LibDem Broken Promise 101: (I'm Not Sure, Really... Could Be More!)

Below is a screenshot of a piece from Ed Davey's official website that seems to have now been "lost". Luckily, Thomas G Clarke found it before it got lost and posted it on his blog "Another Angry Voice". It appears that yet another LibDem manifesto promise has been lost to the neoliberal Tory ideology. What on Earth possessed them to link with the Tories in the last election? Their sweet-talk was more left wing than Gordon Brown's! Is this what we are to expect from our politicians in the future? Are we to be perpetually governed by backroom bullyboys with nothing but dollar signs in their eyes? What irks me most is the ease with which Clegg dismissed his promises on air as "wishful thinking" whilst being "unaware" of how much debt the Labour government had left us in. Then, unblinkingly, accepts George Oddballs method of piling on three times more debt in order to "balance the books"! Are we a nation of idiots? Must be, I guess. Some of the comments I've seen posted on blogs that expose the insanity behind the neoliberal myths seem to suggest that we're mostly willing to accept the hypocrisy, lies and deceit as somehow "normal" and "just". I've heard people say that the bedroom tax is "fair". Or that Workfare is "just". Or that the Royal Mail sell-off was "necessary"! They're even accepting that nuclear power - funded largely by foreign investors - is "terrific"! Karl Marx give me strength!!!

Copy of a MUST read........

This story appeared in the Facebook Group: "ATOS Miracles". If you're not a member - sign up now! I would love to give credit for the author, but it seems to have been anonymous. Whoever you are, thank you!!

A very powerful short story on the consequences of workfare I believe everyone should read. Many thanks to one of our members for sharing this with us.

Coming to an area near you..... A Grafter’s Tale…..

October, 2015.

“God this rain is like ice!” I think as I pedal as hard as I can up the hill. “Well at least it’s not too much further” I reassure myself as my thighs and lungs burn. Not long after I arrive at work, park and lock the bike up and go inside to change into my factory worker clothes before my shift begins. I’ve worked here on the factory floor for 11 years now and am very proud of my long, sickness-free tenure. Of course it’s not like it used to be. Years ago there was always overtime available and an honest hard-working bloke like me could earn a packet! Now I’m lucky to have a job I suppose. Of course, my ethos has always been: “look after your job and it’ll look after you!” My employers, an international manufacturing company, know that I am the sort of bloke they want and I never take advantage. I am confident they’ll look after me. As I clock in and begin work I am washed in the reassuring sound of machinery working and men shouting. I breathe in the unique scents that tell me I can hold my head high because I have never skived in my life. I married my partner Shelley 4 years ago and we have 2 kids and a 3rd on the way. This last one wasn’t planned but that’s ok. Shelley is like me – a hard worker who loves her administration job at the local university and between us we earn enough to pay the mortgage and have a holiday each year. “What the hell’s that lazy scrounger done this time?” I muse as I see the floor manager rushing over and berating one the yellows – the term that’s been coined for the free-workers or long-term unemployed working for free here. Don’t get it myself – the company keeps saying profits are down and there’s not enough work yet the numbers of yellows keep rising, as do the numbers of redundancies. Mind you it’s good to see them having to work for my tax for a change - makes me proud to have voted for the Tories the last two times. “Oh well, keep your head down and plough through – what do I know of balance sheets and statistics? I’m just a Good Ol’ Grafter” I remind myself. Of course times are harder now and the money doesn’t go as far – how the heck the utility and fuel prices keep going up I do not know! – but then we’re in a recession (or was as we’re told by the Powers That Be!) so we all have to keep our heads down, tighten our belts and suffer through it. It sits ill in my gut though that all those layabouts on the dole get more than we do though – we struggle just to live a decent life and can’t afford all the new phones and gadgets yet all those bloody skivers get it all! Makes me sick! Of course they’re not ALL like that I know! After all, George isn’t a scrounger either but still out of work. Can’t understand it myself – I can still remember the day he found out… George and I go way back. We began here the same year and I kind of took him under my wing when he began several months after me. The same age, we knew each other in school but weren’t close back then. He’s a grafter like me – never took a sickie in his life although he did have that glandular fever back in 2008 and was off sick for a few months. That was hard financially on him and Pat, his partner then but wife now. They got married same year we did and their 3rd son was born early last year. He and I were team buddies all the way. I look with contempt at the yellow that’s working at George’s old station next to me. “No point getting to know any of them” I remind myself, “They’re never here long”. The 1st break bell sounds and I stop my machine and head out for some fresh air and a cuppa, musing on the way of how it all went bad for George over a year ago now.

George was called in for his annual review. We all hated it but neither George nor I was worried. We’d both always got good reviews and knew we had nothing to worry about. They were always making redundancies but they’d never get rid of a couple of long time grafters like us. I patted George on his back as he left for his and gave a sigh of relief that mine was over already and carried on working. Didn’t think much of it but wondered why his was taking so long when I went for lunch. “Must’ve been called to train someone up” I thought as I ate the cheese and tomato sarnies Shelley made for me that morning. After lunch and still no George I called out to Dick the floor manager as he was rushing past: “Hey Dick, where’s George!?” but he never gave a reply despite my knowing he heard me. As the day wore on I got more and more worried but reassured myself with thoughts like “He must’ve came down funny or something and gone home” but knowing inside he’d never leave without telling me, his best bud! When I walked in the door that night Shelley was on the phone crying and I could hear Pat’s tear-filled wails over the line and my heart sank like a stone. “What’s happened?” I shouted as I rushed to her. “George was laid off today!” she says as she turns away to keep consoling Pat. “What the heck?” I think as I grab my mobile to ring him. Anyway turns out the company laid him off despite his record! Turns out that short time off sick all that time ago, him starting later than me and the economic downturn have all conspired against poor old George! “Poor bugger!” I muse as I sigh in relief and thank my lucky stars guiltily. Course I haven’t got the time to keep up with him now but Shelley and Pat still talk. For a while we still had our barbecues and games nights but as the months went by he began to change… at first he was out all day every day looking for work but as time went on and he had no luck he stopped trying so hard. He started cancelling on us and when we did see him he was obviously letting himself go. Shelley tells me Pat’s at her wits end with worry about him. Which she don’t need on top of everything else. I hear they’re losing the house now as he hasn’t managed to get another job. Don’t understand it myself – a grafter like him with all his experience but Pat says all the factories are laying off and there’s no jobs and what I see and hear backs that up. Anyway it’s third break and I head to the office to see about any overtime – even though I know there won’t be any as usual but I have to try if we want to save enough for a holiday next year. As I walk the lines I spot a yellow that looks a bit familiar and as I get closer I can’t believe it!

“George!?” I shout to the bloke’s back as he slouches along in front of me. The bloke turns, reluctantly and replies “Hey Dave. How ya doin mate?” ,looking at the floor.

I can’t believe it! “Mate, they take you back on then?” I ask hopefully, but knowing it can’t be that as he’s wearing yellow!

“nah, mate. I been on the dole too long mate and now I gotta work full time for my dole money” he admits. He looks rough I have to say – I’m shocked at the difference but then it’s been a while since I last saw him, I realise a little guiltily.

“You’re kidding mate! But no one was looking harder than you! Pat told Shelley how you were out pounding the streets all day every day!” I exclaim.

“Don’t matter mate. Rules are rules. Now I gotta look in the evenings and weekends. Gotta say tho’ mate – it sticks in my groat that I’m now doing my old job for free!”

He rushes on, “Was gonna stop by and say hello when I could of course” he mumbles, avoiding looking me in the eye.

As I stand there I’m stunned and suddenly it all makes sense – the ever increasing numbers of yellows that now seem equal to us blues; the constant lay-offs, the rumours of the never-higher numbers of sk…unemployed; the ever-rising costs of living and I realise, with a gut-wrenching sense of guilt and shame, that I did this! Me! After all – my vote counts too doesn’t it?

Then, as I stand there looking at poor George who has never looked so ashamed and downhearted as long as I’ve known him, I hear the floor manager shouting: “DAVE! MANAGER NEEDS YOU IN HIS OFFICE RIGHT NOW! DON’T BOTHER SHUTTING YOUR STATION DOWN – WE HAVE A NEW YELLOW THAT’LL FILL IT!” and I just know, with a sinking feeling, that it’ll be me going to the dole office tomorrow and Shelley who’ll be crying on my shoulder tonight.

I'm Cheating Here..........

http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/margaret-thatcher-is-dead.html

This chap has a better command of the language than I! The above link takes you to his blogspot - it has to be read!! All of it!!

I wish I were as eloquent, I know I'm as angry!!

The above link explains why the "Thatcher" hammer still swings to this day. I know many people have some vague romantic view of this evil woman - or maybe Meryl Streep? But she had the heart of a concrete block and the greed of a newborn! But her cancerous legacy still eats away at this country and it won't stop unless people become aware.

For fear of repeating myself:

Marx argued that a successful revolution could only happen with a politically aware proletariat. Be aware!!

I'm getting ANGRY!!

A couple of times I've rented my wrath about current issues in our economically divided country. I've rediscovered an old passion for raging against the 'top-dog'. 

Sad really. Because most people, as I've stated earlier, do not want to engage. They just want to get by. But that, too, fuels my rage. As I see it, the reason most people don't want to engage is seen in how they're being manipulated. 

The most recent rant came whilst I was talking to my daughter about her writing. (I'm hoping she'll write a best-seller - she has the talent!) But my rant moved from being a friendly exchange about her latest character and plot to what's happening today in the UK. 

I'm not going to reveal her latest plot, but it did lead me to give some consideration to the REAL conspiracy theory that's destroying my world. Conspiracy theorists are painted as 'crazies' who believe that a handful of super-rich, elite, inter-related individuals control everything that happens in the world. Politicians and corporate giants love these people. They can be so easily dismissed. David Icke is a wonderful example. His position is that we are controlled by "shape-shifting lizards". At their head is the British Royal Family. Everyone else associated with them, however tenuously, is also a "shape-shifter". Other theories mention the mysterious "Illuminati". A group of extremely powerful individuals who's only aim is to control the Earth with a "One-World-Government". Or maybe its the Devil worshipping Bildebergers? Lovely stuff! So easily rebuffed and paraded in the media as the ignorant leading the stupid. But.....

The point of capitalism is to make money. That's its purpose. There is no conscience about it. It's perceived as a Darwinian process whereby the strong survive and prosper and the weak fall by the wayside. Just as in nature. Weber's "Protestant Ethic Thesis", mooted as the trigger point of capitalism, argues that the roots of capitalism are buried in a work ethic which demands that a worker makes money to make money! Therein lies the root of the "conspiracy" issue. What most people are only half aware of is the financial clout that the wealthy bring to bear on the policy-makers of our nations. They control the wealth, the media and the government - to a degree.

I could go on but won't. The point to this particular rant was that political apathy is more prevalent today than it has ever been in my history! More and more people are stating that "you can't trust any of'em!" So who does one vote for? For people to engage in politics there has to be a shift in perception. Initially, it might be a good thing to mistrust politicians! After all, they're just humans like the rest of us. The key to the shift is the meaning of democracy. It requires numbers. The vast majority of us should converge and agree on some basic instruments of governance. What appears to be happening is that there are many divisions among the populace. The disabled are campaigning against the bedroom tax, the unemployed are campaigning against benefit cuts, "British White Workers" are campaigning against immigration policies, others against EU membership, yet others against fracking, the list goes on!

What we should be doing is campaigning against a government that's encouraging these divisions. We should all be together on a single issue - get this government out! We should be campaigning against a system that allows ALL of these issues to go unabated. It's time we moved away from neoliberal politics and returned to a proper democracy that our forefathers died for! We should all come together for the sake of the 99% who are NOT super-rich. All these other problems could then be settled amicably. In a proper democratic fashion.

There may be divisions in our community, but these can be sorted between us. Not trampled over by the corporate giants that actually call all the shots! It is they who drive wages down. It is they who buy our national treasures for poultry sums and degrade them. It is they who devise more dangerous, (yet, for them, profitable), means of providing energy. It is they who argue that a "dependency culture" emerges if you allow the weak, infirm and disabled to "dally" on benefits! It is they who maintain high levels of unemployment to keep wages low. It is they who took our manufacturing base to Third World countries to lower production costs by creating sweat shops. It is they who damaged our economy - deliberately!

We have a common enemy. We should be united against them. One single issue.

The Greatest Speech Ever Made - Charlie Chaplin

Are We Totally Defeated?

Socialism is being eroded on every front! Unbelievably the Labour Party has a right-wing "think-tank"! They appear to believe the political rhetoric that the libertarian press espouses. That people on benefits are "scroungers", unwilling to seek gainful employment. That the elderly and infirm are a "costly burden" on the state. That private investment creates jobs. That immigration is the scourge of this country.

When are we going to grow up? Karl Marx argued that a revolution could only work if the proletariat were "politically aware". How aware should we be? We have people committing suicide by the dozen. We have kids thrown into poverty.  We have a floundering health care system through poor management and an urge to privatise, putting more lives at risk. We have a generation of young kids suffering mental health problems because of "lack of hope". We have a huge problem with homelessness looming as the 'bedroom tax' kicks in. We have a government Hell-bent on taking every last penny from the poor. We are returning to the "Golden Age" of Victoriana!

Soon there will be a totally divided nation. The few who have the most and the many who will have nothing. The likelihood of the few who have the most staying in this country, once they've robbed us blind, is likely to be nil. Do we have to become a Third World country before we do something to stop this rot? 

“In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.

In all these movements, they bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question, no matter what its degree of development at the time.

Finally, they labour everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of all countries.

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

Working Men of All Countries, Unite!” Karl Marx

I Thought Usury Was A Sin.........

An interesting pic I got from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vox-Political/331758126847793.

The article, which I urge you to read, talks about 'credit unions' and how they must be allowed to compete with the likes of Wonga, et al., giving credit to assist people in crisis. People should not be in crisis in this country. We stole most of the wealth from other countries when we were an Empire! We were the seat of industrialisation. We're still one of the richest economies in the world. Why shouldn't we all benefit from that? And why is there not some kind of concerted joint effort to combat this growing disaster? Why don't we change the 'mode of production', as Marx would say?

I've been taken by the possibility of Workers' Cooperatives as a means to put the economy back to some form of stability. I'm still exploring the concept as viewed by the likes of Professor Richard Wolff in America and the likes of the authors of  http://www.uk.coop/.If the comment "We're in this together" was designed to convince people en masse that we're all supposed to support each other then why not go all the way? Instead of paying millions of pounds on unsustainable benefits for the unemployed, (the vast majority of whom do want to work!), then why not invest in Workers' Cooperatives? Why not utilise the redundant work spaces left by corporate bodies in their rush to exploit workers in Third World countries and start producing home grown goods?

It's been operating across Europe for some time now. Surely we can save our economy from the clutches of the greedy few and generate wealth for the masses? According to Wolff, if the USA were to reinstate all of their redundant factories and produced home-grown goods, there would be enough profit to end global poverty! I don't know if that's an ambitious claim but I do know that we have the skills and labour-force to generate a sizeable income between us. Then we could get our lives back and live in a true democracy. Not one engendered by the incumbent policy-makers bent on silencing the majority.

Just a thought.....  

Real Assetts..........

I can't understand why the rich don't see the real assets a country has. The real assets aren't mined or drilled for. Its not oil, gas, gold, diamonds, or any other mineral deposit left by prehistoric processes. Its not 'GDP', or cars, or houses. Its people. 

Without people there'd be no wealth, no power, no 'worth' to anything. People mine, drill, buy and sell those minerals. People give value to those fossils. People create wealth, allow power, spend and save. People work in the factories, shops, hospitals, post offices, clean, manufacture, build and do everything that all of us either want, or need. They care for the elderly and infirm, bury the dead, recycle the waste, do all kinds of filthy, almost impossible tasks, to keep society healthy and working. They entertain, race, play sports, inspire, philosophise, teach, encourage, contain and envelop. 

But sometimes things go wrong in our heads! Hitler was definitely a troubled individual. As was Stalin, or Lenin, Pol Pot, Pinochet, Attila the Hun, Vlad the Impaler, Caligula, and any number of psychotic dictators throughout history in all areas of human society. So maybe therein lies the answer to my dilemma. Maybe I can understand why the rich don't appear to understand the true assets in a country.

One thing I've learned in my short time on this planet is that, by and large, we humans are pack animals. We are more successful if we work as a group. Evolutionary lessons have taught us that. We'd be no match for a tiger, or lion, or crocodile, alone. In fact, if we were to lose all the wonderful things we've created for ourselves to live in and survive on; electricity, cars, guns, pre-packed foods, houses, roads and railways, etcetera, and had only ourselves to support in the wild - we'd become extinct very soon. We don't see very well, we don't hear very well, we have no real sense of smell, comparative to other animals, in fact we're pretty useless creatures, alone! Big predators would have a field day with us. So, as a species, we learned to cooperate. Its also why we developed language - to cooperate better! Together, we're almost invincible! We can certainly keep those animal predators at bay. We're even beating bacterial and viral infections and cancers and the like! No other animal can boast that claim. Great minds getting together and solving all manner of problems. Our only real threat is - ourselves.

We have such a complex structure in our craniums, its difficult to keep the basics in focus. Most people that I've encountered in my life have one real aim - to live a full and happy life. By 'happy', I mean secure and free of disaster. I've met Asians, Chinese, Africans, Scottish, Welsh, English, Americans, Canadians, Dutch, Swiss, Italians, Irish, Spanish, Portuguese, German, West Indian, Finnish, Polish, Slovakians, Greek, the list goes on. I've met Atheists, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, even a couple of Scientologists! And many others. All have one thing in common - to live an event free, full and happy life. Virtually everybody I've met seems to want the same thing. Including me. We want the best for our families, we want the best for our friends. Its how we achieve those ends that causes friction!

Politics, religion, sport, music, art, architecture, books, films, in fact almost anything can divide us. So how does that division occur? 

Well, I'm not sure, but let's start with one idea; that wealth divides. Its the thought of losing 'my' property. The things 'I've' put together for 'my' security. Underlying that thought is the fact that I'm talking about 'me'! I'm just focussing on 'my' individual needs. At this level, the fact that 'I' need 'you' hasn't impacted on 'my' sense of security. 'I' have everything 'I' need and to Hell with 'you'! What 'I've' forgotten is that 'I' need 'you' for my survival. I wonder how many of the super-rich would be willing to don an army uniform, carry a gun and go fight a war on the front lines? Or, how much of their rubbish would they be willing to haul away to the landfill? Or, go and deliver their own mail? Or, fix their own electricity supply, or go to the abattoir and kill their own cow/pig/sheep, and process the meat for their own consumption? Or, clear the sewage drains and slurry tanks? Or, design and cut their own clothes? Or, build their own homes? In fact most of the super-rich have absolutely no idea how to look after themselves! Most have inherited wealth and have never had to do anything to secure their own lives. They're simply rich. Work is for other people. 'You'! So how do they separate themselves from 'you'?

Defence mechanisms. Unconscious processes that allow us all to avoid conscious awareness of anxiety provoking thoughts. Freud was the first to introduce unconscious defence mechanisms and many of his contemporaries have discovered defences that Freud missed! Cognitive dissonance is a phrase I've used in a previous post. Is the concept of holding two opposing views in conscious awareness without conflict. Confabulation is the means to rationalising any disparity. In India, its religion that helps the super-rich deal with the guilt of seeing poor beggars in the streets. They're of a lower caste and will have a better life next time round. But in the (largely) secular West that's not such a prominent ideology. But its also not too far away when a particular psychological theory is applied.

This psychological theory is particularly Western. In fact, it was first proposed in America. We now know it as "Humanistic" psychology. The "Third Force" in therapy. First there was psychoanalysis which spawned psychodynamics. Then, to counter that, there was behaviourism which spawned cognitive behaviour therapy and rational emotive therapy. Finally, following Freud's lecture tour of the USA in 1927, there came a group of psychologists who rejected Freud's theory of the id, ego, and super-ego in constant conflict and developed theories that better suited the American mindset.

Freud believed that Americans had sublimated their libidos through religious indoctrination. Religion was indeed a prominent force in the USA, especially fundamentalist protestantism. Americans couldn't lose the "soul" to unconscious, uncontrolled processes. Austrian born psychologist Heinz Hartmann was the first to argue that the ego was the most important aspect of the psyche. He and others, including Erik H Erikson, felt that the ego searched for gratification brought about by sheer learned ability. A minor sense of 'success', such as when a child learns to ride a bike. These new ideas revolved around the idea that the ego operated independently of internal conflicts and strived for these moments of achievement. Essentially; ego was in control.

It was given this backdrop that Abraham Maslow concocted his appalling 'hierarchy of needs' pyramid! All of Maslow's hierarchical needs depend on individual emotional and physical successes. His list of "self-actualized" people reads like a "Who's Who" of the rich elite of the time, including the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt! This self-interested, egocentric model of the psyche led to Carl Rogers developing the "Person-Centred" model of therapy.

The thing is, as a therapy model, it provides the individual with personal goals. To be successful one must be aware of one's own needs and not take on the world's problems. Sounds good doesn't it? It also allows a degree of altruism - but not at the cost of one's own needs! One of the metaphors I've heard in the training of this form of therapy is: "If you were the only one who could row the lifeboat, it's no good you getting out to swim for a potential survivor!" It's obviously the drowning survivor's own efforts that should save him!

So successful is this form of therapy that it's made its way over to Britain. There are now 'person-centred' approaches to education, health and customer services. 'You' are the most important being! We must feed 'your' needs to make 'you' adopt this attitude of "can-do"! It all feels very positive. In fact that's one of the three 'core-conditions' a therapist needs for a successful outcome of person-centred therapy.

These core conditions are: "Unconditional Positive Regard", "Congruence", and a "Non-judgemental Attitude". If we examine these conditions what we soon discover is that they are mutually exclusive! The easiest is the 'non-judgemental attitude'. It is humanly impossible to be non-judgemental! We make judgements all the time and don't even give it a second thought. We judge family, friends, enemies, risk, foodstuff, news items, homes, cars, sports, you name it. Everything has been subjected to some form of judgement! Every single person we meet is judged. Even our parents! Are they in a good mood or bad? Can I get away with this today, or not? It's an automatic response to judge!

Next: 'congruence'. This, in the Rogerian text, means to be 'truly yourself'. Well, if I'm not supposed to judge, how can I be truly 'me'? I judge! The only way I can make sense of this is if I change the meaning of 'non-judgemental' to 'non-negative-judgement'. Which means that whatever my client brings to me, I cannot judge him/her negatively. However, I'm still judging, but in a positive way.

Which brings us to the most important condition; 'unconditional positive regard'. Roughly translated as 'love'. The kind a good parent gives to their offspring. Unconditional love. So, I meet a stranger who has a problem. (For ease of writing only, male.) He tells me he's been having an affair with a younger girl and his wife doesn't know about it. So far, so good. In another life, I can imagine I might be tempted to stray. He also tells me his Christian values prevent him from continuing the affair, but he cannot face being honest with his wife for fear of losing her, all of which is causing great anxiety. I'm with him on this. I don't need to be negative about his religion, even though I'm an atheist, because it's his belief system given to him by his parents and the community he lives in. So all's ok, right now. I'll stay with it. Then he tells me that he finds it difficult to tell the girl it's over. I can understand that. If a relationship has developed then someone's going to get hurt. I press ever so slightly to find out if the girl is from his home community. My thoughts are moving to the possibility that there might be some risk to his marriage if the girl behaves jealously. He tells me she's a pupil at his wife's school! I'm now very quiet! He continues to tell me that his wife runs an infant school! I'm gagging to ask him how old this girl is. But I'm afraid of the answer. He talks about her as if she's an adult, but something tells me he's not giving me the whole story. I remain quiet. Eventually he reaches a point where he tells me that if anyone in the community were to discover their relationship he would be in serious trouble!

I'll leave you to ponder that one! In the meantime I'll ask the question: How much "unconditional positive regard" are you feeling for this guy, right now?

These 'core-conditions' for person-centred counselling are totally unworkable. But they give a sense of something 'positive'. A sense that you're trying to reach your client. When reading what little theory there is behind it, you may be led to believe that it is totally compatible with the 'spiritual' aspect of a person. In reality, it's just about making a person feel good about themselves - whatever the problem.

The negative side to all this nonsense is the perception of people having choices in their lives. We look at our drowning man and say: "You should've learned to swim. You had the opportunity!" Anyone stuck at the bottom of the 'hierarchy of needs' obviously made the wrong choices in life, yes? Because of which they weren't able to build a business, buy a house, become the boss, 'self-actualize'. They obviously blew their chances in some deliberate, self-destructive way, didn't they? And being congruent, not judging negatively and offering them unconditional positive regard you can say: "Never mind fella, better luck next time!" and walk away with the spoils. (Because you wouldn't want to risk drowning in the lower depths of your own hierarchy of needs in case you couldn't row your own boat to safety, eh?)

So there's my answer - Ego psychology based "person-centred" reasoning for not realising the true value of people. Too busy rowing away with a boat full of your stuff!

Cognitive Dissonance? Where does this thinking come from?

In 1927 Sigmund Freud visited the USA on a lecture tour. He came back to Europe vowing never to return saying that America was full of "savages". He seemed preoccupied by the concept of "dollaria", or the intense drive just to make money. He argued that Americans, through religion, had sublimated their 'eros', or sex-drive, and it had manifested itself as "making profit at all costs". Money replaced a natural urge for procreation! He may have had a point.

I've often thought about great sums of money and its 'meaning'. If I were to inherit, earn, or win £1million, it would solve all of my problems. I'd have no debt. I could take early retirement and travel. I could buy a new car. I could afford all the latest gadgets that I so covet. In fact one million pounds would really make my life comfortable. What more could I want? If I had £10million, would I do the same things ten times over? No. But it would mean I had the choice to do all of the above ten times over! But it wouldn't change my life in any discernible way. If I had £100million - then we cease talking about "money". At this level, and some point leading up to it, "money" becomes irrelevant. We're now talking "wealth". Wealth has no connection to 'money'. It has more to do with what wealth brings as opposed to what money brings. We reach a figure where being able to "afford" things never enters the equation. We never need question the "affordability" of anything. What we do question, however, is how do we protect ourselves against those who would want some of our wealth. Wealth brings a sense of power. With £100million plus, I can walk into any restaurant, five star hotel, or even airport in the world - and no-one would ask me to pay! They would assume that "my people" would sort these trivial matters out. I would never have to deal with the messy stuff we call money.

Two things might disturb my peace: Other rich people and governments. Other rich people have - in their power - the resources to take away what's mine. Governments might decide that my wealth should be taken down a bit! So there may be some conflict regarding my power - er, I mean wealth! - between myself and other rich and powerful people! There may be some consolation in knowing that those other wealthy people may suffer the same paranoia. So, many of them tend to stick together. There's safety in numbers, so the saying goes! If enough of us agree, then at least there's one fear alleviated somewhat. But what about governments? In Cyprus, they took up to 60% of residents' savings! That could happen anywhere! So I live with the fear that governments could take away my "money", or more accurately; wealth/power. (Because its not about 'money' at this level, remember?)

Freud's comments referred to wealth creation - not the "almighty dollar". Wealth replaces children. It becomes something to worship, to nurture and to protect. There's a point when one ceases counting their coins, or gold bullion, security bonds, or whatever, and start to 'worry' about how to make it grow and mature! And just watching the number of noughts increase in the 'value' of wealth is not about counting the amounts. Its about watching something grow and age. Something changes in the mind of the wealthy.

A couple of years ago, on British TV, there was a panel show where rich and famous people were asked to guess the price of everyday items on a shopping list. How much is a pint of milk? Or half-a-dozen eggs? Or a loaf of bread? A pair of shoes from Primark? Or a fridge from Argos? None of them got anywhere near a right guess! Ask them what the exchange rate is on the airport bureaux de change for sterling to euro, no idea! None of these things occurred to them because they never deal in cash. Ask them how much they're really worth - mind you own business!! The information that's available in the public domain is fine. But the real net worth is a private matter. It's a bit like me giving out too much information about my kids!

So, when the "lefties" begin talking about poverty and inequality the wealthy don't fully understand. It would be impossible for them to imagine what it must be like to actually pay for something like winter fuel, at the cost of food for a day! Wealthy people, with no knowledge of the price of a week's groceries and the cost of fuel, would not understand that £100 per week is not nearly enough! Not if one has to pay rent and council tax and water bills and clothing for the kids and bus fares and any number of other annoying living expenses that costs MONEY.

So how about those wealthy folk who donate vast sums of money to charity? Surely they have a handle on the realities of life for the ordinary folk below? Well, not really. This is more in line with the peacock's display of having some kind of conscience, but not for 'ordinary' folk. Its about training their minds to feel as though they are a bit altruistic. What they tend to give away are poultry sums comparative to their actual net worth. Its about being seen to care. John Lennon - that great "working class hero" - left England because of the tax system. (Keynesian progressive tax system that meant he would have been in the 90% tax bracket on his earnings). He bemoaned the fact that he was "down to his last million" (in the 70s, so times that by at least eight!) and had to go somewhere where his money wouldn't be taxed so heavily. He went to America! His fortune soon grew again. He spent the rest of his life telling everyone how much he cared! Gary Barlow does much for charity. He performs at events for 'free' in the hope of raising money for the poor and needy. Most of his fortune is housed in "off-shore" accounts to avoid tax. Seemingly unaware that taxation is what helps the poor and needy in the first place! (Well in a properly managed economy, anyway!) Artistes of the pop and rock world sometimes astound me! 'Live Aid' concert managed to raise some $50million+ across both sides of the Atlantic, yet every one of those artistes could have donated that amount and not changed their lifestyles one iota! Bono - that great champion of poverty issues - has his fortune managed 'off-shore' and hasn't paid taxes for years.

Its easy to forget one's roots! The acquisition of wealth is more than "earning" money. It can gather its own momentum. When one can 'swan-around', paying for nothing and having all one's needs and wants met, the whole seductive process can become totally entrancing. They can then tell themselves they're "doing the right thing" for the rest of the world, whilst nurturing their growing wealth!

Respect to (and for) the Professor.....

I've been thinking a lot, recently, about the state of the country and how we got here, how it's affecting us now, and how it'll destroy us in the near future if we don't do something now!

How we got here looks surprisingly simple: Bad banking practice, greed and no regulation or accountability in the financial sector. How long did it take? Around a hundred and fifty years!! It was obviously accelerated during Thatcher's years, but nonetheless, this has been a catastrophe brewing since industrialisation and globalisation. In the words of the (very) old song:-

          "Its the rich what gets the pleasure, its the poor what gets the blame.

           Its the same the whole world over, ain't it all a bloomin' shame!"

Taxes are for poor people! If you have a good accountant, you can be sure that no matter what the tax rate is in your country - you'll never pay it! Whether you've built your business up from scratch, (an extremely rare event!), or you've become a famous sports-person in a high-paying, commercial field, or entertainer whose manager has managed to secure high prices for tickets to your wonderful events, or you've inherited the family fortune, (a far more common phenomenon!),  you don't have to pay taxes anywhere in the world! And you can get helpful advice on how to invest your money, get the best returns and take all the profits "off-shore" paying little, or nothing, in revenue on those returns! Only the working plebs and peasants pay for national security, the NHS, education and the country's infrastructure. We pay and you stay for free! Great deal, yes?

So now you have to figure; what about these people in work you read about who are struggling to make ends meet and having to rely on government handouts and food banks for survival? They're taking up some of that valuable tax revenue that keeps this country safe for us to live in (for free) and must be forced to do more!! Those feckless types who live on those "sink-estates". (I've heard about them. They'll rob you blind, given half a chance!) How can we be sure to make them pay their way? Let's stop their benefits - I mean, tax credits, child benefit, 'top-up' benefits, social security benefits, housing benefits, disability living allowances, carers allowances and JSA, all of which only encourages them to stay 'lazy', don't they? Would you work if you were getting your rent paid and your food subsidised? No way! And they've all got plasma screens, iPhones, holidays in Benidorm and fancy cars, haven't they? I've read that in the Daily Mail - so it must be true. The Daily Mail is the 'voice of the people', isn't it? Or there's that Philpott bloke - didn't he screw the system by having a hundred kids to a harem of feckless women? They must all be doing that! Young women getting pregnant just to get child benefits. Its so obvious! Screwing the system is what they're all doing. Taking away our "hard-earned" cash! Bleeding honest tax payers. (Oh! Wait a minute - I'm not paying any!) Anyway, they have to be encouraged to go to work - or the value of my shares shrink! That could harm the economy - not me, just the economy! I mean, who would invest in a country's output if there weren't any profits to be made? My money's on Bangladesh! Workers there are happy to get something in their wage-packets, and they don't seem to complain as much as these whining "lefties" in this country! They don't know how lucky they are to be living in one of the richest country's in the world! Poverty - they don't know the meaning of the word! I'll bet they'd be more encouraged if we told them that the country's half-full of foreigners! And most of them are terrorists! Hmmm....!

Perhaps we could fudge the figures to make it look like this country's over-populated by immigrants! If we did that then they wouldn't be so concerned about the tax losses from my overseas accounts and investments, would they? That would encourage the ultra-right to shout their mouths off and cause enough of a stink for those feckless, uneducated slum-dwellers to focus on beating the crap out of foreigners! What a brilliant idea! Or better still - whilst we hide away somewhere safe and neutral, we could start a war! Just think of the investment opportunities then! No, maybe that's going a bit too far.......

http://www.poverty.ac.uk/report-developing-countries-wealth/super-rich-could-end-poverty-four-times-over

(Incidentally,  The Professor to whom I've "repected" is Prof. Richard Wolff - look him up!)

Fair Trade? Only If You're Rich....

More political ranting, I'm afraid!

Y'know, a lot of people believe in 'conspiracy theories'. Many sound totally absurd: 'Shape-shifting lizards', the 'Illuminate', the Anti-Christ bringing together the "One World Government", even the 'Bildeberg Group'. They know something is terribly wrong, but they can't quite put their fingers on what is actually wrong. They just know there's a conspiracy. Each try to explain it in a way that suits their passions. And each get publicly ridiculed and bamboozled. What's wrong is Capitalism. More precisely; the corporate dollar.

Neoliberal Americans are the force behind all that's wrong with the world! Upset their apple-cart and you face the full force of American aggression, whether you're friend or foe! They don't like "American Interests" being disturbed, even if the country 'disturbing' their interests faces bankruptcy! Starving millions across the world are of little concern to these corporate monsters who value cash more than human life.

The banking crisis baffled us all. I blamed Thatcher for deregulating the financial sector and allowing these greedy imbeciles free reign over the economy. In many ways I was right to be concerned. Ever since her tenure, we've lost our manufacturing base, we've lost our nationalised industries, we're losing our Royal Mail service and our NHS to private ownership. And, more importantly, we're losing our sense of social pride! Communities have been desecrated, families split, and constant media pressures to divide the whole of society by creating tensions that were only mildly worrying. Young blaming the old, old blaming the young, Muslims portrayed as potential terrorists, unemployed portrayed as 'benefit scroungers', pensioners, infirm and ill seen as an unnecessary 'burden'. We're all ready to kill someone for the mess we're in! But the mess we're in was created purely by greed. British and American greed.

It seems this problem has persisted for more than a hundred years and was started with the first flushes of industrial globalisation. Tax evasion and avoidance. (Apparently, there's a difference: Evasion is illegal, avoidance is legal!) The rich - and especially, but not limited to, the American rich - have found ways of avoiding tax in any country on the globe simply by claiming that they've paid their taxes elsewhere! It seems strange to me but, apparently, the best country in the world for tax avoidance (and evasion) purposes is not the Cayman Islands, or Switzerland, or the Channel Islands - its Britain! The City of London is THE place to offload your tax burden. We have such complex webs of deceit around the globe that we can attract money from global corporate giants, the USA, Russia, and any other criminal leviathan or country that wishes to hide huge sums of money from the prying eyes of governments who might have the audacity to claim some legitimate revenues from their ill-gotten gains! The City of London possesses its own internal governing body and appears to be above the law of ANY land! The "square mile" boasts an historical claim to this 'honour' dating back to William the Conqueror, apparently. Rather like the Vatican, it can claim an independence from the government yet influence government policy as it so desires. From private and shadow banking systems, the City has accrued a massive US$5.5 trillion! Untouchable!

As private banks suck in monies from all and sundry, they lend money which isn't really there. Then they discover that money is moved in great swathes, at a constant and rapid rate, and isn't available when governments actually need it! So WE all fill the gaps with "austerity" measures to ensure the country stays afloat. But it was never our problem in the first place! The IMF, OECD and other global financial "police" just shrug their shoulders and claim any 'internal' problem lies with the over-stretched mortgage borrowers and credit-card holders who are to blame. Rubbish!

Who was it said: "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely"? We need to wake up.

Politics... I Wanted To Avoid!!

I had hoped not to go too far into my personal politics when writing this blog. I thought it was controversial enough to talk about atheism! I was going to try to reflect life from my perspective only, basing it on personal experiences, and avoiding my general views on politics. However....

I am left-wing. In fact, during the seventies I was a card-carrying Marxist. But from the eighties, and from Maggie Thatcher's hatchet job of the country's assetts, I gradually gave up the fight. As did many other unionists and left-wing radicals. We were beaten. There were just too many right-wing rich people with a lot of money and power. And, for a while, it did seem as though most of us were doing pretty well out of these radical, neo-liberal policies. My father, another left-winger, actually bought shares in 'British Gas', as a nest-egg for the future. I bought a house! The 'Right-To-Buy' programme seemed to offer a chance of some upward social mobilty. Then it all went tits up! My dad had to sell his shares, I had to remortgage and the interest rates sky-rocketed. From boom to bust in six years! We struggled through and have managed - just about - to hold on to our property and get through the first of these "recessions". Then again in the nineties, another "recession". And now - yep! - another "recession"! And now we're struggling even more. The confidence trick has been revealed.

Working-classes can only afford to buy houses IF there is work. If work disappears, there's no money to pay the mortgage-lender back. So your house can be repossessed and a new owner, buying it at a discount, can add it to his/her porfolio and rent it out! The initial reasoning behind the 'Right-To-Buy' scheme was to prevent working men and women from striking. It's easier to negotiate rent arrears than a missed mortgage payment, or two! Following this scheme was a series of legisltaive attacks on unions. Now, unions suffer more legislative controls in Britain than anywhere else in the world! Some of them infringe Human Rights Laws!

So we've entered another "recession". Many people are losing their homes because of lack of work, or a decent living wage. Most people in poverty in this country are NOT benefit "scroungers" but people IN WORK!!

So what's going on? Workers losing their homes? Their cars? (Sometimes their only means of transport to and from their place of work!) They're having to pay for medical care, dental care, eye care, and ambulance call-outs? In BRITAIN? The birthplace of the "cradle-to-grave" NHS care system? "Too costly" says this unelected government. What?

Here's the lie I hated the most - "We're in this together!" How that rankles me! The richest in this country have incerased their wealth by more than £78 billion pounds!! INCREASED their wealth - in a "recession"! Notice I keep placing the word "recession" in quotes? That's because there IS NO RECESSION!! There never was, nor has there ever been one! All that word means is that the rich elite want to find more ways of screwing you and me!! Cameron and Clegg (both determined liars!) spelt out the "fact" that we had "Maxed out our credit card" as a nation! What? What credit card? The banks that had payed off a load of wasters and drained the coffers then began to collapse. Here's a funny thing - "we", or should I say "the government", shored-up the banks with several billion pounds of "borrowed" money. Where did they borrow this money from? The very banks that had "colapsed"! They "owe" us the money we "borrowed" from them! How does that work?!

Now we're determined to get people "back into work". The infirm and disabled. The so-called benefit "scroungers". WHAT WORK? Housing benefit cut from the most vulnerable in our society. The "bedroom tax"! They're screwing you and me.

I've finished my rant for today - but there will be more!!

What Goes On In Those Heads?

I've been reading some serious verbal diarrhoea lately! Some people  have heads full of nonsense and believe it all to make perfect sense! I believe the term is cognitive dissonance. Holding two, or more, opposing views and (somehow) reconciling the differences. People who hold religious views argue that atheists have been 'brainwashed' by science which is "obviously the work of the Devil!" This apparent deception doesn't allow us access to the "truth" of the existence of 'God'. No! All that's happened is the acquisition of information that our brains have evolved to make sense of has shown overwhelmingly that facts speak louder than fantasy.

I, and many others, have stated that the only reason for a belief in an omnipotent deity, in this day and age, is to reassure them that they are going to live forever. Christians and Muslims alike (in many ways!), all hold the nonsensical belief that they have 'souls' that are eternal. And even more weirdly that these souls are the exact copies of themselves as people! What? Forget all the arguments about creationism verses evolution, or of morals verses religious values, or of history verses the Bible/Q'uran, or whatever, that's all hedgerow and scrub. The belief in an everlasting life is all that matters.

I'm going to recreate a thought experiment I've used elsewhere to try and dispel the idea of "eternity".

First a test of your visual imagination:

Imagine a room so dark you cannot see your hand in front of your face. I mean so black and devoid of light you can almost feel it. Now imagine that the only light you can see is a single tiny drop of luminous paint on the end of a needle. Nothing else. The rest of the space around you could be as vast as you need it to be. It could be twice the size of an aircraft hangar where sound doesn't reverbarate, but the only light source, the only thing you see, is that one miniscule drop of luminous paint. Try to keep that image.

Now, imagine yourself "dead" in the "spiritual" sense. That is; your "soul" has passed on through this Earthly veil. Whilst you're whistling hymns and telling god how wonderful he is, you come across a human brain. You remember that someone, somewhere told you that a brain consists of up to one hundred billion neurons. So you decide to count them! How long would it take you? I'm not going to be too accurate here, but my guess is around three thousand, two hundred years plus! But that doesn't matter because you now have "eternity". Now let's say that in each single cell you discover a brand new idea. One never before been used, or mentioned in life. You might think to yourself; 'I wonder if that's a good, or bad idea?' So you try these ideas out. One by one. You might even combine some to make even newer thoughts and ideas. Some may take a few seconds, some may take weeks, but you persevere. A conservative guess at a time-scale to achieve this small task might be ten million years, given that you're dealing with potentially one hundred billion plus new ideas! How many generations of new souls would be coming to heaven, I wonder? Around three hundred thousand at a rough guess! (Hope there's room in heaven!) Can you imagine how much you'd know? Everything there is to know! Knowledge must end. So now you can go off somewhere into infinite space and create your own universe. Within it, you can create your own planet that supports life and have these unfortunates worship you! You can make your own hell for those who "deny" you and you can curse them for their "sin of ignorance"! Hey - that means you would soon know as much as god! It might even mean that you have the time to become god! How wonderful! You could make universes just like this one over and over and over again. Each one taking four billion years or so to mature. You could make millions of them. Trillions of years could pass and think of all those souls you'd have to worship you. 

Lets return to the image I set you earlier. One tiny speck of luminous paint in a blackened room. Even after you've learned everything "god" knows, and built and destroyed trillions of universes, that dim speck of light has done nothing to brighten up "eternity"! It never gets filled. It is endless and by its very nature; pointless! Now if that single speck of light represents all the time its taken you to become god, how much smaller must it be to represent your life-span? 

Eternity makes this life pointless! I mean, what can we possibly learn in the short spell we have on this planet that we can't learn in eternity? If all god/allah (or whoever) wants is for us to worship him, why doesn't he allow us to do that in eternity? I'm sure, given an eternity, I could learn to love anything!

The only eternity there REALLY is is death. Once you're dead you never return! So make what you can of this life. It's all we've got.