Interesting David Malone piece

nexus · Post by **nexus** » 21 Nov 2013, 09:27

David Malone, documentary maker and blogger has posted an interesting piece:

The New World Order – Part 1. The Betrayal of the Nation
By Golem XIV on November 17, 2013 in latest

In every country I can think of, the sovereignty and wealth of the Nation, which was once the embodiment of the power and will of the people, is being butchered and sold to the highest bidder. Everywhere, the Nation and the people within it, are under attack. Not from without by terrorists but from within. Because in every country the people who run the State have largely decided they no longer wish to serve the people but prefer instead to serve the interests of a Global Over-Class.

Of course we are not encouraged to see this clearly or if we do, certainly not to speak of it to others. And many of those we might try to talk to, do not want to hear.

Many of us prefer instead to find what warmth we can in the false and threadbare beliefs fed to us by the quisling elite of the State and their close friends and allies in a rigged and corrupted ‘free’ market. Together they tell us that whole functions of our nation which we built and treasure, are no longer viable because they are at odds with the ‘realities’ of a global economy. The more ideological of them proclaim that the state, whenever and wherever it tries to do good, will always and by necessity do harm. The more ‘realist’ among them tell us that once inalienable liberties, must now be curtailed or suspended in the name of defending the ‘nation’ from outside enemies. And yet I want to argue it is now, not ever us or the nation that is being defended or empowered. It is always and everywhere a small elite who own and control both the State and the Markets who are being defended.

In my view, we are, in most industrialized countries, watching the machinery of the State being used to betray the Nation in favour of global finance and the elite who own it. It is a familiar betrayal in the third world. One we have all watched with sordid complacently as the wealth of nation after nation is gutted for the benefit of the few. The disease is now with us.

I want to make it clear, as I have before, that I am neither libertarian nor anarchist and therefore have no ideological distrust of the State. In my opinion, there have been times and places, when the machinery of the State did animate and represent some of the wishes of the at least some of the people – of the Nation. There have been instances when the State was, in many, though certainly not in all ways, the means by which the great ideal, of government of the people, by the people, for the people, was made real. The creation of the National Health Service in Great Britain is one shining example.

I think that great ideal of government by and for the people is being butchered – for profit. The Nation-State is dying, because any given arrangement of power can be corrupted and will be, by those who benefit from it most – those who hold its powers – in this case the powers of the State - IF people cringingly let them. And that it what we are doing.

We are allowing the elite of the State, to convince us that we are ‘all in it together’, and to claim that our interests and their interests are still one and the same. But they are not. And we must come to see this clearly – and soon. As long as we deny the truth, that they are not standing ‘with us’, and do not have our best interests at heart – until we can face these self evident but chilling truths, then we are never going to see them for what they have become nor see their actions for what they are.

I think it is critical that we disentangle in our minds the State and the interests of those who control it, from those of what I am calling the Nation. The State and the Nation are not the same. They are, in fact, at war.

continues here: http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2013/11/the-n ... he-nation/

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 21 Nov 2013, 11:15

Good piece and well put (apart from numerous spelling mistakes and excessive capitalisation

). The politicians who think fracking is preferable to any alternatives (or preferable to clean water for that matter!) are a good case in point.

So long as the bread and circuses blind ordinary josephines and joes, the first three paragraphs will continue to be true.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 21 Nov 2013, 11:29

Nexus, did you ever take the test?

odaeio · Post by **odaeio** » 21 Nov 2013, 12:56

Hey, I love that test - surprisingly, I showed up nearly smack bang in the middle of the green square, (bottom left). Now, could one of you IT bof's nick the software and lets revise the questions? I imagine a horizontal "Left/Right" line that's "slave/sheeple", (left) to "stuff the system", (right), and a vertical axis "totally selfish", (bottom) to "totally altruistic", (top). I wonder how many of the general population, (in the U.K. anyway), would end up in the bottom left corner?

Questions could be...like......

"If you pass a starving man holding a gold bar after just buying a big mac, would you share your meal without expecting reward, or exchange it for all his gold?"

Or..."It is RIGHT that, by law, you must pay a private flood insurance company if you have no option but to live by the river" - "agree", "disagree" etc.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 21 Nov 2013, 13:36

I just did this test again. I've gone even more left (-8.7) in the last few years in reaction to the recent events, and today I am feeling libertarian as well.

I think that I feeling a strong discord between my ideals (left liberal) ,my instincts (small c conservative), my convictions (green) , my education (academic elite) , my economic position ( property holding) and my attitude to work (lazy bastard).

There is a district council by election our ward today.

The choice is Tory/Labour/Lib/UKIP. For the first time ever I really can't face voting.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 21 Nov 2013, 14:19

PS_RalphW wrote:The choice is Tory/Labour/Lib/UKIP. For the first time ever I really can't face voting.

Gah. Supermarket politics. I feel sorry for you.

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 21 Nov 2013, 14:19

PS_RalphW wrote: For the first time ever I really can't face voting.

Welcome to Russell Brand's world.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 21 Nov 2013, 14:27

PS_RalphW wrote:I just did this test again. I've gone even more left (-8.7) in the last few years in reaction to the recent events, and today I am feeling libertarian as well.

If only voting were based upon the results of the test.

Instead, you're offered a "choice", none of which come anywhere near coinciding with your ideals. Based upon your score, it's not won't vote, it's can't.

Ireland has elections based upon preferences, so you can choose to 'vote' someone to the bottom. It still doesn't help if there's no sympathetic candidate fielded but at least there's an ability to almost 'spoil' your vote yet still participate, by giving no-hopers high preferences.

Proportional representation is criticised for producing weak government. Lordy lordy, look where 'strong' governments have got us.

nexus · Post by **nexus** » 21 Nov 2013, 16:11

emordnilap wrote:Nexus, did you ever take the test?

.... just did it- I'm somewhere south west of the Dalai Lama

Left - Right = -9.25
Social libertarian - Authoritarian = -6.2

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 21 Nov 2013, 18:06

Who is Alexis Tsipras? Looks as if I should get to know him

nexus · Post by **nexus** » 21 Nov 2013, 19:00

IIRC leader of the left wing Greek party Sryiza, they did really well in the last elections and surprised even themselves.

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 21 Nov 2013, 19:40

nexus wrote:
emordnilap wrote:Nexus, did you ever take the test?
.... just did it- I'm somewhere south west of the Dalai Lama

Left - Right = -9.25
Social libertarian - Authoritarian = -6.2

Same here. I think I might be appropriately defined as Ghandi with a gun or, more technically, an Anarcho-Syndicalist, whatever the bloody hell that means.

Economic Left/Right: -9.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.92

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 21 Nov 2013, 22:29

Economic Left/Right: -7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.00

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 22 Nov 2013, 01:42

UndercoverElephant wrote:Economic Left/Right: -7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.00

Something I have noticed, UE, is that in recent years, for fairly obvious reasons I suppose, I have veered significantly to the left. I was a bit of a leftish teenager as a consequence of growing up in a poor household the North East in the mid 60s to mid 80s, but without any deep political or philosophical conviction. As I entered adulthood, it waned. Not as a consequence of actively moving to the right, but more out of apathy and disinterest. However, as I have really thought about stuff in the last decade or so, I look back over that decade and realize I have become seriously radicalised.

Capitalism will simply not work in the storm to come. based, as it is, on an endless exploitation of the environment. It doesn't actually matter what anyone thinks about it. IT WONT WORK. As the pie gets smaller, we either share it out equitably, or there will be endless conflict where we drag ourselves and the rest of life to hell. No matter how difficult or how implausible a socialist egalitarian society may be to enact, we have to try. It is our only hope of getting through what is to come.

woodburner · Post by **woodburner** » 22 Nov 2013, 05:40

How did they get Robert Mugabe to take the test?