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 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.
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