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566 thoughts on “A Good Idea

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  • Herbie

    There’s been some discussion of various political approaches recently in the comments section.

    Here’s an article from the Conservative writer, Peter Hitchens, which is very much at odds with the neocon agenda:

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38041.htm

    You’ll see similar articles from Peter Oborne, another Conservative.

    I’ve posted concordant views from ex Australian Conservative PM, Malcolm Fraser, and you’ll hear Conservatives voicing the same anti-neocon view time and time again.

    You’ll regularly see such articles from Paul Craig Roberts, an American Conservative, as well.

    The old Left is a critic of neoconism, whilst the neo Left is itself neocon in actuality.

    It’s not unimportant how these factions line up.

    You’ve got the paleo Conservatives and paleo Left now lining up to make similar criticisms of neoconism. That division is clear as day.

    We know the genesis and subsequent history of Conservatism and Socialism, but few are clued up on where neoconism comes from and where it is going and why it currently seems so dominant.

    Strange.

  • Ba'al Zevul (I'd Like to Teach the World to Snig (sic))

    Good point, Herbie. The advance of neoconservatism behind a palaeoconservative or palaeosocialist front is indeed insidious. And one of its political strengths – it can masquerade as the centre ground. Many of its US originators were, incidentally, failed leftists who realised they weren’t going to make much money if they had principles. It’s no accident that both Blair and Gove – neither had unduly rich or privileged backgrounds – are slavish admirers of American neos.

  • Herbie

    “Many of its US originators were, incidentally, failed leftists who realised they weren’t going to make much money if they had principles”

    Indeed Ba’al, mostly or all Trots. As Clark recently pointed out, the radical left as in radical protestantism is something of a fissionable atomising force. This of course is a fundamental property of analysis itself.

    We used to lament at how they always fought one with the other and could never agree on anything.

    But now they’ve all joined together in a dangerously explosive way.

  • Ba'al Zevul (I'd Like to Teach the World to Snig (sic))

    Point to ponder –

    “Political rights do not originate in parliaments; they are, rather, forced upon parliaments from without. And even their enactment into law has for a long time been no guarantee of their security. Just as the employers always try to nullify every concession they had made to labour as soon as opportunity offered, as soon as any signs of weakness were observable in the workers’ organisations, so governments also are always inclined to restrict or to abrogate completely rights and freedoms that have been achieved if they imagine that the people will put up no resistance. Even in those countries where such things as freedom of the press, right of assembly, right of combination, and the like have long existed, governments are constantly trying to restrict those rights or to reinterpret them by juridical hair-splitting. Political rights do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the violent resistance of the populace . Where this is not the case, there is no help in any parliamentary Opposition or any Platonic appeals to the constitution.”

    — Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory & Practice, 1947

  • fred

    But unfortunately the people are far too busy working every hour God sends to earn money they don’t need so they can go into debt buying things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like to worry about things like freedom.

    They may grumble about oil or grumble about nuclear but so long as when they pull onto the forecourt the pump isn’t empty and so long as when they flick that switch a light comes on the politicians are safe as how many rights they take away.

  • guano

    PaleoTories will eventually decompose and turn into oil and calcium. I can’t see any other use for them. It was a very dangerous experiment conducted by Nick Clegg and Paddy Ashdown to inject live DNA into the fossilised archived material from Thatcherite pre-history and form a re-construction of this antediluvian life form.

    Neandercons, born-again-colonial-why-did-we-stop-stealing-wealth-from-other-countries, on the other hand, are very much alive and kicking, including those foreign politicians that see benefit for themselves in the colonial process. What is lacking is humans.

  • Herbie

    This article/interview neatly explains the global political dynamics.

    “In fact, both, the interests of Europe and that of Russia, lie in a common economic plan for the development of the whole area. This is what was proposed by Putin and by several leaders such as former German chancellors Helmut Kohl and Gerhard Schroeder. This is exactly what had to be prevented with the Victoria Nuland $5 billion ‘to help democracy.’ And now, despite all the noises and rhetoric, this is the most obvious direction to go.

    The most important point to understand is that this war and looting policy is not in the interest of the Europeans or even of the Americans.

    This is the big secret that now cannot be covered anymore. The governments of the US and the European countries are NOT independent entities, they are not sovereign. They do not have the will or even the ability to act on behalf of their people. They are controlled by powerful banking interests. They have been taken over by two financial centers that do not care for the real economy. They pursue only speculation and looting.”

    The key really is how to defeat neoconism.

    1. The Russians create alliance for new global financial system.

    Difficult, dicey and long.

    2. The Germans, who still have a real economy, act on that interest.

    Short and sweet.

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-ukraine-crisis-and-vladimir-putin-a-new-financial-system-free-from-wall-street-and-the-city-of-london/5374785

    C’mon Germany, now’s your big chance…

  • Ba'al Zevul (I'd Like to Teach the World to Snig (sic))

    Confusion of irreducible needs and frivolous wants is central to this, Fred. As is the perception of what constitutes happiness, or, better contentment. If I had been Gove, I would have handed every school a copy of ‘Candide’, not the KJ Bible. Anonymously, with a social media PR campaign purporting to discourage kids from reading the last few words.

    Education, education, education…

    “Don’t you think agricultural laborers would rather have three acres and a cow than three acres of printed forms and a committee? Why doesn’t somebody start a yeoman party in politics, appealing to the old traditions of the small landowner?”
    -GK Chesterton

    We probably don’t have room any more for three acres and a cow, but a garden and a few chickens for all might not be an unrealistic aim.

  • Jay

    Herbie,

    Neo cons are capitalists; the Haliburton millitary machine and other corporate entities monopolize the agenda hence no moralistic diplomacy.
    Incredulous without media attention.

  • Ba'al Zevul (I'd Like to Teach the World to Snig (sic))

    How to stuff capitalists: don’t buy stuff.

  • fred

    “We probably don’t have room any more for three acres and a cow, but a garden and a few chickens for all might not be an unrealistic aim.”

    Not unrealistic at all, every council house tenant has the right to keep a few chickens in their back garden, they have round here anyway. Some do.

  • Tony M

    How strange that Habbaduk’s intemperate comment, laying down his demands for the conduct of this blog and policing contributors language, between Jay’s at 7:14am and mine at 7:26am, has been removed completely with no trace, whilst other deleted or moderated comments are left as stubs, which to me is preferable as it indicates that there has been some intervention and might help in some cases to understand the flow and direction the discussion took. Though it has to be said the now gone comment was nothing more than gratuitous whinging and bare-faced cheek, a particularly disgruntled sounding, grumpy early morning wail that no-one will bend to its will or comply with its strident demands.

    How should we address you oh mighty one (Habbaduk)?

  • Herbie

    People would be surprised how much land is available:

    “The great myth of urban Britain”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18623096

    Then there’s who owns it all:

    “The book ‘Who Owns Britain’ by Kevin Cahill revealed the hidden facts behind landownership in the UK and Ireland.”

    The book ‘Who Owns Britain’ by Kevin Cahill revealed the hidden facts behind landownership in the UK and Ireland.

    http://www.who-owns-britain.com/

  • craigmurray.org.uk

    Some commenters are now subject to pre-moderation. Keyword blocking has been activated. Any comment may be held for moderation as automatic filters are prone to false positives.

    The moderation queue now has to be checked periodically. Pointless personal and left-vs.-right political bickering is causing me work and wasting my time.

    Remember that your host is a HUMAN RIGHTS activist, and not very party-political.

  • John Goss

    “A week later, on March 12, Christine Lagarde, met the interim Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk at IMF headquarters in Washington. Lagarde reaffirmed the IMF’s commitment:

    “[to putting Ukraine back] on the path of sound economic governance and sustainable growth, while protecting the vulnerable in society. … We are keen to help Ukraine on its path to economic stability and prosperity.”(Press Release: Statement by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Ukraine)

    The above statement is wrought with hypocrisy. In practice, the IMF does not wield “sound economic governance” nor does it protect the vulnerable. It impoverishes entire populations, while providing “prosperity” to a small corrupt and subservient political and economic elite.”

    Michel Chossudovsky

    http://nsnbc.me/2014/03/24/regime-change-ukraine-imfs-bitter-economic-medicine/

  • Ba'al Zevul (I'd Like to Teach the World to Snig (sic))

    “Why don’t we get this stuff in school?”
    Because it’s very dangerous. You will probably put on weight and fail to get a job as an airline hostess if you read it. And have to wear ugly spectacles and a prosthetic leg. Now please pick up your nice PJ O’Rourke, like Mrs Krauthammer told you to.

  • Sofia Kibo Noh

    Herbie. 2 47pm

    From the Indo article comments, “Ukraine has such a high percentage of devastatingly beautiful women…”

    What about Craig Murray’s blog?

  • Tony M

    I liked Andrew Whitchurch’s comment of Mar, 2014 – 7:38 pm on the Six More Years thread, which was lost in the subsequent noise.

    Of course, the 42% had to be conditioned first and Thatcher saw to that. The big giveaways to the unskilled lower middle class in the 1980s (notice how people with a complete lack of skill started to earn more in back offices and estate agencies than those with skills to mine coal, build cars, administer health care etc.) ensured there were a lot of people with a lot to be grateful to Thatcherite economics. I reserve the right to not call it free market.

    That has created a glut of people who are now over 50 who like to think that they worked hard for what they got (they didn’t) who rather like the status quo and will keep this kind of politics in power for many years to come. George Osborne’s budget directly targeted this group of feckless, unskilled homeowners.

    Fred sometimes you make a sound point such as: “But unfortunately the people are far too busy working every hour God sends to earn money they don’t need so they can go into debt buying things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like to worry about things like freedom.” Inspired, except for the ‘God’ bit, but that’s a well-worn recognisable cliche and not necessarily indicating devout belief in supernatural beings. There is a tendency however to extrapolate from limited or exceptional and unusual experiences to suggest this or that special case is descriptive of the whole. If someone were to say something like ‘books do not kill’, you’ll relate a case of a man who had a heavy book of carpet samples land on his his bonce with tragic result.

    It is indeed incredibly difficult, if not impossible to feed one person, much less a family, on own-produced fare, raised from a patch of ground, it would be a monotonous diet, not conducive to health and could not compete on price with simply buying the same items from a store, in other words the outlay would be greater, and there would be times of surplus and wastage, as well as shortfalls when other sources would be crucial. I have some new seed potatoes (Charlotte) to plant in the next week or two, but still have sackloads of last years main crop (Desiree) to find some palatable use for; chickens/eggs however, coming sporadically rather than all at once in some over-whelming glut make a lot of sense, but there are few who could realistically keep them. Latter day housing and residential architecture and ground use, particularly of council housing, has not, probably since the 1950s considered such diversity or flexibility of uses and needs worth incorporating in their designs and space allocation. It wouldn’t be conducive to keeping the people in their place if they were able to exercise any degree of resilience, of resourcefulness or detachment from consumerism’s smothering disempowering embrace.

  • Herbie

    Sofia

    It’s that old beauty of mind/body problem, especially when the censor’s on the prowl…

  • Sofia Kibo Noh

    Ba’al Zevul (I’d Like to Teach the World to Snig (sic)) 3 03pm

    “Now please pick up your nice PJ O’Rourke, like Mrs Krauthammer told you to.”
    Groan!

    Please tell me Eminences and Excresances. What is it about certain humans that causes their brains and principles to veer rightwards and dissolve into blancmange or worse as the years pass? Witness the descent of Dad down the rabbit holes of reactionary delusion.

  • Mary

    My comment above using the t word is in moderation too.

    Tony M I used the word ….. this morning. That was deleted and a Wikipedia link to the word …..7 is in moderation and will probably also get deleted. In view of the history here, I think is outrageous.
    Your comment is awaiting moderation.

    [Moderation can’t deal with the history, only the current situation. Please be helpful. Thanks.]

  • fred

    “It is indeed incredibly difficult, if not impossible to feed one person, much less a family, on own-produced fare, raised from a patch of ground, ”

    Well of course.

    I have to supplement my diet with a bit of roadkill and some skip diving.

  • Herbie

    “Please tell me Eminences and Excresances. What is it about certain humans that causes their brains and principles to veer rightwards and dissolve into blancmange or worse as the years pass? Witness the descent of Dad down the rabbit holes of reactionary delusion.”

    Youthful idealism meets material necessity, is the usual explanation.

    So, a change in what material necessity entails might be an option.

    Ultimately though we would need to get rid of the mafia skimmers, and that’s no small ask.

    Though, changing the world banking system would probably go some long way to pulling off the trick.

  • Herbie

    Mods

    And why is mine at 1.52pm awaiting moderation at all?

    No bad words, no personal attacks, no nuffin.

    [One of those false positives.]

  • Ba'al Zevul (I'd Like to Teach the World to Snig (sic))

    “….ground use, particularly of council housing, has not, probably since the 1950s considered such diversity or flexibility of uses and needs worth incorporating in their designs and space allocation.”

    Isn’t it about time that changed? Note: I’m not talking about absolute self-sufficiency (though with local trading between specialists, that would not be an impossible dream) but about satisfaction, appreciation of the attainable, and cutting out the unproductive middleman…who seems to get most of any value produced as things stand. Granted, Chesterton was of another era, and romantically bucolic with it, but three acres and a cow – even a 1/4 acre and a chicken run – represent a degree of independence from global marketeers, their branders and their politicians, which is unthought of today.

  • fred

    “but three acres and a cow”

    You don’t need a cow, a goat will give more than enough milk.

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