From Malthus to Trump, via Darwin, Galton, Fascism and Neoliberalsim

In 1798 Thomas Malthus published his ‘An Essay on the Principle of Population’. Originally developed as an argument in response to thinkers such as William Godwin, the aspect of the overall argument that has since become synonymous with the name Malthus is that uncontrolled populations will eventually overwhelm the resources that sustain them, and therefore will inevitably lead to mass-poverty and mass-starvation. In order to understand exactly how this idea came about it is worth…

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Capitalism and fascism are two sides of the same coin

The term ‘fascist’ has become a useful term for many on the left for both simplifying and denigrating anyone else’s political position that disagrees with them. One of the key problems with this is that it often overlooks how closely entwined capitalism and fascism actually are. And with most of us, to differing degrees at least, active in the capitalist system it means that if we are not careful we may well overlook our own…

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Hierarchical frameworks are regressive and can only stifle progress

The modern “democratic” systems of state management and organising communities that are used around the world today are almost without exception based on hierarchical frameworks of one type or another. It is worth explaining what I mean by that. I understand a hierarchy as a system of people organising themselves based on different levels and different roles. The hierarchical framework that I am discussing is about political power, and by its very nature about the…

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We are hanging on, but only just

We are coming to the end of July, and it has been 6 months since the world, billionaires and their neo-liberal apparatchiks excluded, first properly acknowledged that we are all facing an imminent and potentially catastrophic global health disaster. At that time certain governments around the world had the basic human compassion and emotional maturity to put the well-being of their respective populations ahead of the wealth and status of their peers. Others did not.…

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The Constitution was designed to maintain exploitation through legalised state oppression, that system can not save us

While the 25th Amendment to the Constitution is the legal mechanism for removing a mentally unstable psychopath from the White House, there is no democratic mechanism for the people of the USA to initiate that process. Similarly, while Article 2 - Section 4 of the Constitution allows for the removal of a criminal or a traitor from the White House, once again the American electorate has no tangible say in that process either. The fact…

Continue ReadingThe Constitution was designed to maintain exploitation through legalised state oppression, that system can not save us

While class deference is most apparent at times of crisis, it is also at its most vulnerable to public opinion

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic the cultural mechanisms for maintaining class deference have been at their most apparent in years. While we are told that we are all in this together, time and again the behaviour and the subtle subtexts of the pronouncements of the 1% demonstrate that their true world view is not as egalitarian as they like to pretend. Not only do the rules for the 99% not apply to the…

Continue ReadingWhile class deference is most apparent at times of crisis, it is also at its most vulnerable to public opinion

A Dickensian Christmas

I am still struggling along with the very early morning shifts, filling those shelves with all the useful and much needed Christmas stuff people seem to spend their hard earned wages on at this time of year. But somewhat surprisingly, that has not be playing on my mind as much as it has in previous years. Every morning when I leave the house, I see a star in the night sky that is so bright…

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Talent and hard work isn’t enough

Sorry for the delay between posts. I have had to get a job to pay the bills and keep putting food on the table. I knew it would happen eventually, clearly my talent and hard work was never going to be enough. And as so accurately predicted by everyone I told I was going to write full time, the savings from the last ‘employment’ eventually ran out. So, rather than go back into the ‘office’…

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Teaching superiority, and the class-bias of the ‘expert’ witness

I think there is a case to be made that radicals need to perform a multitude of tasks to help make society less oppressive and exploitative, including pointing out why the current system is flawed. I suppose there is a case to be made that the radical left does have a tendency to spend the majority of it’s time analysing and pointing out the worst aspects of the current systems and structures, and not enough…

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What does a post-brexit UK look like?

In the lead up to ‘Brexit’, it is worth considering what it was that it’s instigators had in mind for a post-brexit UK. And when I say it’s instigators I don’t mean those carefully sampled and then edited members of the general public that are now the staple of ‘unbiased’ and ‘democratic’ reporting. I mean the sub-group of the political and economic ruling class that were keeping time for the ‘journalists’ from the early days…

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