolsonara in Brazil will set back the rights of those he rules a generation. Already there has been violence, the wiping out of an indigenous village. He won't care, and nor will the fascist's friend up north, Trump. I still cannot believe that man has power. He is a vicious self entitled spoilt child, surrounded by like minded people who care nothing for the common man except to deny them further access to the basics of a decent society.
What must it take for us to get a decent world? Liberals and centrists appeal to the democratic process, but what good is that? Do we tell LGBTQ+ people in Brazil - whom Bolsonara has directly targeted - that they should be good citizens and wait another term because that's the done thing? Hell no. Power is never given, it must be taken from those who seek to rule over us. Stolen from them and then smashed. No one must be in charge so that everyone can be in charge. In that way proper democratic processes can develop.
Meanwhile the Tories continue their assault against the lower orders. Universal Credit, like a raging beast, seems unstoppable, urged on by its maniac masters. It blows my mind to think that Esther McVey has power over the poorest in society. A vacuous airhead who thinks the worst kind of glib Californian business guru self help rubbish is the blueprint for a successful society. She loves the 'strivers and skivers' rhetoric, despite it being utterly meaningless. You can strive all you want, hard work guarantees nothing but tired hands and broken backs. If you capitulate to that idea you are giving your power to people like her and she will use it to break you. Universal Credit is pernicious poorly designed and thoroughly unworkable. As the death count rises the Tories will just ramp up the rhetoric even more.
All this against a backdrop of gammon-infused isolationism. Ridiculous old men and women who refuse to consider their time is all but spent. Having climbed the ladder all they wish to do is kick it away from those beneath them. There is no doubt the EU is a problematic neoliberal pro-capitalist institution looking after its own interests, but it is also the gatekeeper. It does afford the working class many benefits. Throwing those away resembles throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But worse of all is that there is no good option: if we leave all we do is cede power to the Tories. Their true blue rhetoric will count for nothing once they go full steam ahead and finish off the job austerity started. Then we can all look forward to chlorinated chicken and the complete prostitution of what remains of our public services once they are fully laid bare to the rest of the world. We will become a carcass for the vultures of the world to feed on. In the absence of a proper working class revolt against the EU - and all capitalist institutions (including especially the Tories) we must choose at this time to remain. I'm not prepared to throw the working class under the bus.
The weather is getting colder. The streets are full of souls cast off by the Tories; people whose lives have been violently rendered invisible to their concern. Life gets all the more frosty when few care. That's the world we seem to be building for ourselves. When I was a kid, I looked up at the moon and dreamed of the stars. My head full of sci fi speculation and Tomorrows World (remember that?). By 2020 we'd be living in bubble cities on the moon and jetpacking into work. How naive. Now it's all but impossible to do something as simple as see your doctor. I notice my local surgery has had to shut for two months (at least - I've no doubt it will extend, this is the beginning of the end). Already it's only open part time. They claim that with a number of doctors on maternity leave they can't adequately and safely staff the surgery. But they can't find locums? They can't hire more doctors in general (which is why they are only part time)? Something isn't right here, but then, in the post NHS climate the Tories are building it's open season for these people who run our local service to expand. This they seem to be doing while also struggling to find staff. Something isn't right. Only under the Tories coudl this happen, and it will only get worse.
As the world turns colder (or at least the northern hemisphere), it seems also to turn darker. Fascism, call it what it is, is on the ascent. One of the largest countries in the world, and a developing economic powerhouse, has just elected a human nightmare to lead it. All under the aegis of the Trump 'revolution'. Bolsonara in Brazil will set back the rights of those he rules a generation. Already there has been violence, the wiping out of an indigenous village. He won't care, and nor will the fascist's friend up north, Trump. I still cannot believe that man has power. He is a vicious self entitled spoilt child, surrounded by like minded people who care nothing for the common man except to deny them further access to the basics of a decent society.
What must it take for us to get a decent world? Liberals and centrists appeal to the democratic process, but what good is that? Do we tell LGBTQ+ people in Brazil - whom Bolsonara has directly targeted - that they should be good citizens and wait another term because that's the done thing? Hell no. Power is never given, it must be taken from those who seek to rule over us. Stolen from them and then smashed. No one must be in charge so that everyone can be in charge. In that way proper democratic processes can develop.
Meanwhile the Tories continue their assault against the lower orders. Universal Credit, like a raging beast, seems unstoppable, urged on by its maniac masters. It blows my mind to think that Esther McVey has power over the poorest in society. A vacuous airhead who thinks the worst kind of glib Californian business guru self help rubbish is the blueprint for a successful society. She loves the 'strivers and skivers' rhetoric, despite it being utterly meaningless. You can strive all you want, hard work guarantees nothing but tired hands and broken backs. If you capitulate to that idea you are giving your power to people like her and she will use it to break you. Universal Credit is pernicious poorly designed and thoroughly unworkable. As the death count rises the Tories will just ramp up the rhetoric even more.
All this against a backdrop of gammon-infused isolationism. Ridiculous old men and women who refuse to consider their time is all but spent. Having climbed the ladder all they wish to do is kick it away from those beneath them. There is no doubt the EU is a problematic neoliberal pro-capitalist institution looking after its own interests, but it is also the gatekeeper. It does afford the working class many benefits. Throwing those away resembles throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But worse of all is that there is no good option: if we leave all we do is cede power to the Tories. Their true blue rhetoric will count for nothing once they go full steam ahead and finish off the job austerity started. Then we can all look forward to chlorinated chicken and the complete prostitution of what remains of our public services once they are fully laid bare to the rest of the world. We will become a carcass for the vultures of the world to feed on. In the absence of a proper working class revolt against the EU - and all capitalist institutions (including especially the Tories) we must choose at this time to remain. I'm not prepared to throw the working class under the bus.
The weather is getting colder. The streets are full of souls cast off by the Tories; people whose lives have been violently rendered invisible to their concern. Life gets all the more frosty when few care. That's the world we seem to be building for ourselves. When I was a kid, I looked up at the moon and dreamed of the stars. My head full of sci fi speculation and Tomorrows World (remember that?). By 2020 we'd be living in bubble cities on the moon and jetpacking into work. How naive. Now it's all but impossible to do something as simple as see your doctor. I notice my local surgery has had to shut for two months (at least - I've no doubt it will extend, this is the beginning of the end). Already it's only open part time. They claim that with a number of doctors on maternity leave they can't adequately and safely staff the surgery. But they can't find locums? They can't hire more doctors in general (which is why they are only part time)? Something isn't right here, but then, in the post NHS climate the Tories are building it's open season for these people who run our local service to expand. This they seem to be doing while also struggling to find staff. Something isn't right. Only under the Tories coudl this happen, and it will only get worse.
Monday, 17 September 2018
The View from the Hill
I took the long way back from Tesco (Express - that means it's slightly and inexplicably more expensive than the traditional superstore, and less well stocked). A nice walk down the hill, you know, the one through the farmland, toward the river and by the weir.
The farmer died a few weeks ago. He was a nice fellow. Apparently a few months, perhaps even years, ago he'd sold his land. Developers have been sniffing around for a few years now. Across their number they have tried to acquire multiple patches of land so they can make a profit of course. It's not about building to meet a need. We obviously have that, but these will not be affordable homes, nor will they exist in sufficient number to meet any reasonable demand.
This is just about making money from farmers that can't support themselves. This isn't NIMBYism, the land is for everyone to enjoy. Not just rich homeowners (whose number will now increase). I enjoy that land.
Or I used to. I could walk down that field, look out across to the hill, past the church. I could see the line of electricity pylons across the horizon. You might not think something so prosaic and unnatural could broaden the mind, but they served to define the parameters of that horizon, to bring to life, after a fashion. You take what you can from the world around you.
Unfortunately so do the developers. Now that view was obscured by metal fencing, locking walkers and ramblers into a narrow channel while leaving the labourers unmolested to cut a swathe into the land and lay the foundations for the houses that will steal my view.
I thought to myself: this is the last time I'll see that clock that hill and those pylons from that hill.
Every day a little piece of us is forever stolen. This is how they win.
If we let them
The farmer died a few weeks ago. He was a nice fellow. Apparently a few months, perhaps even years, ago he'd sold his land. Developers have been sniffing around for a few years now. Across their number they have tried to acquire multiple patches of land so they can make a profit of course. It's not about building to meet a need. We obviously have that, but these will not be affordable homes, nor will they exist in sufficient number to meet any reasonable demand.
This is just about making money from farmers that can't support themselves. This isn't NIMBYism, the land is for everyone to enjoy. Not just rich homeowners (whose number will now increase). I enjoy that land.
Or I used to. I could walk down that field, look out across to the hill, past the church. I could see the line of electricity pylons across the horizon. You might not think something so prosaic and unnatural could broaden the mind, but they served to define the parameters of that horizon, to bring to life, after a fashion. You take what you can from the world around you.
Unfortunately so do the developers. Now that view was obscured by metal fencing, locking walkers and ramblers into a narrow channel while leaving the labourers unmolested to cut a swathe into the land and lay the foundations for the houses that will steal my view.
I thought to myself: this is the last time I'll see that clock that hill and those pylons from that hill.
Every day a little piece of us is forever stolen. This is how they win.
If we let them
Sunday, 16 September 2018
Your Daddy's Still Not a Nice Man!
This is a follow up; I've gone back and forth on this issue.
There's no doubt that a small group of anarchists will never be seen positively protesting the likes of the Tory elite and it's creepy darlings.
However reading this has made me think twice. I rewrote my original post as initially I was less forgiving to the Moggspring. While I don't want to see anyone's kids bullied or victimised or used as political capital, there are some mitigating issues here.
Firstly, it transpires that the protest was announced a few weeks ahead of time. So Mogg knew what was going to be happening. He was also clearly ok with being present - it, as he has gone on to say, was not something he felt bothered by.
Secondly, apparently, he brought his kids out during the protest. So not only did he not take them seriously, he obviusly didn't think his kids would either, nor that they would be in any danger (they weren't). Whether or not you agree with the actions taken, it's fairly clear and reasonable to suggest the experience hasn't damaged them. Good.
Mogg doesn't take this stuff seriously - and that's a problem. In order to defeat people like him - and we must - he must be made to feel the opposition constitutes a legitimate threat. I don't mean in terms of life and limb, to be clear. That he doesn't speaks to the arrogance of power, as reinforced by the media. Class War aren't there to be seen as positive by those gazing from the Overton Window. They are there to speak truth to power: to show that working class people are real, frustrated, and exploited. They demonstrated this by, rather benignly, addressing Mogg's nanny.
A fucking nanny. Clearly neither he nor his wife are up to the job of raising the six children they choose to have - three times as many as he allows those protesting him to have. Think about that.
This poor woman has worked for the Moggs for half a century. She's been there to wipe their bottoms, clean their bibs, and kiss the various 'its' the prodigy of the rich and powerful endure in their many mansions. Does she get treated well for this? We don't know she wasn't prepared - unsurprisingly, in front of her lord and master - to disclose her wage. But is it unreasonable to assume it would have been particularly generous given her station and her employer's belief in a vicious social hierarchy.
Regardless, the existence of this structure - of nannies and maids and butlers - is something that must die. It is a vile anachronism. No one should serve others in this fashion. No one should have 'betters', or lords and masters. This is dehumanising and degrading to the human spirit.
So, when it comes to the kids, their daddy is not a nice man.
Whether or not you agree with saying this, however calmly and non threateningly, to his children, whom he has chosen to wheel out (maybe even cynically), the fact remains. This is a truth they will have to rationalise at some point in their undoubtedly hyper-privileged lives. Their father (and he has a daughter) believes women should never be allowed abortions, even if they are victims of rape!
Of course tender age kids shouldn't have to ponder such realities as rape, but the truth is their father is a willing supporter of policies that are not just 'not nice' but actively destructive. He has a hand in the suicides of many, the suffering of thousands, and the deliberate starvation of many working class children throughout Britain. He deliberately and knowingly dismisses this through the tools of his class and privilege. That is, his world view is an artifice of class and power and that is why he must be brought down.
And rthat's before we address his headbanging pro-Empire worldview that would see the country burn. A site his kids will get to see from their mansion window possibly quite soon. His insane wrecking cabal of imperialists are happy to sell the rest of us down the river by any means possible to return us to a time that even time forgot. A collapsed economy in the name of King and Country.
If people think his children should be protected from the mean old man mildly insulting their father, then how are they going to feel when the revolution comes! When they lose their mansions and their father's wealth is expropriated and returned to the people?
Perhaps that's not likely to happen until well beyond the time their own kids are insulted by the grandkids of Ian Bone and Class War, but it must happen.
That doesn't mean they should be sent to the Tower, guillotine, or some other ghastly fate. No, they are human beings and should enjoy the same rights and provileges as the rest of us: food, shelter, clothing, health, fellowship and aspiration.
Just no more than you or I.
There's no doubt that a small group of anarchists will never be seen positively protesting the likes of the Tory elite and it's creepy darlings.
However reading this has made me think twice. I rewrote my original post as initially I was less forgiving to the Moggspring. While I don't want to see anyone's kids bullied or victimised or used as political capital, there are some mitigating issues here.
Firstly, it transpires that the protest was announced a few weeks ahead of time. So Mogg knew what was going to be happening. He was also clearly ok with being present - it, as he has gone on to say, was not something he felt bothered by.
Secondly, apparently, he brought his kids out during the protest. So not only did he not take them seriously, he obviusly didn't think his kids would either, nor that they would be in any danger (they weren't). Whether or not you agree with the actions taken, it's fairly clear and reasonable to suggest the experience hasn't damaged them. Good.
Mogg doesn't take this stuff seriously - and that's a problem. In order to defeat people like him - and we must - he must be made to feel the opposition constitutes a legitimate threat. I don't mean in terms of life and limb, to be clear. That he doesn't speaks to the arrogance of power, as reinforced by the media. Class War aren't there to be seen as positive by those gazing from the Overton Window. They are there to speak truth to power: to show that working class people are real, frustrated, and exploited. They demonstrated this by, rather benignly, addressing Mogg's nanny.
A fucking nanny. Clearly neither he nor his wife are up to the job of raising the six children they choose to have - three times as many as he allows those protesting him to have. Think about that.
This poor woman has worked for the Moggs for half a century. She's been there to wipe their bottoms, clean their bibs, and kiss the various 'its' the prodigy of the rich and powerful endure in their many mansions. Does she get treated well for this? We don't know she wasn't prepared - unsurprisingly, in front of her lord and master - to disclose her wage. But is it unreasonable to assume it would have been particularly generous given her station and her employer's belief in a vicious social hierarchy.
Regardless, the existence of this structure - of nannies and maids and butlers - is something that must die. It is a vile anachronism. No one should serve others in this fashion. No one should have 'betters', or lords and masters. This is dehumanising and degrading to the human spirit.
So, when it comes to the kids, their daddy is not a nice man.
Whether or not you agree with saying this, however calmly and non threateningly, to his children, whom he has chosen to wheel out (maybe even cynically), the fact remains. This is a truth they will have to rationalise at some point in their undoubtedly hyper-privileged lives. Their father (and he has a daughter) believes women should never be allowed abortions, even if they are victims of rape!
Of course tender age kids shouldn't have to ponder such realities as rape, but the truth is their father is a willing supporter of policies that are not just 'not nice' but actively destructive. He has a hand in the suicides of many, the suffering of thousands, and the deliberate starvation of many working class children throughout Britain. He deliberately and knowingly dismisses this through the tools of his class and privilege. That is, his world view is an artifice of class and power and that is why he must be brought down.
And rthat's before we address his headbanging pro-Empire worldview that would see the country burn. A site his kids will get to see from their mansion window possibly quite soon. His insane wrecking cabal of imperialists are happy to sell the rest of us down the river by any means possible to return us to a time that even time forgot. A collapsed economy in the name of King and Country.
If people think his children should be protected from the mean old man mildly insulting their father, then how are they going to feel when the revolution comes! When they lose their mansions and their father's wealth is expropriated and returned to the people?
Perhaps that's not likely to happen until well beyond the time their own kids are insulted by the grandkids of Ian Bone and Class War, but it must happen.
That doesn't mean they should be sent to the Tower, guillotine, or some other ghastly fate. No, they are human beings and should enjoy the same rights and provileges as the rest of us: food, shelter, clothing, health, fellowship and aspiration.
Just no more than you or I.
Friday, 14 September 2018
Your Daddy's Not A Nice Man!
Moggy, moggy, moggy....it's a rich man's world!
The sun rises and a group of protesters, called Class War, descend upon the (latest) home of the bewilderingly out of touch Jacob Rees Mogg. A man who thinks that rape should be rewarded with further brutality: the curtailment of women's rights is simply another assault the victim must endure. A man who thinks the existence of foodbanks - a symptom of cruelty and state created deprivation - is uplifting; thus he washes his soul in the misery he inflicts on others. The UnAmerican Psycho.
A man who thinks the Bedroom Tax is a carefully calibrated policy - yes, calibrated to fuck up the lives of many for no appreciable gain, such that they have to lie about the existence of a 'spare room subsidy' to mechanically justify its workings. A policy of ideology, not the remotest shred of pragmatism.
This man is abhorrent. His existence is an unwelcome counter productive anachronism supported, I would think, by a large business elite within his constituency. The mire from which this weed sprouts doing harm in god's name and, probably, god's accent. The lord, after all, is a plum-toned vicar from Hobbitonshire on the Wold after all. Heaven has no spare room subsidy.
So it's a fucking huge shame that, by allowing one idiot to address his kids, the points they had to make were lost. Inevitably the media were going to focus on that. Confronting Mogg is already an uphill battle in the eyes of the right wing media (which is 99% of the media).
Not a smart move.
But here's the thing. What they said was not untrue.
"Your daddy's not a nice man!"
Look. This is reality. Their father isn't a nice man. That's the truth. The real issue that should be discussed is the bizarre life this creature leads. He has a nanny for fuck's sake. His children are named as if they were Latin pronouns or adverbs. He doesn't live in the real world. He is functionally and genetically incapable of understanding our lives. How can he?
But
"Your daddy's not a nice man!"
Is not a good look. Like it or not, we live in the age of optics. One of the reasons Mogg does so well (ugh) is that he cultivates a privilege-cushioned posture of calmness. Something that's a lot easier to do when your own kids aren't starving.
That's the problem with the Class War debacle. There is a valid message that could have been put forward, that could even have involved, albeit indirectly, his kids without actually...involving his kids. That is: the Wee Moggs aren't going to sleeping on empty stomachs or waiting for a nutritionally bereft foodbank parcel. Their parents aren't going to be the ones struggling with the institutionally wicked deliberate chaos of Universal Credit.
They are not going to be on the sharp end of their father's policies.
"Your daddy's not a nice man!"
So instead of exposing the ridiculousness of this artificial human's lifestyle by throwing it into stark relief compared to the lives of the poorest, Class War resort to unfortunate type. They act like children who've discovered swear words for the first time. That's a shame because some of them are well read and should know better. The underdogs went for the dishonourable approach and the inevitable happened. What they could have done is what they did later focussing on Mogg's nanny and asking whether she gets paid a decent wage. Who knows if she does.
So the nation's kids will again go to sleep on empty stomachs, in poverty, and in crisis, all so the incredibly advantaged and privileged children of people who happen to have won life's lottery can have their feelings hurt. There is something desperately wrong here. None of this should have to be happening at all. But this horror persists because of stupid actions on the part of those opposing this system. We agree this system is intrinsically awful and cannot be reformed, but there is a journey to get past it and that journey is made steeper when you behave like a fool.
There should be no Jacob Rees Mogg's in this world. That should be the goal; no one should have this kind of power and privilege, look at what it does. I think Mogg is a mutant; a twisted product of radioactive society. Finance and privilege breed the dogs of capitalist war. For the good of us all they need to be taken down, their power de constructed and their wealth expropriated to be shared where it belongs - to all of us.
The sun rises and a group of protesters, called Class War, descend upon the (latest) home of the bewilderingly out of touch Jacob Rees Mogg. A man who thinks that rape should be rewarded with further brutality: the curtailment of women's rights is simply another assault the victim must endure. A man who thinks the existence of foodbanks - a symptom of cruelty and state created deprivation - is uplifting; thus he washes his soul in the misery he inflicts on others. The UnAmerican Psycho.
A man who thinks the Bedroom Tax is a carefully calibrated policy - yes, calibrated to fuck up the lives of many for no appreciable gain, such that they have to lie about the existence of a 'spare room subsidy' to mechanically justify its workings. A policy of ideology, not the remotest shred of pragmatism.
This man is abhorrent. His existence is an unwelcome counter productive anachronism supported, I would think, by a large business elite within his constituency. The mire from which this weed sprouts doing harm in god's name and, probably, god's accent. The lord, after all, is a plum-toned vicar from Hobbitonshire on the Wold after all. Heaven has no spare room subsidy.
So it's a fucking huge shame that, by allowing one idiot to address his kids, the points they had to make were lost. Inevitably the media were going to focus on that. Confronting Mogg is already an uphill battle in the eyes of the right wing media (which is 99% of the media).
Not a smart move.
But here's the thing. What they said was not untrue.
"Your daddy's not a nice man!"
Look. This is reality. Their father isn't a nice man. That's the truth. The real issue that should be discussed is the bizarre life this creature leads. He has a nanny for fuck's sake. His children are named as if they were Latin pronouns or adverbs. He doesn't live in the real world. He is functionally and genetically incapable of understanding our lives. How can he?
But
"Your daddy's not a nice man!"
Is not a good look. Like it or not, we live in the age of optics. One of the reasons Mogg does so well (ugh) is that he cultivates a privilege-cushioned posture of calmness. Something that's a lot easier to do when your own kids aren't starving.
That's the problem with the Class War debacle. There is a valid message that could have been put forward, that could even have involved, albeit indirectly, his kids without actually...involving his kids. That is: the Wee Moggs aren't going to sleeping on empty stomachs or waiting for a nutritionally bereft foodbank parcel. Their parents aren't going to be the ones struggling with the institutionally wicked deliberate chaos of Universal Credit.
They are not going to be on the sharp end of their father's policies.
"Your daddy's not a nice man!"
So instead of exposing the ridiculousness of this artificial human's lifestyle by throwing it into stark relief compared to the lives of the poorest, Class War resort to unfortunate type. They act like children who've discovered swear words for the first time. That's a shame because some of them are well read and should know better. The underdogs went for the dishonourable approach and the inevitable happened. What they could have done is what they did later focussing on Mogg's nanny and asking whether she gets paid a decent wage. Who knows if she does.
So the nation's kids will again go to sleep on empty stomachs, in poverty, and in crisis, all so the incredibly advantaged and privileged children of people who happen to have won life's lottery can have their feelings hurt. There is something desperately wrong here. None of this should have to be happening at all. But this horror persists because of stupid actions on the part of those opposing this system. We agree this system is intrinsically awful and cannot be reformed, but there is a journey to get past it and that journey is made steeper when you behave like a fool.
There should be no Jacob Rees Mogg's in this world. That should be the goal; no one should have this kind of power and privilege, look at what it does. I think Mogg is a mutant; a twisted product of radioactive society. Finance and privilege breed the dogs of capitalist war. For the good of us all they need to be taken down, their power de constructed and their wealth expropriated to be shared where it belongs - to all of us.
The Unkindness of Strangers
Or, The Internet Is a Shit Show.
Let's be honest. For all the wonderful things it brings, it is a very hostile place. Especially if you have mental health problems. That's not to say everyone using it is a horrible person, but that those who are face no consequences. It's the wild west and it's run by cliques and group think. If you fall foul of a prevailing consensus, things will go downhill and never change. In fact if you appeal or seek redress you will make things worse. The cognitive dissonance of this outcome, of the reasonable decision to try and clear things up only making things worse, is particularly toxic for mental health sufferers. For all the nice things and nice people that are online, the prevalence of toxicity remains a huge problem.
I don't know how to fix this; I am not an authoritarian and we certainly can't expect the likes of government (especially one that is killing the poor) to deal with this.
I feel obliged to point out that the above isn't a cover story for my own indiscretions. It is simply a statement of my own experience dealing with many online communities; they seem to be run by awful people. Individuals with a particular ideological, political, or social attitude that cannot be shifted nor reasoned with. If you fall foul of it, no matter how innocently, you will be treated pretty shabbily, all things considered.
This isn't to lose perspective - #firstworldproblems! - it is to point out that the internet offers a unique relatively open platform for discussion on a variety of issues. For individuals like myself that suffer social isolation it can also be a lifeline. That is why I take this seriously; to take that lifeline away through poor moderation or online bullying is actually a very cruel thing to do. Unfortunately one of the things that you cannot do online is admit your vulnerabilities because, again (and again perversely), this just makes it worse. In many ways this open platform operates like kids in a playground. It's desperately sad.
This is the new reality. It may not be what we want. It may not even be what we need. But for those of us with very little, it's what we've got. If I want to talk on certain topics the internet remains the best place to go. I don't have the opportunity to talk politics in real life. Yet when I try and do so online I have to navigate an invisible minefield of etiquette and digital mores that, if communication isn't your strong point, can trip you up. A box of text becomes a very different proposition than full human communication with its inflections, body language and tonalities. Something vital is lost in the translation between typing and sending, something that doesn't appear on screen.
For people who struggle to communicate well, perhaps if they are, like me neuro diverse, this becomes very difficult. People read what you have written as if it was something else and you will not understand why. It is as if you had written in a peculiar language that, to you, was as normal and clear as anything. Someone takes exception to a message that you felt was clearly written or well intended and that's where the trouble starts...
Because the internet is unforgiving. People's reactions will instantly redline. They will assume the worst and offer no charity. Benefit of the doubt doesn't exist online. If you fall foul of the moderation, then you will be excommunicated as if you'd punched the vicar in the face and pissed in the font. It is a ridiculous way to respond, it would never happen off line and for that reason I believe it to be unhealthy. In fact sa I type this I find myself assuming that whoever's reading this could be thinking "yeah, right...what did you say, what did you do?" Because of course I couldn't be saying this without being guilty of something, of breaking some forum rules. But that's the point, it can and does happen. It's toxic and it ought to be addressed. Unfortunately the only real solution is for these communities to stand up and demand better of themselves. It's especially sad when it happens to progressive communities.
PS: hopefully the comments section is less onerous now, if people want to reply. Thanks
Let's be honest. For all the wonderful things it brings, it is a very hostile place. Especially if you have mental health problems. That's not to say everyone using it is a horrible person, but that those who are face no consequences. It's the wild west and it's run by cliques and group think. If you fall foul of a prevailing consensus, things will go downhill and never change. In fact if you appeal or seek redress you will make things worse. The cognitive dissonance of this outcome, of the reasonable decision to try and clear things up only making things worse, is particularly toxic for mental health sufferers. For all the nice things and nice people that are online, the prevalence of toxicity remains a huge problem.
I don't know how to fix this; I am not an authoritarian and we certainly can't expect the likes of government (especially one that is killing the poor) to deal with this.
I feel obliged to point out that the above isn't a cover story for my own indiscretions. It is simply a statement of my own experience dealing with many online communities; they seem to be run by awful people. Individuals with a particular ideological, political, or social attitude that cannot be shifted nor reasoned with. If you fall foul of it, no matter how innocently, you will be treated pretty shabbily, all things considered.
This isn't to lose perspective - #firstworldproblems! - it is to point out that the internet offers a unique relatively open platform for discussion on a variety of issues. For individuals like myself that suffer social isolation it can also be a lifeline. That is why I take this seriously; to take that lifeline away through poor moderation or online bullying is actually a very cruel thing to do. Unfortunately one of the things that you cannot do online is admit your vulnerabilities because, again (and again perversely), this just makes it worse. In many ways this open platform operates like kids in a playground. It's desperately sad.
This is the new reality. It may not be what we want. It may not even be what we need. But for those of us with very little, it's what we've got. If I want to talk on certain topics the internet remains the best place to go. I don't have the opportunity to talk politics in real life. Yet when I try and do so online I have to navigate an invisible minefield of etiquette and digital mores that, if communication isn't your strong point, can trip you up. A box of text becomes a very different proposition than full human communication with its inflections, body language and tonalities. Something vital is lost in the translation between typing and sending, something that doesn't appear on screen.
For people who struggle to communicate well, perhaps if they are, like me neuro diverse, this becomes very difficult. People read what you have written as if it was something else and you will not understand why. It is as if you had written in a peculiar language that, to you, was as normal and clear as anything. Someone takes exception to a message that you felt was clearly written or well intended and that's where the trouble starts...
Because the internet is unforgiving. People's reactions will instantly redline. They will assume the worst and offer no charity. Benefit of the doubt doesn't exist online. If you fall foul of the moderation, then you will be excommunicated as if you'd punched the vicar in the face and pissed in the font. It is a ridiculous way to respond, it would never happen off line and for that reason I believe it to be unhealthy. In fact sa I type this I find myself assuming that whoever's reading this could be thinking "yeah, right...what did you say, what did you do?" Because of course I couldn't be saying this without being guilty of something, of breaking some forum rules. But that's the point, it can and does happen. It's toxic and it ought to be addressed. Unfortunately the only real solution is for these communities to stand up and demand better of themselves. It's especially sad when it happens to progressive communities.
PS: hopefully the comments section is less onerous now, if people want to reply. Thanks
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)