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steerpikelet's recent New Statesmen blogpost about the Dec 9th protests is amazing. I wish I were this eloquent, but as I'm not, I reproduce it here for your reading pleasure - because I don't think there's a word in it I wouldn't be happy to have written myself:
Joe Chapman
10 December 2010 at 17:59
I think many people in these comments do not appear to understand the politics of this country or its history.
The previous Labour Government was not socialist. Like the Tory governments before it, it was neo-liberal.
Since the times of Thatcher the people of this country have had their aspirations preyed upon in order that the minority of people with a disproportionate amount of the wealth and power can gain more wealth and more power.
We have been pacified by being given the idea that we can acheive our aspirations by getting into debt and living beyond our means.
This has had a knock on effect right the way through society both nationally and globally. The imbalance and divide between rich and poor has increased and most of us have not realised this because we have lived our lives on credit. Our relative wealth (relative to how things were before the 1980s) has been an illusion.
We have allowed our society, our country and our government to be ruled by big business and making a profit.
Our manufacturing industries have been destroyed. Small businesses have been destroyed by big business such as Tesco who pay farmers less for a pint of milk than it costs the farmers to produce. Farmers have quite literally committed suicide as a result.
We have been scared into allowing governments to spend billions of pounds of our money on a stockpile of 200+ nuclear warheads purchased from Lockheed Martin of USA. Even if you still believe we need a nuclear deterrent how many nuclear warheads do you think it takes to wipe out millions, potentially billions of people or put off a mad man from bombing us?
Our police force should be there to protect us in the streets but is rarely there. Instead we have glorified civilians with little power called PCSOs who also aren't there much of the time. People get stabbed, robbed and then right down to the small issues which breed inconsideration in society such as cycling on the pavement or spitting which are now tolerated, ignored or even laughed at by the police. Instead the police are only seen out in force when they are protecting the property of big businesses owned by companies like Vodafone who potentially owe us billions in tax or other tax dodgers such as Philip Green. Instead of protecting us in the streets the police are set upon us to protect a government which is itself in the pockets of big business.
Because we've all lapped up consumerism and ignored basic manners and consideration for each other we have allowed this creeping rot to set it. Then when we notice it instead of sacrifing things, getting together and taking action against it on the whole we've just moaned about how politicians are all the same, we've been apathetic and not bothered to vote or voted for the same people who have manipulated us all along.
People have forgotten that there is a direct correlation between who you vote for (or not voting at all) and the state of the country both locally and nationally.
We occassionally complain about the main 2 or 3 parties being all the same yet don't look around or past that.
Politics and government is run by big business. The main parties are funded by the rich. The Tories spent £400,000 on a single billboard advertisement in the run up to the election. Imagine what your local school or hospital (if you've still got one) could have done with that money. It's obscene.
Because the main parties are all about money and big business it means that we have a government that is run for big business instead of for the people who are supposed to have elected it and whom the government is supposed to represent.
People who spend their time pointing out violence amongst protesters are missing the point. This country and our albeit fragile democracy was not founded by people who complied with the establishment all of the time. Sometimes there comes a point when people are pushed too far. When we are told that we are all in this together by people who can afford to pay someone to clear the snow and ice off their drives whilst the local council is bled dry and people with their own jobs to do are expected to go out and do it as part of the Big Society.
All the time this is happening our top companies are still making record profits for what is really a handful of shareholders. Even the majority of shareholders are just there as padding, they are gambling and keeping the system afloat for the rich.
After so many years of pessimism, moaning and apathy we ended up with a generation or two that knew no different. What a breath of fresh air it is to find out that out of that generation a new wave of students, young people and others have the balls to question, challenge and take action even when the risks to themselves are so great. They could have just stayed at home and watched the X Factor as we expected them to do so.
I am so pleased and proud that they didn't stay at home and be the kind of vacuous, self serving inviduals that hang around newspaper websites and the like moaning about other people standing up for what they believe in whilst offering little or nothing constructive.
This is just the beginning, I am not a student, I don't consider myself to be a young person anymore, I do not condone violence but I will stand up for what I believe is right and I will not be put off by bully boy tactics from this government using the police to oppress the people and justify the rancid, selfish ideology of the few.
steerpikelet's recent New Statesmen blogpost about the Dec 9th protests is amazing. I wish I were this eloquent, but as I'm not, I reproduce it here for your reading pleasure - because I don't think there's a word in it I wouldn't be happy to have written myself:Joe Chapman
10 December 2010 at 17:59
I think many people in these comments do not appear to understand the politics of this country or its history.
The previous Labour Government was not socialist. Like the Tory governments before it, it was neo-liberal.
Since the times of Thatcher the people of this country have had their aspirations preyed upon in order that the minority of people with a disproportionate amount of the wealth and power can gain more wealth and more power.
We have been pacified by being given the idea that we can acheive our aspirations by getting into debt and living beyond our means.
This has had a knock on effect right the way through society both nationally and globally. The imbalance and divide between rich and poor has increased and most of us have not realised this because we have lived our lives on credit. Our relative wealth (relative to how things were before the 1980s) has been an illusion.
We have allowed our society, our country and our government to be ruled by big business and making a profit.
Our manufacturing industries have been destroyed. Small businesses have been destroyed by big business such as Tesco who pay farmers less for a pint of milk than it costs the farmers to produce. Farmers have quite literally committed suicide as a result.
We have been scared into allowing governments to spend billions of pounds of our money on a stockpile of 200+ nuclear warheads purchased from Lockheed Martin of USA. Even if you still believe we need a nuclear deterrent how many nuclear warheads do you think it takes to wipe out millions, potentially billions of people or put off a mad man from bombing us?
Our police force should be there to protect us in the streets but is rarely there. Instead we have glorified civilians with little power called PCSOs who also aren't there much of the time. People get stabbed, robbed and then right down to the small issues which breed inconsideration in society such as cycling on the pavement or spitting which are now tolerated, ignored or even laughed at by the police. Instead the police are only seen out in force when they are protecting the property of big businesses owned by companies like Vodafone who potentially owe us billions in tax or other tax dodgers such as Philip Green. Instead of protecting us in the streets the police are set upon us to protect a government which is itself in the pockets of big business.
Because we've all lapped up consumerism and ignored basic manners and consideration for each other we have allowed this creeping rot to set it. Then when we notice it instead of sacrifing things, getting together and taking action against it on the whole we've just moaned about how politicians are all the same, we've been apathetic and not bothered to vote or voted for the same people who have manipulated us all along.
People have forgotten that there is a direct correlation between who you vote for (or not voting at all) and the state of the country both locally and nationally.
We occassionally complain about the main 2 or 3 parties being all the same yet don't look around or past that.
Politics and government is run by big business. The main parties are funded by the rich. The Tories spent £400,000 on a single billboard advertisement in the run up to the election. Imagine what your local school or hospital (if you've still got one) could have done with that money. It's obscene.
Because the main parties are all about money and big business it means that we have a government that is run for big business instead of for the people who are supposed to have elected it and whom the government is supposed to represent.
People who spend their time pointing out violence amongst protesters are missing the point. This country and our albeit fragile democracy was not founded by people who complied with the establishment all of the time. Sometimes there comes a point when people are pushed too far. When we are told that we are all in this together by people who can afford to pay someone to clear the snow and ice off their drives whilst the local council is bled dry and people with their own jobs to do are expected to go out and do it as part of the Big Society.
All the time this is happening our top companies are still making record profits for what is really a handful of shareholders. Even the majority of shareholders are just there as padding, they are gambling and keeping the system afloat for the rich.
After so many years of pessimism, moaning and apathy we ended up with a generation or two that knew no different. What a breath of fresh air it is to find out that out of that generation a new wave of students, young people and others have the balls to question, challenge and take action even when the risks to themselves are so great. They could have just stayed at home and watched the X Factor as we expected them to do so.
I am so pleased and proud that they didn't stay at home and be the kind of vacuous, self serving inviduals that hang around newspaper websites and the like moaning about other people standing up for what they believe in whilst offering little or nothing constructive.
This is just the beginning, I am not a student, I don't consider myself to be a young person anymore, I do not condone violence but I will stand up for what I believe is right and I will not be put off by bully boy tactics from this government using the police to oppress the people and justify the rancid, selfish ideology of the few.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2010-12-11 08:58 am (UTC)(link)I wish more people had ANSWERS or ideas to make things better. We know it's all shit. But what can be done about it is the thing that really needs working on.
Do you have any ideas?
no subject