Tunisia, Egypt, all you who are fighting for ‘democracy’ -
Please know exactly what you are fighting for.
You will of course be wrong, and power doesn’t like to admit when it’s wrong. Like despotism, democracy can be enlightened or benighted. However, I believe that in general democracy allows more debate and progress than despotism because there are so very few enlightened despots. The mediocrity and inefficiency of the crowd is preferable to a sadistic dominion.
An afterthought for British readers:
Is it not striking how little has been made of the nature of the recent tax changes? The rich are being taxed more to pay for the poor, yet because this doesn’t fit into the grand narrative of Tory ideology and policy it is not trumpeted. One might expect party members to be hushed on the subject of wealth-redistribution, but why might the press do likewise? Wouldn’t sections of the press make more of this were it a Labour government initiative?
Just a thought.
Of course, it’s just a disguised and unavoidable reversal anyway:
They took too much away with one hand and now give some back with the other, making a show of generosity and ‘fairness’.
My point, and how this relates to the topic: representative democracy is largely a sideshow that disgusies an establishment network which gets on with business-as-usual regardless of the changing figureheads. The politicians and media moguls share more ideas and interests in common with each other than with the public. Britain is not taking care to maintain a decent minimum living-standard because of the ideological fervour and human compassion of its leaders and administrators; these social safeguards are in place for strategic reasons – to enable business as usual.
The social reformers who get a place within the establishment are subsumed into a wealth-machine, not a living, caring society. The living, caring society hasn’t happened yet in the modern world. But it still makes a difference, don’t despair – and no doubt there are wonderful possibilities waiting to be realised.
Tags: corruption, Egypt, Manifesto, Peter Oborne, revolution, Tunisia
October 31, 2011 at 2:37 am |
How’s your novel coming along?
November 15, 2011 at 6:57 pm |
Oh hello Pearl! This is a fossilised blog; I only logged on to have another look at the Peter Oborne vid. I didn’t get any notification of your post; I didn’t ignore you.
I have quite a lot on just now but am still working on a writing project or two. That’s being kinda loose with the term ‘working on’, I must admit. Have done a couple of little things though! The novel kept swelling and swelling in concept; it’s not abandoned but seems like too much to take on at the moment – in fact, I think I would want to write some less ambitious stuff first even if for no other reason than to gain in confidence.
I stopped blogging because the idea was that I would try to write a post per day on average – this was at a time when I could fit this in and wanted something to keep my skills sharp. Latterly I began to feel I was spouting ill-considered views just for the sake of saying something, so chose to shut up.
How silly that WordPress’s spellchecker underlines, ‘blog’, ‘WordPress’, and ‘spellchecker’…
If I ever start blogging again it will probably be a new blog without a title designed to commit me to daily posts like the title of this one. No kidding, I am busy as hell these days.
But I still think it’s a great hobby, and I think I got a lot out of it… even if some posts elicit actual shudders looking back.
May 26, 2011 at 8:11 am |
Democracy is a myth. Truly representative democracy went to ideological purgatory some time around the end of the Peloponnesian war. Love the blog. Keep up the good work.
May 26, 2011 at 7:44 pm |
Thanks for the props! This is a fossilized blog now but I leave it up for anyone who might trip over it and get entertained/informed, or better still become a fan of one of my faves such as Adam Curtis. Do watch his latest, which began on Monday (can catch it on BBC iPlayer) and next broadcasts Mon 30th, 9pm, BBC2.
February 10, 2011 at 8:30 pm |
By the look of things we’re overdue the same sort of events as Egypt.
You’re right about the hypocrasy of the attitudes with the wars abroad. Terrible things are being done, but they are out of sight and out of mind. It becomes “okay” to people for these things to happen every day because…they happen there all the time now. Two people get shot in London and it is front page news. Helicopters spray death over the cities there and you don’t hear about it unless there is a leak.
What really angers me and chills me at the same time are the people who blame the victims in these things by saying they or their kids shouldn’t be in a “warzone” – kind of hard when a whole city or country is occupied! These are the kind of callous excuses used by conquerers and monsters of the past, including the most famous ones. I don’t expect people to shed a tear for every life as if it was their own child, but to relish the death and excuse pointless murder is not right and seems cracked in the head.
February 11, 2011 at 2:58 am |
Don’t be a human shield! Bad! Stop it right now!
February 3, 2011 at 3:37 pm |
The video is loading for me.
February 3, 2011 at 3:36 pm |
…this disturbing. The “what you are fighting for” statement is even worse for those with friends and family in the armed forces. These things hit those who are fighting in riots and those who are fighting under their flag.
February 5, 2011 at 2:57 pm |
Did a bug cut your comment short? I don’t understand.
February 2, 2011 at 4:41 pm |
good to hear from you. I’m on a knife edge over this. My heart says the people will triumph. My head says ….America, Israel, the remaining Arab despots will rather see something considerably less than a revolution.
No doubt America and others in the West are worrying that if they lose influence China will step in.
February 2, 2011 at 6:59 pm |
Did you see the video? It didn’t work properly at first for some reason. It’s worth watching though; it’s the kind of candid inside perspective that news journalists usually have to censor.
I think that the middle-east has long, long had a strong intellectual base and that the human resources exist to create a workable and dignifying constitution wherever people are ready to throw off dictators.
This is why the civil service class in Orwell’s 1984 are afforded small extra privileges and higher status than the proles: it’s dangerous to repress educated people, but without educated people you can’t contend with the West. Countries like Egypt have been walking a tightrope and the revolution should have surprised no one.
If the Coalition attempted to visit upon Brits one tenth of the misery and injustice of a Mubarak or a Saddam there’d be revolution – not because we’re braver or anything like that but because we have higher expectations and don’t see ourselves as powerless serfs. They’d have to go to the extreme and bring out guns and torture-chambers, and then we’d cease to be an Information Age nation.
I don’t think China can speak to them at all – values are too different.