THROUGH THE SCARY DOOR

Your new favourite meme

2012-01-25T18:51:00.001Z

Simian-poop journalism

2012-01-25T18:49:00.001Z

I.e. fling enough shit and anyone can appear dirty.

Bob Crow gave evidence to the Media Ethics Inquiry today and, oh, the lengths the press go to get a scoop. They keep private detective to watch him on holiday. They 'blag' private information held by the DVLA. A Sunday Times journalist was refused a copy of the agenda for an RMT official meeting, so he began rooting around in the RMT's office bins. Most charming of all:

Crow describes being "doorstepped" at home by reporters and photographers from the Sun.

"When I got to the station he still stood in my way and said, 'you're not allowed to go to work'," Crow tells Leveson.

He says there were two men with video cameras and others who refused to let him go to work. Crow says the Sun told him: "What's it like not to get to go to work? You stopped people going to work this week so get a taste of your own medicine."

Oh, it's just like Woodward and Bernstein.

Another fine mess

2012-01-21T17:15:00.001Z

A plan by the education secretary, Michael Gove, to send a copy of the King James Bible to every school in the country – each including a personal inscription from him – has run into trouble after government sources reported he has been told to find private funding for the project.

Sources said David Cameron told Gove that while he supported the idea, the education secretary should avoid using taxpayers' money for it. But Gove has yet to find a private philanthropic sponsor for the enterprise, and some Whitehall sources said he has been told he cannot distribute the book until he does so, leaving thousands of copies in a warehouse abroad.

It's the idea of a personal inscription that really makes it funny... funny until you realise that this particular loony has taken over the asylum... This is what he occupies his time with, Michael Gove; yachts, bibles and Jamie Oliver novelty schools. This is, of course, lunacy with a purpose. The government are more than just upper-class twits. They are bent on destroying the Labour Party's base (that's you and me, folks, not the Labour Party itself) in the organised working class and the welfare state. By wrecking as much chaos, destruction and folly Michael Gove makes it that much harder for anyone to rebuild a progressive education system. The Tories, unopposed, will make lunacy the new logic.

But, let it not be said we are just bitter, carping critics. No. Let's run with this idea. Those books must be bought and brought to our chidren because... well... because! Let's get some sponsorship going. We (who's 'we'?) at TtSD have wracked our brains and can come up with no more appropriate sponsor than Quickquid.com, the online loanshark, bringing you religion and exploitative usery in a neat, post-modern package. Rejoice!

World of mild interest

2012-01-20T11:50:00.010Z

Ironies: Homer Simpson, lazy American worker archetype, has had 188 different jobs. Bender (Bending Rodriguez) the robot who denies that robots are tools built by humans to make their lives easier is the most useful tool in cartoon history. Here's a list of his inbuilt and attached functions:

Trash Can: Bender's own cavity can be used as a trash can. First seen "Space Pilot 3000" as he throws a bottle of beer inside himself.

Extenso-matic Eyes: His eyes can zoom out of his normal layer, so he can get a better view on things; they tend to fall out when he zooms too far. First seen also in "Space Pilot 3000".

Subway Car: His legs can extend onto rail tracks and his feet work like wheels, allowing Fry, Leela, and a random bum transportation in Old New York. Seen only in "The Luck of the Fryrish".

Extenso-matic arms: Bender's arms and legs are capable of extending to many times their normal length. First seen in "The Series Has Landed".

GayDar: Bender pulls out a small radar device to prove to Amy and Leela that a man they are interested in is gay. It surprisingly works, seen in "Love's Labours Lost in Space".

Video Camera: Each of Bender's eyes can be used as a camera, either to take pictures or to film things. Both are first seen in "When Aliens Attack". He also has one more camera, located "below the equator" which does not always "perform". The camera is never seen, but it can be heard extending.

Cowcatcher: In "A Taste of Freedom", Bender has a 19th century style cowcatcher installed to his front to clear a path through the crowd outside the Decapodian Embassy.

Barbecue: Bender's cavity is used the same way as a barbecue. He used it to cook some burgers. First seen in "When Aliens Attack".

Oven: His cavity can be used as an oven, to cook things. The real function name is "E-z Bake", and is used to cook a cake for Nibbler, in the episode "I Second that Emotion".

Refrigerator: His cavity can also be used to refrigerate, as seen also in "I Second that Emotion".

Stage Light: A light can come out of his cavity. He used it for the first time in "When Aliens Attack".

AC Power generator: Bender plugs a television power cord into his side in Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV.

Popcorn maker: Bender can make some popcorn in his cavity. He can also push down on his antenna to dispense butter. First seen in "Fear of a Bot Planet".
Keg: Bender can also serve some beers within is cavity. First seen in "Hell Is Other Robots".

Toilet: Bender's cavity is used as a toilet in the episode "The Cyber House Rules". He pushes his antenna to flush.

Recorder: Bender can record things with his head. First seen in "A Head in the Polls", to record Richard Nixon's head's words. He records onto magnetic tape cassettes.

Oxygen Supplier: In the episode "The Deep South", Bender is used as an Oxygen Supplier, that comes via some masks.

Exhaust Port: Bender's exhaust port is present in his ass, as seen in "Crimes of the Hot".

Flotation Device: In "The Deep South", Bender refer to his ass as a Flotation Device.

Pepper Grinder: In "The 30% Iron Chef", Bender inserts peppercorns in his mouth and shakes ground pepper out of his ass.

Beer Tub: Beer ferments in Bender's chest cavity in the episode "The Route of All Evil". It has a capacity of at least five gallons, six ounces.

Pager: Antenna glows and vibrates to notify the New Justice Team of a call from the mayor in "Less than Hero".

Oil Sprayer : Bender sprays oil on a cosmetic saleswoman in "A Fishful of Dollars".
Mail Box: Bender's antenna indicates when he is receiving mail. First seen in "Crimes of the Hot".

Chicken Deboner: Bender can debone a chicken by putting it into his mouth. He then regurgitates the chicken's skeleton and a feather duster. Seen in "The 30% Iron Chef".

Card Shuffler: Bender can put a deck of cards into his mouth to shuffle them, and then spit them back out to deal them. He can apparently spit them with enough force for them to cut through objects such as apples and hair. Seen in "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back".

Circular Saw: Bender can use his hands as a circular saw and lower a matching eyeshade to protect his eyes. First seen in "Less than Hero".

EFTPOS Machine: In "Leela's Homeworld", Bender takes the Professor's credit card and swipes it between his teeth to check its balance.

Laser Show: In "Jurassic Bark", Bender projects an expensive-looking laser show with his head, complete with techno music.

Flamethrower: Bender boils some water using flames coming out of his mouth in "Anthology of Interest I". May not be a real feature due the scene being part of a simulation.

Stadium air horn: In "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", the Robot Devil installs a stadium air horn under Bender's nose.

Voice Modifier: In "Bender Gets Made", Bender changed his voice via a control panel. Two voices are available : Robot (his normal voice), and King (his normal voice with a British accent).

Bug Zapper: In "Spanish Fry", Bender shows that he is apparently capable of charging his surface with electricity and using his head to electrocute bugs.

Lighthouse: In "Obsoletely Fabulous", Bender's revolving head and luminous eyes acted as a fully functional lighthouse. He can also emit a foghorn sound.

Pistol: In the cover of the game, Bender is shown using his finger as a pistol. Canon status of the game uncertain.

Cheating Unit: In "A Flight to Remember", Bender speaks of his "cheating unit" which predicts (inaccurately) the coming roll of the dice at craps.

Water Boiler: Boils and produces hot water for Calculon in "That's Lobstertainment!".

Safe: In "Put Your Head on My Shoulder", Bender stores money in his cavity, the combination lock dial can be seen on his door.

Movie Projector: In "Crimes of the Hot" Bender's head projects an educational film.
Pen: Finger can turn into a pen. Used to write down an address in "Xmas Time Is Fear" and to write down a joke in "Who's Dying to Be a Gazillionaire?", and to write a "A Plea For Attention" in "The 30% Iron Chef".

Cigar Lighter: His finger also flips up to reveal a cigar lighter. He uses this throughout the series to light his cigars.

Paper Shredder: Paper is inserted into his mouth, shredded and comes out of his chest. Used to shred the menu in Hell Is Other Robots.

Food Processor: Bender purées fish and regurgitates it to his surrogate penguin children in "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz".

Answering Machine: In "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch", Amy apparently uses him as an answering machine. He isn't a very good one, though, as he doesn't alert people to new messages, and then deletes them anyway.

CD Player: Bender can open his mouth panel to insert and play music CDs, as revealed in "Obsoletely Fabulous".

Projector: A deleted scene from the opening of The Beast with a Billion Backs shows Bender projecting the Futurama logo, and the blue beams displayed behind it, from the top of his head, possibly from his antenna.

Spray Paint: Bender is capable of spraying paint from his mouth, and does this when writing graffiti as seen in "A Pharaoh to Remember".

Suction Cup Feet: Bender can use his feet as suction cups, allowing him to walk on walls. This is seen in "Bendless Love".

Vacuum: Bender's arm can also can be used as a vacuum. As seen in the fourth movie; Into the Wild Green Yonder, sucking up slot coins.

Pencil Sharpener: Bender can sharpen a pencil, as seen in "Lethal Inspection".
Gyroscope: Bender is gyroscopically stable, as seen in "The Mutants Are Revolting".

Roller Skates: Roller Skates can extend from Bender's feet. Only seen once in "A Pharaoh to Remember".

Flash Camera: He uses his eyes to take pictures for the Girly Calendars in "Neutopia".

Cannon: If cannon ball is placed in his chest cabinet, his antenna can be lit to activate his cannon function. Bender didn't know he could do this. Seen in "All the Presidents' Heads".

Defibrillators: Located inside his chest cabinet as seen in "How Much is that Mutant in the Window?".

Telephone Device: This was seen in "How Much is that Mutant in the Window?" on the inside of Bender's chest door, the tip of his antenna lit up red when he used it to call a tow ship to get himself, Fry, Leela and Nibbler home.

How many Labour front-benchers does it take to change a lightbulb?

2012-01-19T13:29:00.002Z

None. We have to accept darkness is only game in town.

Burning questions of our time

2012-01-17T10:05:00.004Z

The British Government wants to give the Queen a yacht. Yeah, yeah, it's not going to be paid for out of the public purse, but that only begs the question: what does it have to do with the government then? Maybe it's because the Tories just like discussing the finer things in life, like love, gay love and screwing the working class; but enough crudity, back to yachts.

You might be interested to know that Prince Charles and Princess Anne back the idea of a new Royal Yacht (you remember electing these two...? No...?). With that kind of backing the yacht's almost certain to go ahead:

Gove wrote to the prime minister on 12 September, again supporting the project: "I believe that approving this ship to become a royal yacht would be an excellent way to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee and to thank her as a nation for her long and untiring service to this country."

In this letter he stated: "No money should be made available from the public purse", but in a second letter dated 11 December he did not make this point writing instead: "My suggestion would be a gift from the nation to the Queen thinking about, for example, David Willetts' excellent suggestion for a royal yacht – and something tangible to commemorate this momentous occasion. If there is not sufficient public money available then we could surely look for a generous private donation, for example, to give every school child a lasting memento of the occasion or possibly to allow every school to buy a permanent reminder."

Another lasting memento to go with the abolition of EMA, £9,000 annual university fees and selective free schools. In other news there's a million young unemployed - but what can you do about that eh?

One false move and I'm Jim Davidson - pt 2

2012-01-12T18:39:00.005Z

An interesting and potentially important article (LCHR anyone?) in this month’s Socialist Review:

What's going on? It seems like every time I switch on my TV, so-called comedians and panel show celebrities are telling racist and other offensive jokes.

Only the other day, Jimmy Carr was on a quiz panel spouting a tirade of racist jokes about Travellers and their protest at Dale Farm. Two days later Jeremy Clarkson was on the BBC's One Show saying that strikers should be shot in front of their families.

His excuse? It was only a joke. I don't recall the same leniency being applied to the two young men who jokingly called on people to riot on facebook over the summer.

There has been a trend going toward obscene, shock-jock comedy. You might call it “taboo-busting” but since when has respect for minorities, sometimes vulnerable minorities, been some kind of ghastly hypocritical sham? And it isn’t enough to say its ironic humour. A situational irony is action which achieves the opposite of the intentions behind the action. This is important for stand up comedy.

Humour is very specific, especially when it comes to live performance. All the great comedians (great by consensus, I would say – your Hicks, your Pryors, your Bruces) took care to cultivate their audience, so their comedy would be understood on stage. It’s a common observation that if a routine goes down well 9 times out of 10 the 10th time, where it is poorly received, is that particular audience’s fault – they just didn’t get it.

It is well and good to say:

Comedy should be about challenging authority and convention, not laughing at the most oppressed and exploited in society. The fact is we don't live in an equal world.

I suppose it should but, if we’re being picky, the first thing comedy should be about is making people laugh. Comedy can challenge authority and convention, it can also point out the ironies of the mundane, it can take you on flights of fantasy; it can even lift the lid on the darker areas of humanity – giving you a sense of relief that you’re not the only one to think that (even if you know it's wrong). Bill Hicks was brilliant at ‘dark poetry’, Frankie Boyle, I think, has his moments too.

Popular comedy started to move away from the Alternative Ideal when it became truly popular. In 1993 Newman and Baddiel played Wembley Arena and Comedy was the New Rock and Roll. Rock and Roll is a broad, cool medium. Stand up comedy is very specifically intense, hot.

How do you make 12,000 people simultaneously laugh? You can’t lose any part of the room when you’re playing to that number (as the top comedians do quite frequently now). This is where the cutting edge is blunted. It leads back into the point about irony. It is, or should be, a subtle rhetorical tool, what are the prospects for successful irony at a stadium gig? Everyone knows the example of Al Murray, a character comedian who started off satirising Little Englanders but ended up going native. Given the history of comedy more generally, you have to wonder what future there is in ironic satire. Racists loved Alf Garnett, Yuppies took Loadsamoney to their bosom and today Hipsters adore the Dickhead Song.

Though there’s clearly a lot more to establish, we need to understand how stand up comedy went from cutting edge to middle of the road to lowest common denominator. Otherwise you might fairly conclude that, in the 1980s, people were right-on, whereas these days they’re giggling reactionary scum.

Newt Gingrich – satori in New Hampshire

2012-01-11T18:09:00.007Z

He’s probably now not going to be the next President of the United States. Even so, Newt seems to have gained a valuable insight:

"Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money?"

Well yes and no, Newt, the only quibble being these days it’s possible to manipulate the lives of millions of people; but that’s just me being picky. Then again he also said that:

There is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment...

Elsewhere:

I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time [my grandchildren are] my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.

Which, as the author in the link suggests, begs the question of what on Earth gay-secular-fascist-islamists look like? What do they do, stone themselves to death?

Now, it’s all very well kicking a man when he’s down. For your enjoyment, Michael Moore, kicking Gingrich when he was up:

Sorreeeeee

2012-01-10T18:26:00.000Z

David Cameron is sorreeeeee for comparing the families of Hillsborough Disaster victims to “a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there”.

David Cameron is sorreeeeee for telling a woman MP to “calm down, dear”.

David Cameron is sorreeeeee for comparing the Shadow Chancellor to a tourettes sufferer.

If you got the impression that David Cameron regards people other than himself as an inconvenience and irritation then David Cameron is sorreeeeee.

Monsta, Monsta!

2012-01-05T18:25:00.010Z

David Cameron has pledged to fight the Health and Safety Monster (see here in the picture tidying up downtown Tokyo).

You can understand why Cameron would want to fight such a dangerous beast. Britain it seems is one of the safest places in the EU to work, at least in terms of fatalities (171 deaths last year)... curiously that’s more people dying in work each year than soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

But, look at it from another angle; let’s not forget the 1.2 million people a year who have to endure workplace related illnesses, or the 200,000 approx annual reported workplace injuries. Something's amiss. There are clearly too many people getting through the working day unscathed!

Sherlock, TV, Stuff

2012-01-04T08:53:00.004Z

A few thoughts on the recent return of Sherlock, the TV series; partly provoked by the recent episode itself, but also by very interesting discussion of one of the characters, Irene Adler, on Comment is Free (a persuasive argument but, man alive, look at the ferocious gibberish it inspires - how dare a woman suggest a man might poor at writing for women?).

1. Sherlock is the ideal series for literate urban folk. Both the series and character are troves of information. It may be unusual but this is one of Sherlock’s sympathetic qualities. You may need Google or Wikipedia, but you too can summon up the Chinese numerical system or the Van Buren supernova just like that.
2. It is becoming quite common (at least in culture) to associate super-intelligence with autism. We now even project back into history to guess who might have been autistic, Newton, Einstein etc.
3. Sherlock’s characterisation skirts the dodgy intellectual regions of ubermensch (the outer reaches of the liberal theory of knowledge). Sherlock is presented as the rational-detached half of the traditional dichotomy, rational-detached versus intuitive-involved. Even if his outlook is regularly undermined, even he is shown as paying a high price for his outlook, living as a “high-functioning sociopath” or “freak”, in the end he always prevails. He is like this so we don’t have to be.
4. The British state, in the form of Mycroft Holmes, is presented, I think, as a Greater Ubermensch, for example the oh-so delicate plot to fool non-specific terrorists into blowing up a remote controlled plane full of dead people. It may have just been my perception but the latest episode, Scandal in Belgravia, seemed to end on a Blairite if-you-knew-what-I-knew moral canard.

That said Sherlock is fun TV, an especially well acted, stylish blur.

Oh those historical experiences (as opposed to the non-historical ones)

2012-01-02T17:49:00.005Z

Anonamember has put his/her (I have a feeling, probably his) tuppence up online, I don't see why I shouldn't. If anybody's upset by this then I apologise... I'd still think this mind you, so there you go.

One of the problems with democracy is everybody’s for it (just as everyone’s against fascism). Any universally recognised good-thing tends to be overlooked as a given. We are all in favour of democracy, but what does that mean, ‘democracy’?

Marxists always point out democracy is not a formal thing, casting a vote, voicing an opinion etc. For example we are all entitled to free-speech. I have the right to free-speech and so does Rupert Murdoch, it’s just Rupert Murdoch is entitled to 40% of Britain’s daily print media.

Democracy, even the limited democracy we have today, is taking a battering. Why? In our society democratic participation requires two things, free time and disposable wealth (intellectual/educational wealth as well as material wealth). Even leaving aside the effects of the current austerity drive, people in Britain now work longer, harder and for less (proportionally) than they did 20-30 years ago as a result of ruling class policy. This has left less room for working class participation in public life. This has inevitable effect not just on big organisations like the Labour Party or the unions, but smaller ones too.

It's all very well being for more democracy, but where do we magic this democracy up from, and for what end? A common request: there should be a regular internal bulletin. This is great, and if it encourages discussion then lets go for it. The only trouble is I have a fairly normal work and home life. I have almost no time to read the preconference bulletins, let alone write a piece should the urge have taken me. I am not alone in this. What's to stop a regular bulletin from simply being a platform for litterateurs?

All this may not be good, but it is true. We are stuck with full-timers (boo! boo!) for the time being.

Marxism and McLuhan - pt 4 challenge and collapse

2011-12-30T13:17:00.000Z

Marshall McLuhan is an interesting intellectual figure. He is best remembered for his connections to the 60s counter-culture. He is considered to have coined the slogan Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out. His legacy, if it is anything, is a techno-evangelism, in part an offshoot of the counter-culture (McLuhan was also the first person to use the word “surf” in its modern sense); computing will save the day the internet will broaden our minds, liberate information and the geeks shall inherit the Earth.

One very modern off-shoot of this philosophy is the argument (distraction in my opinion) over the role of social media in popular rebellion. Does the application of Twitter to 21st century society result in occupations, riots and strikes? It's certainly a more comforting conclusion than admitting people over the world are tired, poor and fed up with living under their rulers.

But McLuhan was not a member of the counter-culture. He was a professor of English Literature, a public intellectual who appeared an adverts and movies. He was a practising Catholic. He may have been friends with Timothy Leary, but he was also on close terms with people like Wyndham Lewis.

But he was an educator, an educator with a very keen sense of the crisis in education, which arose out of post-war society, its contradictions, and came to be known as the Generation Gap.

Capitalism needed an educated, skilled workforce more than ever. Educational opportunities grew. Millions of young people growing up in the core capitalist countries for the first time had the chance to go into Higher Education and so reap the rewards of a better life. At the same time the rigorous application of capitalist norms to a formerly artisan-like HE system generated conflict, conflict between the new mode of intellectual production and the relations of production. The lecturer was slowly proletarianised. The student, promised intellectual liberation, was subjected to fusty, paternal supervision and backward rules. For example: the student struggle in France 1968, which set off the great strike in May, began as a struggle over the right of male students to visit female dorms overnight.

McLuhan was a lecturer during this period of change. He experienced the shift when he began teaching. Though only a few years older than his students, he felt an insurmountable gap between him and them. The difference, he thought, was in the mode of understanding. He was steeped in the literate, sequential and disinterested mode of thought. His students were saturated by modern media and its effects. Their understanding was post-literate, non-linear and deeply involved.

He saw this as the root of the conflict, the crisis of education (and of society at large). It was this he studied. His solutions were humane, intellectual and appropriately utopian – more designed to provoke debate rather than resolve it. His answer was critical reflection, we had to understand the changes we were going through as a society in order to cope with them. Cutting edge thought, and in particular art were to lead the way.

The Marxist response is clear. Firstly, culture is ambiguous. For human history so far every document of civilisation has also been a document of barbarism. In order to have Socrates you also had to have slaves. The prevailing culture of any class society is determined by that society's ruling class, their prerogatives, their preoccupations. An obsolete way of thinking does not simply give way to critical reflection, which brings us onto the second point, Consciousness has its basis in material reality. As Marx pointed out in his Theses on Feuerbach, criticism of heaven takes place on earth.

I want to conclude with two quotes, from Challenge and Collapse, the final chapter of the opening section of Understanding Media, one which Marxists should find intriguing:

Perhaps the most obvious “closure”... of any new technology is just the demand for it. Nobody wants a motorcar until there are motorcars, and nobody is interested in TV until there are TV programmes.

This is a close relation to the Marxist observation that a society does not create problems for which it does not already have solutions. There is no solution to bad weather therefore it is not a problem. There is a solution to poor harvests, to food speculation and starvation. These things are problems. While McLuhan's solutions may be technocratic, we can accept what he is saying here. But, McLuhan continues:

The power of technology to create its own world of demand is not independent of technology being first an extension of our own bodies and senses. When we are deprived of our sense of sight, the other senses take up the role of sight in some degree. But the need to use the senses that are available is as insistent as breathing - a fact that makes sense of the urge to keep radio and TV going more or less continuously. The urge to continuous use is quite independent of the “content”of public programmes... It is ridiculous to talk of “what the public wants” played over its own nerves... Once we have surrendered our senses and nervous systems to the private manipulation of those who would try to benefit from taking a lease on our eyes and ears and nerves, we really don't have any rights left.

This is a vital point, that we can all agree with. However you define 'the media', broadly or narrowly, they are our mode of existence, alienated from us and used against us. We take them back under our control in order to emancipate ourselves.

There you go peasants...

2011-12-21T10:24:00.003Z

You've had your class struggle, now get back to the field. The truly distressing thing is there are no substantial concessions. You will work longer, harder and get less for your trouble; maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but someday soon, and for the rest of your life. Does anyone honestly think the Tories will stop at this? Certain union leaders I suppose... but you wouldn't be unreasonable if you felt like the light at the end of the tunnel was a train headed your way.

Well done PCS for standing up to this. The union must stand alone, yet again, and that is for shame on the other union leaders. Give the civil servants, and anyone else who wants to stand up to the Tories properly, your support.

Marxism and McLuhan - pt 3 from narcosis to awakening

2011-12-14T11:11:00.002Z

McLuhan’s best known writing is more about aphorism and argument than precisely laid out research. This is particularly the case with the opening chapters of Understanding Media. There are two chapters, which run together smoothly, The Gadget Lover and Hybrid Energy. McLuhan begins his argument by retelling the myth of Narcissus.

The myth is generally understood as a warning against self-love, Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection. According to McLuhan this is not quite the intention of the story. Narcissus was transfixed by his reflected image and so became numb to all other stimuli, a closed circuit.

All media are extensions of particular human aspects; the wheel is an extension of the foot, the lever an extension of the arm, clothing an extension of the skin, and so forth. Human invention is a response to need generated by discomfort; the wheel relieves the burden of moving objects, the lever the burden of lifting them, clothes keep us from being cold (or sunburned).

Any new invention is a greater or lesser shock to human relations. A neat illustration, from Rosa Luxemburg’s Accumulation of Capital:

In districts where natural economy formerly prevailed, the introduction of means of transport – railways, navigation, canals – is vital for the spreading of commodity economy… The triumphant march of commodity economy thus begins in most cases with magnificent constructions of modern transport, such as railway lines which cross primeval forests and tunnel through the mountains, telegraph wires which bridge the deserts, and ocean liners which call at the most outlying ports.

The latter chapters of the Accumulation of Capital are a meditation on the various media used to establish a commodity economy in various colonies, including the medium of ballistic weaponry. Colonialism is a rather sharp example but the point stands, changes in the medium of human existence require changes in the way people relate to each other.

On an individual level the shock of change leads to numbness, what might have been disturbing to your ancestors you have to take in your stride. Imagine, for example, your journey to work. You would never get there if you had to regard every single advert trying to catch your attention. This shutting down of the senses blinds us to the effect of various media. Back to the original example, ideology; we do not recognise mainstream ideology as such. Even so the supposedly non-ideological person is in fact the most ideological.

We only recognise a medium for what it is when it is either hybridised or superseded. An example from art is the journey from painted portrait to lithograph to photograph, to moving image, to synchronised sound, to Technicolor. Each invention cried out for the following one. As each medium was superseded it was transformed, the obvious example being after the rise of photography artists began painting concepts and feelings, rather than literal objects.

Another example: we now know that novels are in fact movie scripts. Every successful novel is touted to movie producers as a sure-fire hit (that or it’s cherished as an unfilmable novel). Movies are not novels, however. They almost never make the journey backwards. If anything movies are becoming role-playing computer games, judging by the number of spin-offs that have been made.

Relating this back to the point about ideology; we overcome our numbness to bourgeois ideology, see it for what it is, through its supersession (or, perhaps, hybridisation if we take reformism into account). This of course happens through practical action, class struggle, combined with the critical renovation of consciousness; the interaction, I would argue, between movement and party.

The Top Gear Defence

2011-12-12T10:35:00.005Z

It's an almost unbeatable strategy, with practically limitless applications: why're you getting upset? It's all just a joke, like on Top Gear. Let's test it out:

Tory youth sing songs about the holocaust, but it's all just a joke... like on Top Gear.

Victims of Domestic Violence are to be charged commission on Child Maintenance payments, but it's all just a joke... like on Top Gear.

Cancer patients are to be subjected to welfare tests to see if they're sick enough, but it's all just a joke... like on Top Gear.

Public sector workers to face 16% pay cut to pay for bankers in need, but it's all just a joke... like on Top Gear.

Gumbies on cocaine

2011-12-12T10:00:00.007Z

Tory MP Aidan Burley wants to get rid of trade union facility time. Facility time is an agreement between unions and employers whereby some members of staff can devote some or all of their time on union activity. It cannot be emphasised enough these are negotiated agreements, an essential part of collective bargaining, without which union organisation, the only strand of democracy in the workplace, is made just that bit more impossible.

Tory MP Aidan Burley goes to parties where people dress up as SS Officers, toast the third reich and belting oh-so humorous chants about the holocaust. A Tory MP toasts the Third Reich but (presumably) will keep his job... He'll probably use the Top Gear Defence. In fact, why didn't Hitler think of that when he killed those millions of people? It's all just a joke, like on Top Gear.

We might as well be ruled by Gumbies on cocaine.

Tony M Nyphot's Flying Riscu

2011-12-09T16:24:00.000Z

Marxism and McLuhan - pt 2 Hot and Cold Media

2011-12-09T12:36:00.003Z

Hot and cold media are important concepts for McLuhan. ‘Hot’ and ‘cold’ are slightly misleading names. The basic opposition is between high definition/low participation and low definition/high participation media. It is, say, the difference between a live action film and a drawn animation. With live action the visual detail is fairly rich, leaving little room for the viewer to fill in/interpret. With a drawn cartoon (a good example being Matt Groening cartoons) there is minimal visual information, few lines, few surfaces, and wide room for viewer inference.

Why should hot and cold media bother us? I think, firstly, because it is a useful way to track cultural development. Ruling classes attempt to develop culture appropriate to its rule. This means that culture is a site of conflict in class society. In Understanding Media, McLuhan cites the example of the waltz (a ‘hot’ dance) versus the twist (a ‘cool’ dance).

Dance is an expression of sexuality. The waltz, a formal dance, where the information is largely filled in beforehand, was consistent with early capitalism and its attempt to mould sexuality to the nuclear family and capital accumulation. The twist is an informal dance, with room to improvise and, most dangerously of all, does not require two closely locked partners. The twist and related forms of dance were consistent with a period of affluence and immanent sexual liberation. They were consequently terrifying to authorities committed to the capitalism and sexual propriety. Let’s not forget the added bourgeois horror of mixed race social dancing. It may seem unbearably backward and strange now but American cops used to attack Ray Charles concerts for precisely this reason (brilliantly evoked in Mike Davis’s writings on post-war youth riots).

But there’s a second point of interest. In McLuhan’s scheme new media cause a shock to our system. In order to overcome this shock, so we aren’t sent reeling every time we walk down the street or glance at a TV, we numb ourselves to the medium’s effects. One way of doing this is by cooling down the medium.

The printed word is visually hot. Spoken word on the radio is aurally hot. They each take particular senses and fill them out. One thing you will not have missed is the rise of right-wing demagogy in the internet and talk radio. These are cooling media that allow for greater participation; but this participation is as a kind of reflective surface in an echo chamber. Slanders become rumours and rumours become facts, as host and audience goad each other.

This can create false notions that are very difficult to dispel. An example: after the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes the Metropolitan Police put out a number of statements that simply weren’t true: he jumped the barrier, he was wearing a suspicious device, he challenged the police, he looked like Hussein Osman, etc. These claims were recycled through public forums and consequently longer in people’s minds even after they were disproved.

What is ideology, the medium itself; hot or cool? As far as the question is relevant I would suggest it is a cool medium, participatory. For example: The Conservative is a key outlet for bourgeois ideology. But the party cannot win general elections on the vote of its social base, the bourgeoisie, alone. There is a Conservative Party for big capitalists, but there is also one for small business people, there is even a party for a minority of conservative workers. This can only be achieved by incorportating the concerns, the points of view of other groups into the broader bourgeois perspective of the Tories.

The point here is not to suggest hot, cold or cooling media are better, worse, beneficial or pernicious, but to understand them so we are not taken by surprise by their effects.

A world without escape

2011-12-09T10:11:00.004Z

Developments in the American Occupy movement:

Activists at Occupy Wall Street have issued a call to thousands of protesters across the US to reoccupy outdoor public spaces to mark the movement's three-month anniversary.

The Occupy movement has stalled in recent weeks after a wave of evictions swept away a raft of encampments, including the largest in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York. On Wednesday, it suffered a fresh blow as police in riot gear cleared Occupy San Francisco camp on the orders of the mayor, who had been sympathetic to protesters, while Occupy Boston lost legal protection against eviction.

This is of concern as there's no such thing as an insurgency on the defensive. Various municipal governments have collaborated to remove the occupations. If the theory of struggle for autonomous space free from capitalism is followed through to its logical endpoint we should see the emergence of a military wing of the movement, an autonomous red army... good luck with that. It could also be observed that the ruling class (especially in a vast country like the United States) does not worry unduly about occupied space. In America vast urban tracts are written off, bypassed by capital, used as silos to store (from their point of view) human waste. Interrupted capital accumuation on the other hand is another thing. The Occupy movement is strongest when linked to organised labour. The ruling class does not like having downtown areas in major towns and cities occupied, but it's merely a matter of isolating the occupation and biding time to hit back.

One last thought, though we should be prepared for this, we should also take some time out to be amazed at the bone-headedness of our ruling class. Voting isn't good enough, lobbying isn't good enough either, demonstrations don't cut it, occupations are merely a health-hazard. These people have no answer for the pain and suffering they are causing. They are creating a world without escape. They are begging to be overthrown.

Marxism and McLuhan - pt 1 The Medium is the Message

2011-12-08T11:25:00.003Z

Start with a quote:

It is always necessary to distinguish between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, artistic, or philosophic — in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out.

It is not exactly an aphorism, but it is a neat segment of Marx’s Preface to the Critique of Political Economy with an important implication. Ideology is reasonably defined as a collection of ideas based around a distinct point of view. The argument here suggests ideology is the medium of class consciousness.

In the clash between forces and relations of production, the basis of class struggle, people can achieve things which are contrary to the ideas they hold. This was something Antonio Gramsci dwelt upon in his Prison Notebooks repeatedly. The achievements of the Biennio Rosso were not capitalised upon because there was not sufficient critical renovation of ideas; long story short, the workers rebellion was not translated into a workers state.

Ideology is the medium of class consciousness and, as we know, the medium is the message. The key benefit of Marshall McLuhan’s media studies was the spotlight he shone on the media themselves, media as physical objects, and the effects they have. For example, (in this case David Sarnoff, pioneer American broadcaster) people often advise that the “products of modern science are not in themselves good or bad; it is the way that they are used that determines their value”.

Suppose we were to say, “Apple Pie is in itself neither good nor bad; it is the way that it is used that determines its value”. Or “the Smallpox Virus is in itself neither good nor bad; it is the way that it is used that determines its value”. Again, “Firearms are in themselves neither good nor bad; it is the way that they are used that determines their value”.

A useful point for consideration, the ideology of Protestantism helped found capitalism. Not because of some supposed work-ethic, plenty of harsh toil had been carried before anyone pondered the nature of a personal god, but because its dispute with Catholicism over humanity’s relationship to the divine was in effect an argument over the individual’s relationship to authority. “No King But Jesus” is a roundabout call for a republic.

But why does this matter? One of the crucial points about ideology, specific ideologies, is why do they arise when they do. As Frederick Engels pointed out, early socialism was utopian because:

What was wanted was the individual man of genius, who has now arisen and who understands the truth. That he has now arisen, that the truth has now been clearly understood, is not an inevitable event, following of necessity in the chains of historical development, but a mere happy accident. He might just as well have been born 500 years earlier, and might then have spared humanity 500 years of error, strife, and suffering.

So, Protestantism didn’t just happen to rise up during the feudal era to attack it, it arose out of the feudal era, part of it but against it (and eventually to be supplanted by more advanced articulations of bourgeois ideology). There is no debate about a personal versus an impersonal god without print technology and the beginnings of mass literacy. There are no ideas apart from the means of articulating them.

We exist in a state of media saturation, to the point where we do not regard the effects such media have upon us. We live in the medium of Earth’s atmosphere. We do not notice it because our bodies are evolved to live at around sea-level pressure; we live at the very bottom of an ocean of air. You can only get a handle on this when you climb a large mountain, get into a submarine or a spacecraft.

We tend not to notice the dominant ideology, the collection of ideas based around the point of view of the dominant class in our society. It is only when we are outside that medium that we see it for what it is. The recent public sector general strike in Britain, baby step thought it might have been, was amongst other things an important blow struck against the prevailing ideology, a temporary exodus transporting millions of people (not just the strikers) out of neo-liberalism, austerity and atomisation.

McLuhan’s strength is that he looks at the effect of technology on consciousness. It is easy to accept that electronic media creates almost instant global communication, and thereby bridges the gap between cause and effect, core and perhipery in the public mind. You can extrapolate from this. We have lived through a period of growing gated bourgeois communities, increasingly militarised policing, the enclosure of more and more public space, and so forth. The mass media batters away, the poor are dangerous, deracinated and, look, they're living among us. It’s all very logical.

But there is one clear problem with techno-determinism. Take something like the Canary Wharf Complex in East London. To the bourgeois Londoner it is a sleek monument to their power. The working class Londoner would be forgiven if they found it a cold, bewildering and unwelcome place (built upon the ruins of a former trade union stronghold let’s not forget). Technology, mass media live inside the greater medium of class society; that is the message they carry to us, everywhere, all the time.

The end of democracy

2011-12-06T10:41:00.007Z

There are technocratic governments in Greece and Italy, formed to enforce austerity. They may cry tears at what they have to do, the sacrifices you have to make, but you still have to make them.

The democratic impulse is an obstacle to austerity. People don't vote to be fleeced, not generally (hence, also, the general trend of declining election participation in supposedly advanced democracies). There is active vote rigging, suppression and violence going on in Russia right now. Russia has been ruled by a former KGB agent for rather too long. According to the NAACP the American political establishment is preparing something similar:

In its report, Defending Democracy: Confronting Modern Barriers to Voting Rights in America, the NAACP explores the voter suppression measures taking place particularly in southern and western states.

Fourteen states have passed a total of 25 measures that will unfairly restrict the right to vote, among black and Hispanic voters in particular.

The new measures are focused – not coincidentally, the association insists – in states with the fastest growing black populations (Florida, Georgia, Texas and North Carolina) and Latino populations (South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee). The NAACP sees this as a cynical backlash to a surge in ethnic minority voting evident in 2008.

Barack Obama is part of that establishment. His election in 2008 chipped a small crack in the American political monolith, also known as the Southern Strategy, in short the means by which whatever way the people vote they get a solidly conservative government. However flaky his programme might have been, Obama inspired the Black and Hispanic working class to become politically active, and that is dangerous.

Space news

2011-12-05T15:03:00.002Z

Planetary Habitability Laboratory (PHL), has produced an online list of potentially habitable exoplanets. That habitability will then be means tested. The most habitable planets will be turned into Private Finance Planets. Any creatures living on planets exceeding the habitability limit will be forced to move to Croydon or Romford.

In other news

2011-12-02T10:24:00.001Z

Francis Maude's publicly funded pension is £43,825 a year with a pot of £731,883
David Cameron's publicly funded pension is £32,978 a year with a pot of £550,725
George Osborne's publicly funded pension is £32,978 a year with a pot of £550,725
Nick Cleggs's publicly funded pension is £28,404 a year with a pot of £440,000
Eric Pickles' publicly funded pension is £43,825 a year with a pot of £731,883
Vince Cable's publicly funded pension is £39,551 a year with a pot of £660,507
Andrew Lansley's publicly funded pension is £39,551 a year with a pot of £660,507
Danny Alexander's publicly funded pension is £26,404 a year with pot of £440,942

With antimonies like these...!

2011-12-02T10:05:00.004Z

Who needs, um... ontology? And that's as far as I got with Historical Materialism. But seriously, a note on the contradictions of class baiting: In order to get their buddy Clarkson off the hook rightwing commentators have had to insist it was all said in jest (c'mon, any fool knows Clarkson does want to see us all shot, he just doesn't think it's practical right now). The trouble is the strike wasn't in jest, hence the 'joke' fell flat. Days ago the right was screaming blue murder about the cost to the economy, now they have to about face and dismiss the strikers as having non-jobs.

Similarly Cameron has claimed Wednesday's strike was a damp squib and, 24 hours later, obviously big.

Which is it, we're left wondering? For rightwingers it's both and everything.

Never forget

2011-12-01T14:45:00.001Z

You pay his wages - he advocates your murder.

2011-12-01T09:44:00.010Z

And in the topsy-turvy Land of Chocolate most right-wingers inhabit that's fair exchange no robbery. If Top Gear is Britain's cultural expression of fascism I suppose we have to comfort ourselves it's ironic fascism (it's all just a joke you see, can't you take murder fantasies with a pinch of salt?). If Clarkson and co get the upper hand we'll have ironic jackboots, kitsch swastikas and self-reflexive zyklon B.

[Extra note] The point about Jeremy Clarkson's statement is not that it shows him to be a violent minded idiot, there are plenty of those in the world. Clarkson and his Top Gear cohort consistently push aggressive, bigoted language from a public platform into everyday life, acclimatising people to violence. Where does it all end? One example is Anders Breivik, the Utoya mass murderer, who was inspired and encouraged to do what he did by over a decade of bigoted mainstream language and attitude directed against multiculuralism and immigration in general, muslims in particular. Amongst other things Breivik was a Clarkson fan.

It's a small thing in the long run but you can make your complaint here.

Why do the rich keep getting richer?

2011-11-28T16:27:00.002Z

It might have something to do with union membership.

Gideon Osborne's £5bn gamble to stave off recession

2011-11-28T09:55:00.005Z

Really...? £5 billion to halt further economic recession...? It makes you wonder if Gideon Osborne realises the seriousness of the situation, the damage his government has been inflicting, on top of the damage caused by the banking system and stock market. What's he going to do, put it all on black? No, it seems:

Some of the £5bn extra capital investment over the next three years will go to a £600m schools programme to fund an extra 40,000 places by 2014.

Well, that's nice of him, but is this money going to Michael Gove's 'free' schools, or will comprehensives get some of the money? What else is there?

In what is rapidly turning into a full scale "game-changer" budget to stave off the impact of collapsing European economies, Osborne will also announce plans to:

• Help energy-intensive industries.

• Increase the bank levy to maintain an annual income from banks of £2.5bn.

• Place a cap on announced rail fare rises.

• Defer a 3p rise in fuel duty which was due to be introduced in January

• Remove health and safety bureaucracy from 1 million self-employed people as the next stage of labour market deregulation.

Does any of this apply to you? I suppose it would if you were a commuter or a small businessman/woman, i.e. Tory voting fodder. Also:

The chancellor may also be able to garner funds for the investment from overseas. China Investment Corporation is considering investing in the infrastructure of the UK, according to Lou Jiwei, the fund's chairman. The $410bn Chinese fund "is keen to team up with fund managers or participate through a public-private partnership in the UK infrastructure sector as an equity investor," Lou writes in today's Financial Times.

Britain's public works will be further tied up with private capital, the same kind of private capital New Labour used to fund projects that were late, badly made and expensive.

In other news, fewer and fewer people are satisfied with Tory shit served up as ice cream. There will be a public sector strike on Wednesday, not in France or Greece or Egypt but in Britain of all places, phew! What's more it has majority support: 61% of all polled, 67% of women and 79% of young people.

Profits and the labour theory of value - as explained by the Tories

2011-11-24T15:47:00.002Z

See here:

With less then a week to go before the biggest walkout in decades, the ministers in charge of pensions negotiations, Francis Maude and Danny Alexander, said the strikes would impose a "significant hit to the economy at a very challenging time" as they urged public sector staff to go to defy their unions and turn up to work next Wednesday.

If 2.5m workers striking for a day costs the economy £500m, that's £200 per worker; compare that to how much they actually get paid per day. That's the source of profit, right there.

Never forget, folks, organised workers should not be allowed to hold the country to ransom, bring the economy and our society to its knees... Only the Tories and their banker chums are allowed to do that. Public sector workers are on strike in the first instant because a 3% across the board increase in worker pension contributions, which amounts to all but a day's wages each month. Hello? Anyone heard of effective demand? Who has got a day's wages going spare to donate to bankers in need? No one I know.

Call careers information. Have you got yourself an occupation?

2011-11-19T17:30:00.004Z

A million unemployed kids and all Cameron and co, mofos who never had to work a day in their lives, have is gas about 'aspiration' and 'opportunity'.

They should just change Britain to Poundland and have done with it. Abandon hope or take up struggle. All out on November 30th.

A week away from finking...

2011-11-16T15:08:00.002Z

For very, very personal reasons (happy ones)... but here's something to put down; not a match for something like this, but what is...?

Rosa Luxemburg's argument with Eduard Bernstein, known as Reform or Revolution, is rightly celebrated. There are two obstacles to even roughly applying her arguments today, one is contemporary to her time, one to ours.

The first one is well rehearsed. Luxemburg's argument was with the figurehead of the revisionist movement within the SPD at the end of the 19th century. It was an intra-party argument. Rosa Luxemburg won, in argument. The trouble is arguments are won in practice, to the extent that honest champions of one set of ideas can end up bringing another set to life. The ideology of the SPD was revolutionary, the day to day practice of the SPD was strictly legal.

Her revolutionary career is negative proof of the old argument, you need a revolutionary organisation (however you might see it) to test and win revolutionary ideas.

But the second difficulty, our difficulty is this, who are the reformists? If there was one lesson the last decade has taught us all it is the modern system of government is impervious to the people's will. The next time a Labour left tries to assert how realistic and serious they are, compared to your (simultaneously) utopian and dangerous designs, it's worth parrying them with this. Who honestly still thinks you can change the world for the better through parliament (let alone bring about something like socialism)? Social democrats are the true believers. In this age revolutionaries are the realists, social democrats are utopian.

But, back to the first point, reformism does not arise out of a collective mind, but a social body. Reformism is not a bourgeois minority sport but the formalised version of the general mixture of impressions working class people gain in ordinary life. It is part of life. Who is trying to practice it these days?

Autonomists are often suggested to be the new reformists. One striking connection is the famous aphorism of Bernstein's, “the movement is everything, the final goal nothing”. A modern (and rather sectarian, if I may say so) version is “we are the demands”.

Another connection I believe is the rejection of violent confrontation. This can just be a tactical question. If you are outnumbered and outmatched by an opponent it would be wise to duck battle. This was of course the origin of the SPD's tactics, building a party in a semi-absolutist state. But if this is worked up into a strategic point trouble begins. The problem is obvious; you may reject violence but will violence reject you?

Lets not go too far, neither autonomists nor socialists think the system can be used to bring about communal democracy. Both favour encouraging ordinary people into direct activity, rather than passively engaging them through voting and lobbying etc. Many autonomists would regard themselves as revolutionaries, and who's going to stop them from doing so?

It's worth adding though, there's a difference between revolutionary activity and revolution. Autonomists often see socialists as waiting for a revolution for their cue to spring into action. Any who cares to notice knows this is hardly the case. There is also a link between modern autonomism and the sixties counter-culture, through the slogan “turn on, tune in, drop out”; drop out being the key element, you have to abandon bourgeois society in order to fight it. The sectarian streak in autonomism tends to see autonomist activity as revolution and everything else as missing the mark; “we are the demands”.

So autonomism is not reformism, but is related. There is call for a fraternal, reasoned critique of autonomist ideas, as distinct from traditional points made in the dialogue with reformists. A start may be that autonomism has a strong ethical dimension but no political economy (what it has is borrowed from neo-liberal theory).

Stasi

2011-11-09T15:34:00.000Z

World of Stupid 2... Godwin's Revenge!

2011-11-09T09:54:00.011Z

Rhetoric 101: everyone is opposed to fascism, find a link between your opponents and fascism, even if it's just a cheapjack neologism like "feminazi" or, in this case gaystapo, and you will prevail in your argument. See here:

An Anglican newspaper has defended the publication of an article that compares gay rights campaigners to Nazis, saying the author has "pertinent views".

Pertinent is a synonym for relevant. What are these views relevant to?

In his column [Alan] Craig referred to a number of high-profile legal cases where Christians claim to have been penalised for their views on homosexuality.

He wrote: "Having forcibly – and understandably – rectified the Versailles-type injustices and humiliations foisted on the homosexual community, the UK's victorious Gaystapo are now on a roll. Their gay-rights stormtroopers take no prisoners as they annex our wider culture, and hotel owners, registrars, magistrates, doctors, counsellors, and foster parents … find themselves crushed under the pink jackboot.

"Thanks especially to the green light from a permissive New Labour government, the gay Wehrmacht is on its long march through the institutions and has already occupied the Sudetenland social uplands of the Home Office, the educational establishment, the politically-correct police. Following a plethora of equalities legislation, homosexuals are now protected and privileged by sexual orientation regulations and have achieved legal equality by way of civil partnerships. But it's only 1938 and Nazi expansionist ambitions are far from sated."

Yes, before you know it they'll be sending heterosexuals to the gas chambers. Pertinent, in this case means relevant to Alan Craig's vivid imagination (as a side note - I hope, for the sake of sanity that Alan Craig is mixing his metaphors and doesn't actually think the Gestapo led the French Revolution).

It may not have always been the case, privileged, white, heterosexual men have insisting that they are the most downtrodden in society. It is a nice illustration though of the superiority/fear dialectic of bigotry. Bigots simultaneously feel superior yet consistently undermined by the object of their hate. They have the upper hand, yet everywhere they see inevitable doom, in this case hallucinations of pink swastikas. They may be dominant, but their enemy is vital and alive.

There's almost certainly a degree of projection here too. It's rather like Martin Amis's characterisation of Muslims as fascists, followed by thought experiments in a final solution.

We may want to give Alan Craig the benefit of the doubt on this account. I certainly have never heard of him before, and let's not forget for every one of him there may be many Giles Frasers are there?. But why bother? He sounds like an absolute scumbag.

A world of stupid...

2011-11-08T11:57:00.005Z

Apparently:

Britain is losing its moral compass to such a degree that the armed forces can no longer rely on young recruits to behave in a way once expected by senior officers, General Lord Dannatt, a former head of the army will say on Tuesday.

He may be suggesting this because there was systematic torture of prisoners in Iraq. But that was a (well organised) one off, surely... OK, so there was internment and torture in Ireland in the 1970s... internment and torture in Kenya in the 1950s... back in the 1850s there was this weird phase of executing Hindu rebels by strapping them to cannons, but in no way does this constitute an abbreviated inventory of British army torture... Only a fool or a communist would suggest as much.

Also:

Dannatt, a committed Christian...

Is clearly not so committed that he's heard about the ten commandments, particularly the sixth, "thou shalt not kill"; fairly unambiguous, wouldn't you say? Not to mention difficult to reconcile with soldiery but ho hum...

Arise, ye starvlings... and save the music industry

2011-11-05T13:16:00.002Z

From all the fucking hippies clogging up London with wax jackets and vintage bikes. Here's why:

Yet there is something profoundly odd about the hyperbolic championing of Florence Welch. At a time when a climate of burgeoning radicalism should be reorienting our culture so that hitherto suppressed voices from the margins might be heard, why is the Great British Hope of 2011 a fashion-obsessed, privately educated young woman from a family of privileged metropolitan movers and shakers? In fact, shouldn't the red carpet treatment afforded to Welch make us question the extent to which we are all complicit in a top-heavy system that no longer has any qualms about poshness and ostentatious consumer decadence?

The huge popularity of FATM's hermetic, Bloomsbury-meets-Björk aesthetic is symptomatic of a society that has become almost irretrievably divided without knowing it. Though it often makes the right noises and appears sympathetic to reform, liberal, middle-class Britain has abandoned counterculture and true radicalism for an unfortunate lingering obsession with escapist lifestyle fantasy. While inequalities have mushroomed in the UK in recent years, the British bourgeoisie has increasingly indulged in a way of life that seeks to cover over its affluence with vague gestures at radical chic, pastoral myth, and down-at-heel "folksiness".

Please elaborate:

The most aloof, entitled middle-class since the Edwardian period has become inured to its position at the top of an emphatically inegalitarian social hierarchy. Meanwhile, deprived of its vocabulary and identity, the real "folk" or working class has increasingly receded from view over the past couple of decades, as several commentators this year have noted. And the pervasive notion that There Is No Alternative has been compounded by the fact that the alternative, proletarian, bottom-up traditions of the past (independent music, folk culture, communitarian politics) have been casually appropriated by a liberal-conservative elite that blithely attaches itself to faux-populist causes such as "big society", nu-folk music, Blue Labour, and Green Toryism. FATM's catwalk pastiche of Kate Bush's wayward, subversive English eccentricity is merely the latest in this series of top-down co-options of "grassroots" marginality.

The answer:

So what is the alternative? Perhaps the point is that we politicians, journalists, academics, and indie musicians are part of the problem rather than the solution, and are likely to carry on being so until substantial reform of the political system allows the genuinely marginalised, alternative sectors of the world a chance to shine.

The author probably isn't suggesting workers power, but something like the above solution should be applied much more broadly, to all of our society.

What is Stalinism and why does it matter?

2011-11-04T10:25:00.014Z

1. Stalinism is a form of statecraft practiced in Russia somewhere between 1924 and 1953. It is a series of policies, some of which ended with Stalin's death, some of which endured. If Stalinism is this and nothing more then it is an historical curiosity.

2. Stalinism is a system of government best described as bureaucratic state capitalism, where the state is fused with the economy but the imperative is capital accumulation. Its value and necessity depends on your perspective. From the point of view of the group effectively governing Russia during the late 1920s Stalinism, as it came to be, was essential and justified. Stalinism was, from the point of view of Russian history, progressive. It made Russia into a modern society. But that's not our perspective. Capitalism is a global system, and was a global system back when the USSR was founded, even back when the Russian Revolution began. Capitalism did not need developing, it was ripe to fall. This has bearing on the 3rd point.

3. Stalinism is a political strategy whereby Communist Parties around the world were effectively agents of Russian foreign policy. This meant different things in different countries. The consistent theme was Russia need to survive and compete within the capitalist world. Though the Communist Party contained many serious revolutionaries it's political strategy was never revolutionary. Without having an Actually Existing Socialism to serve surviving Communist Parties in the core capitalist countries adapted their strategy only slightly, by positioning themselves as left social democrats, to the point where in several countries they are almost the only true surviving social democratic parties, the official social democrats having become social liberal.

4. So, ok, Stalinism is not a strategy for transcending capitalism, why does it matter? Firstly it matters for the simple, ideological point regarding all revolutions leading to tyranny/co-option. Secondly, it matters because the violent intervention from the top of Russian society around 1927/8, which created Stalinism, did lead to significant change. Can change from below compete, full democracy, self-government compete? The fact that the Russian Revolution ended up founding a bureaucratic command economy when it started as an experiment in communal democracy would suggest to some that such democracy is utopian. We can only make extrapolations from the present into the future, but there're three things worth noting:

(i) For centuries now significant mass movements that have challenged the status quo have developed communal forms of democracy, even if only in embryo. Why would a utopia keep cropping up throughout history?
(ii) The development of capitalism prepares us in part for communal democracy. An example; the republican ideal of citizenship, of popular sovereignty (even if deferred to an elected representative) means that each is able, or should be able, to take their place as head of state. This also applies (in an obviously more round-a-about way) to constitutional monarchies.
(iii) It's a sore day for humanity if it's still not capable of liberating itself. Without change from below, at this point in time, human civilisation is almost certainly doomed.

More on the Greek referendum

2011-11-02T09:14:00.001Z

Six years and still no book deal...

2011-11-01T16:11:00.005Z

Through the Scary Door, 97th worst political blog in Britain, is six years old today. Vulgar Marxism, vulgar jokes and music videos, what more could you want... apart from information... insight... moral uplift... jazz...?

Metronomy - Holiday

Elastica - Car Song

Jimi Goodwin - Bird Effect

Brian Eno - Glitch

Live in the real world... there is no money... etc

2011-11-01T10:39:00.008Z

There is 'no money' because the bankers and stock market jockeys are deliberately withdrawing it. European stock markets are tumbling on the news that the Greeks will be given some kind of say over their future, through a referendum on the current debt package.

Our capitalists are in no doubt as to how popular they are, how welcome their policies are. They are generally realistic when their precious, precious wealth is on the line.

Functioning democracy is seen as an obstacle to capital accumulation. Beware, Greece has had dictatorships before, in living memory. If the Greek working class lets up for a moment the ruling class wouldn't hesitate to impose another dictatorship if it felt it needed to.

Vote, vote, vote - vote while you still can!

2011-10-31T15:00:00.002Z

Because, by 2020, universal suffrage will be deemed bad for business and abolished.

A fool or a knave?

2011-10-31T10:12:00.005Z

Immigration and race are right wing wedge issues. The ruling class's wants a stratified and atomised work force in order to up the general rate of exploitation, boosting profits. That's the plan, anyway.

Modern governments are compelled to violently manipulate the working population. That's why, regardless of their political persuasion, a generation of Home Secretaries have tried to outbid their predecessors in obnoxious authoritarianism.

The only trouble is, at least for the Labour Party, is, as (former Home Secretary) David Blunkett has pointed out:

You can't outdo the Conservatives in relation to immigration.

When you play this game you aren't triangulating but helping to shift political discourse to the right.

If Blunkett is sincere there is a degree of irony involved. He was the Minister who introduced the Britishness Test (because nationality can not only be measured but sorted into increments). Blunkett also had the children of asylum seekers segregated from other children to prevent swamping; yes, your children are being swamped by a tiny minority and no it's not to facilitate divide and rule, preventing local families getting dangerously familiar with potential refugees... oh no. Blunkett also did his bit to improve race relations in Britain by describing the young men incarcerated for trying to stop violent nazis from rampaging through their neighbourhoods as whining maniacs.

Erstwhile war-supporters used to say things along the line of "it's all very well making these points with the benefit of hindsight". The obvious answer was that many of us seemed to have the benefit of foresight. If Blunkett knew all this before and during his career in government then he is a deeply cynical man. If he's only just realised this now he's merely a total and utter fool.

Brian Coleman is a fat piece of shit

2011-10-27T13:22:00.006Z

In the Evening Standard of all papers:

Brian Coleman, a senior member of Boris Johnson's administration and leading Barnet councillor, responded to Sharada Osman's appeal for help by telling her that people in her situation should "deal with their own issues".

Ms Osman, 39, today accused him of "hypocrisy" and called for an apology. Part-time student Ms Osman has lived in North Finchley for six years with her six-year-old son Kylan, who has learning difficulties.

She wrote this month to Mr Coleman, who is said to earn almost £120,000 a year, asking for help after her private landlord increased the rent for her home from £950 to £1,100. In an emotional email, unemployed Ms Osman told the Tory Assembly member that she was writing to him "out of desperation in hope that someone can offer some help and guidance". Ms Osman told Mr Coleman that she wanted to avoid having to apply for a council house.

Mr Coleman, chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, replied nine days later and suggested she turn to the private sector, saying: "There will never be enough council houses available."

Ms Osman, who made clear she was living in private, rented accommodation, replied and said: "I am in complete shock by your lack of empathy and regard for my situation."

One hour late Mr Coleman replied and said: "Lack of empathy?????? Councillors simply cannot conjure housing out of thin air and the private sector is your only option. That is a fact.

"I am afraid you have to live in the real world where the country has no money and residents will have to deal with their own issues rather than expecting 'the system' to sort their lives out. This correspondence is now closed."

It's the last line that's the most infuriating, I think; don't bother me again, peasant. I'd also like to point out a common Tory canard, it's been on my mind for a while: "there is no money". No money? Maybe Brian Coleman is paid in kind, perhaps £120,000 worth of pies. He looks jolly enough, like Father Christmas, but in reverse.

Roobin's extra note: as was pointed out in the comment section, thanks to Finchley Methodist Church, a charity, Brian Coleman's monthly rent is £546; half that of his constituent, Ms Osman. Link here. The peasants may not be living in the real world, but Mr Coleman's clearly living in the Land of Chocolate.

For no raisin

2011-10-27T10:24:00.003Z

Some Fast Show sketches.

The Off Roaders:

Fat, Sweaty Coppers:

Indie Club:

And finally John Actor is... MONKFISH!

Hmm... How to express it... Are words even adequate any more?

2011-10-26T17:08:00.006Z

Rents are going up. Wages are stagnating. Housing benefits have been capped. Now the Tories want to make it a crime to see an empty house and try to live in it.

Kenneth Clarke has moved to toughen up his controversial sentencing bill by criminalising squatting and strengthening the law of self-defence for those who confront intruders in their own homes.

The decision to ban squatting in residential buildings has been taken despite warnings that making trespass a criminal offence could also affect sit-ins and occupations and lead to an increase in the most vulnerable homeless people sleeping rough.

Kenneth Clarke, Secretary for 'Justice', was caught recently fobbing off half his council tax and claiming the mortgage on his second home as a parliamentary expense.

On 12 May 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that Clarke had "flipped" his council tax. He had told the Parliamentary authorities that his main home was in his Rushcliffe constituency, enabling him to claim a second homes allowance on his London home and leaving the taxpayer to foot the bill for the council tax due on that property. However, he told Rushcliffe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire that he spent so little time at his constituency address that his wife Gillian should qualify for a 25% council tax (single person’s) discount, saving the former chancellor around £650 per year. Land registry records showed that Clarke did not have a mortgage on his home in Nottinghamshire, where he has lived since 1987. He instead held a mortgage on his London house, which he had most recently charged to the taxpayer at £480 per month

Would it be so bad if his two (no doubt luxurious) homes burned to the ground?

Thought Police Note: I am not saying anyone should do this. It would be a lot a time and effort wasted not affecting government policy in the slightest, not to mention risking a life or two. But wouldn't you savour the irony of Kenneth Clarke kipping on David Cameron's sofa while he got his life back together (as tens of thousands of people are having to do right now, thanks to the Tory government)?

But seriously, folks...

2011-10-25T15:09:00.004Z

Autonomists disagree with Marxists, generally speaking, in that they don't see socialism (or whatever you'd call an egalitarian democracy) as immanent within capitalism. Hence the need, one assumes, to create autonomous space outside of capitalism. If that is the case then autonomists cannot help but agree with Tory MP Louise Mensch's contention; you cannot criticise capitalism from within it.

But, if you do agree, you're missing one of the most basic philosophical points assumed (assumed but not often understood). It is generally given that to critique something you have to know it. The surest form of knowledge comes from a combination of theory and practice, hence Engels's conclusion that the working class, which both thinks and does, is the inheritor of German classical philosophy.

You cannot criticise capitalism, practically, theoretically or practically/theoretically without being within it. So enjoy your coffee.

Hearken, self-styled revolutionaries

2011-10-25T10:59:00.007Z

Thanks to the bold effort of Leftie Hippie, working up the concise materialist observations of Tory MP and Living Genius, Louise "if you drink coffee you can't protest" Mensch, we now have The Louise Mensch Beverage Scale of Permitted Capitalist Criticism. Observe:

Level 4
Permitted criticism of capitalism = Total. Academies, Goldman-Sachs, concentration of capital, etc.

To achieve level 4, you must drink untreated mineral water collected yourself from a babbling mountain brook near your hermitage. Of course, you must not boil the water before drinking it, unless you mine the metal to create a kettle yourself. Purchasing so much as a camping kettle with one of those little whistle cap thingies on it basically takes you right back to the level of the Koch brothers.

Famous Level 4s: none.

Level 3
Permitted level of criticism of capitalism = TNCs, sweatshop labour and the military-industrial complex.

To achieve level 3, you are allowed to drink water from the tap, despite its being produced by privatised water companies. You *must not* add Robinsons' Barley Water to it to make a weak lemon drink, however.

Famous Level 3s: basically, this is John Harvey Kellogg.

Level 2
Permitted level of criticism of capitalism = privatised train networks, quality of the gifts in Kinder Surprise.

To achieve level 2, you may drink tap water and fairtrade tea and coffee. On no account must you purchase this coffee from some kind of franchise or drink Ribena. THIS WILL RENDER YOUR UNHAPPINESS WITH TRAIN JOURNEYS NULL AND VOID.

Famous Level 2s: Lucy Mangan, probably.

Level 1
Permitted level of criticism of capitalism = the speed of service in Nando's. AND NOTHING ELSE.

Level 1s will drink Fentiman's lemonade at National Trust gift shops, then think NOTHING of washing it down with R Whites. Why don't these people just FUCK OFF AND DIE? They probably drink Ty-Phoo, the despicable BASTARDS.

Famous Level 1s: YOU. If you're LUCKY.

Level 0
Permitted level of criticism of capitalism = What on earth makes you think you can criticise capitalism, you insignificant, smelly turd? IT PROVIDES YOUR BEVERAGES.

Level 0s would drink Coca-Cola at a Showcase Cinema, EVEN IF SOMEONE WAS WATCHING.

Famous Level 0s: given the size of the sample, it was hard to narrow it down.

Occupy Space

2011-10-24T12:54:00.000Z

Life of Brian vs Animal Farm

2011-10-24T09:17:00.008Z

The Life of Brian was rebroadcast on Saturday night, I watched it again for the umpteenth time and enjoyed it very much. I love the satire on left-sectarianism, because it's partly true but also in the spirit of the-only-thing-worse-than-being-talked-about-is-not-being-talked-about.

The trouble is LoB a millstone around our necks. A bit like Animal Farm and 1984, it is a work of fiction that's often taken as proving something in real life. Animal Farm doesn't prove that all attempts at socialism end in dictatorship. It is a work of fiction. If it proves anything it shows you shouldn't put pigs in charge of farms.

There are some who use the People's Front of Judea witticism as a form of alert. The left can and does involve itself in bitter, directionless faction fights; but doesn't every political persuasion? Isn't the Labour Party wracked by conflict between the Blairite and Brownite factions? Don't the Tories regularly tear themselves apart over the European Union issue? Aren't the BNP currently imploding?

But not every argument is a fruitless faction fight. Godwin's Law is invoked sometimes too often; occasionally the people we discuss are nazis. The same applies for the People's Front of Judea. Sometimes things have to be debated to a conclusion.

But the Life of Brian is also a prime weapon in Red Baiting. It often shows the red baiter's paradox. Revolutionary socialists are at the same time both Students Waving Placards and a Sinister Worldwide Plot; but they can't be both, they have to be one or the other. Get it right, either the left is too fractious to ever get it together (Life of Brian) or it is full of brilliant, machiavellian schemers secretly bent on absolute power (Animal Farm).

For no raisin

2011-10-21T13:42:00.003Z

On the right LkCa 15, roughly 450 light years away, it is the closest we have to a second pale blue dot. This is a cloud of incandescent gas halfway to becoming a a Jupiter-like planet, discovered through some of the latest tricks in studying distant, faint light. See here.

Naomi Wolf on her recent arrest

2011-10-20T09:21:00.007Z

Link here. The incident began at an evening dinner event called Game Changers 2011 - a group of OWS supporters wanted to speak to Governor Andrew Cuomo.

On our exit, I saw that the protesters had been cordoned off by a now-massive phalanx of NYPD cops and pinned against the far side of the street – far away from the event they sought to address.

I went up and asked them why. They replied that they had been informed that the Huffington Post event had a permit that forbade them to use the sidewalk. I knew from my investigative reporting on NYC permits that this was impossible: a private entity cannot lease the public sidewalks; even film crews must allow pedestrian traffic. I asked the police for clarification – no response.

I went over to the sidewalk at issue and identified myself as a NYC citizen and a reporter, and asked to see the permit in question or to locate the source on the police or event side that claimed it forbade citizen access to a public sidewalk. Finally a tall man, who seemed to be with the event, confessed that while it did have a permit, the permit did allow for protest so long as we did not block pedestrian passage.

I thanked him, returned to the protesters, and said: "The permit allows us to walk on the other side of the street if we don't block access. I am now going to walk on the public sidewalk and not block it. It is legal to do so. Please join me if you wish." My partner and I then returned to the event-side sidewalk and began to walk peacefully arm in arm, while about 30 or 40 people walked with us in single file, not blocking access.

Then a phalanx of perhaps 40 white-shirted senior offices descended out of seemingly nowhere and, with a megaphone (which was supposedly illegal for citizens to use), one said: "You are unlawfully creating a disruption. You are ordered to disperse." I approached him peacefully, slowly, gently and respectfully and said: "I am confused. I was told that the permit in question allows us to walk if we don't block pedestrian access and as you see we are complying with the permit."

If you want an illustration of the fear and loathing in in every copper's (reptile) heart:

He gave me a look of pure hate. "Are you going to back down?" he shouted. I stood, immobilised, for a moment. "Are you getting out of my way?" I did not even make a conscious decision not to "fall back" – I simply couldn't even will myself to do so, because I knew that he was not giving a lawful order and that if I stepped aside it would be not because of the law, which I was following, but as a capitulation to sheer force.

This is the point. If the police break the law what do you do? The police are a legalised crime syndicate, an armed gang employed to solve rich men's problems with force.

Ms Wolf was then arrested.

The police are now telling my supporters that the permit in question gave the event managers "control of the sidewalks". I have asked to see the permit but still haven't been provided with it – if such a category now exists, I have never heard of it; that, too, is a serious blow to an open civil society. What did I take away? Just that, unfortunately, my partner and I became exhibit A in a process that I have been warning Americans about since 2007: first they come for the "other" – the "terrorist", the brown person, the Muslim, the outsider; then they come for you – while you are standing on a sidewalk in evening dress, obeying the law.

The purpose of the War on Terror was not just to shift the balance abroad but at home as well. In many countries government agencies now have sweeping, ill-defined powers. Often you need a permit for most basic aspects of political activity (or if not the cop in question takes it for granted you do) - not so much different to Imperial Germany, where a policeman would sit on every platform in every public meeting to make sure the Kaiser wasn't insulted. We can't all be famous, well-to-do writers, there is only safety in numbers. We must exercise our rights or risk losing them, and at a time of greatest need.

I can haz anti-capitalist transition?

2011-10-20T08:39:00.003Z

Fans of da ant-capitalist transition mites also appreciate this.

News: many and various

2011-10-19T11:08:00.010Z

Sometimes I feel like a right sour old git, but sometimes I have the courage of my convictions, like when I see It's Time to Democratise Money Creation . I just think: "Is it...? Is it really?"

Meanwhile in Chile military service is obligatory, public education is not.

Chile has given nearly 57,000 18-year-olds one month to report for potential military duty, saying the government needs to fill gaps in its armed forces because a nationwide student protest movement has reduced the number of volunteers it usually gets.

Chilean government is preparing for war on someone, probably the Chileans.

New spaceport opens, new tax-funded (but privately owned) $209m spaceport offering $200,000 2 and 1/2 hour flights, 2 and 1/2 hour flights with 5 minutes zero gravity, new spaceport opens for test flight. We at TtSD are all in favour of this, on one condition, they set the controls for the heart of the sun. Blastoff! Feel the world getting lighter!

Follow coverage of the Dale Farm evictions, LIVE! Watch marauding police and bailiffs batter ordinary people, LIVE! Watch people's homes and lives being destroyed, LIVE! Then go back to your business as if nothing's happened.

Not about left and right?

2011-10-18T09:45:00.004Z

This is the statement-cum-list of demands from the London occupation:

1 The current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust. We need alternatives; this is where we work towards them.

2 We are of all ethnicities, backgrounds, genders, generations, sexualities, dis/abilities and faiths. We stand together with occupations all over the world.

3 We refuse to pay for the banks' crisis.

4 We do not accept the cuts as either necessary or inevitable. We demand an end to global tax injustice and our democracy representing corporations instead of the people.

5 We want regulators to be genuinely independent of the industries they regulate.

6 We support the strike on 30 November and the student action on 9 November, and actions to defend our health services, welfare, education and employment, and to stop wars and arms dealing.

7 We want structural change towards authentic global equality. The world's resources must go towards caring for people and the planet, not the military, corporate profits or the rich.

8 We stand in solidarity with the global oppressed and we call for an end to the actions of our government and others in causing this oppression.

9 This is what democracy looks like. Come and join us!

Some vague, some very specific and challenging but, more importantly, if you go to the link and look at the swarm of right wing trolls hurling idiotic abuse at the occupation from the safety of the CiF comment section, the right think it's aimed at them because, well, it is.

More vicious, sectarian carping

2011-10-18T08:40:00.008Z

In attempting to conquer space from capitalism we must give regard to the enemy defending it. The ruling class, in the form of the state has the benefit of prior organisation. An anti-capitalist movement must be equal to this organisation otherwise it will not be effective, unless of course you intend your movement to be merely platonic.

Which begs the question, has there been a serious attempt to put together serious political economy for autonomism, beyond constructing neologisms like precariat? Don't autonomists adopt neo-liberal paradigms (such as the end of the working class, horizontal organisation, power is everywhere and nowhere, grandnarratives are oppressive etc) and simply invert them?

There are two pitfalls to a purely moral opposition to capital. One is voluntarisn, the dangerous kind that can lead to totalitarianism (or would lead, if it were not completely Utopian at this point). The other is platonic, gesture politics, the kind where a demonstration stops to work out the fine details of democratic decision making while the police are swiftly kettling it.

In order to achieve any worthwhile goal you need a tested and trusted political tradition. You can't make one up as you go, least of all pretend you don't need one. Your demonstration has to be about left or right (approximate as those political coordinates may be) or it's about nothing.

It's a shame that some people don't see any viable political tradition that can express their political will, but it's pointless crying over such things. They can't be made to see it. But there are others, often first to the megaphone, who actively seek to keep things primitive and inchoate. As far as I can see we may lose the world, but at least those people get to keep their beautiful souls.

Something about the development of class consciousness

2011-10-17T16:36:00.002Z

Occupy CoL - some observations

2011-10-17T09:33:00.006Z

The picture sums the current situation up. To be blunt anyone who is not rooting for the St Paul's campers is an idiot or a scumbag. I went along to the inital demo to check it out. The following thoughts occur:

(1) A few thousand people put together in a few days by people working over the internet is not to be sniffed at. Of course larger, formal organisations can deliver greater numbers and have them better organised, which leads on to...
(2) There is not enough time to faff around with demonstrative democracy when there's a job to be done - if you're going to occupy the stock exchange work out how you're going to occupy it (preferably don't advertise it to the police first) occupy it and, once that's done, then you vote on stuff...
(3) If you were asked to rebuild the pyramids you wouldn't round up 10,000 slaves, you'd buy a load of JCBs. If there is no prohibition on amplifying your voice in the City of London there's no need for a human megaphone - it's just frivilous. If this was anything else but the beginning of something you'd be tempted to think the camp is just mass playacting.
(4) Da sound of da police: According to the Graun:

The Metropolitan police said some "containment" had been in place to prevent a breach of the peace

... An utterly baffling reversal of logic. The only purpose of kettling is to give the police total physical superiority in order to provoke and frustrate, thereby allowing them to pick off 'troublemakers'.

The cops made a serious bodge when they didn't close down the nearby shops and restaurants before putting their kettle in place. It meant they had to 'assess' (their exact word) who was legitimate and who wasn't.

PC Brains: Why're you here, sonny jim?

Person: Well it's just such a beautiful day...

Brains: Not good enough.

Regards whether this was collective imprisonment I also heard from two separate plods that it's not imprisonment because you're not being held under a roof; which is a novel definition, one that may have been comfort to Ivan Denisovich.

I felt lucky to get out when I did... Once they weeded out the tourists, I expected a police riot on Saturday. Give them time... or don't, actually, give the campers your support.

True or False?

2011-10-14T15:20:00.002Z

Jeremy Irons
Britney Spears
Stevie Nicks
Ryan Giggs
Axl Rose
William Shatner
Thora Hird
Shabba Ranks
Busta Rhymes
Gordon Burns
Mark Spitz
Muddy Waters
Roger Waters
Bill Withers
Jimmy Greaves
Chaka Khan
Brian Cant
Jedward
Lee Majors
Stephanie Powers

Yay! Radiohead can be bothered!

2011-10-14T14:16:00.002Z

I'm a bit mean, a bit unfair, they all have lives and families, bur, rejoice, Radiohead are going to make another album.

They have planned recording sessions for December and January, and at least one song – Come to Your Senses – is nearly finished. "It's a five-minute rehearsal, but it has the essence of what we need," he said. "There are a few of those. It would be fun to have them ready when we go to play next year. I don't know how we would release them."

Unlike the boring old Dadrock fans who still pine for The Bends, I only got into The 'Head after Kid A. The King of Limbs was a fine, if slight, album, crying out for a quick follow-up, a companion record. Here is one of the highlights of the last album, Separator:

Also, a possible album track, The Daily Mail:

Because everything looks bad if you remember it

2011-10-14T12:53:00.004Z

Iain Duncan Smith is mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore:

Campaigners accused the welfare secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, of "losing his cool" after the cabinet minister launched an extraordinary attack against a charity for challenging the government's proposed housing benefit reforms in the courts, describing the action as "ridiculous … irresponsible behaviour (and) an ill-judged PR stunt" which resulted in "a massive waste of taxpayers' money and court time".

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) had sought to overturn the government's cap on housing benefit, arguing in the high court that such a move would result in the "social cleansing" of expensive areas of the UK.

How dare anyone attempt to use the state and law to anyone's benefit...? Anyone except defence consultants and arms dealers... and Vodafone... and News Corporation... not forgetting the City of London... How dare they point out the likely shortfalls of my policies?

The caps mean that benefits paid to the poor to cover rents cannot exceed £250 a week for a one-bedroom property, £290 for two bedrooms, £340 for three bedrooms and £400 for four bedrooms. The government's own assessment shows that groups affected include people with disabilities, teenage mothers and ethnic minority families.

Charities had argued that the effect would be felt first in the capital, saying 9,000 London households facing would have to leave their homes as a result of the caps – and about 4,600 would be unable to find anywhere else to live "locally".

This could mean upwards of 20,000 children having to move, 14,000 out of their local area, resulting in disruption to education, health and social services.

Oh that's how. It could be argued that the way to reduce the housing benefit bill would be to tackle unemployment, poverty pay, introduce rent control and a building and renovation programme (it's not as if there isn't large unemployment in the construction sector, hey!). But that would involve siding with the poor against employers and landlords, and that would be wrong, wrong, WRONG!

Jim Crows again...

2011-10-13T08:52:00.005Z

The state of Alabama has passed a law making immigration all but a crime in itself. The same law also allows private prisons to use prisoners far more extensively for work. A Guardian writer wonders where this is going?

The difference between Alabama and adjoining states is that it is willing to go further down this track. Recently, John McMillan, agriculture commissioner, proposed that the farm work left behind by immigrant workers be supplied with inmate labor. Decatur, a private detention center about 50 miles to the north-west of Alabama, which had been unable to find jobs for inmates, has now witnessed record numbers of requests for labor (for an estimated 150 detainees a day).

So, here is how it goes. First, the state passes a harsh immigration law. Then, it detains large numbers of immigrants. Third, private prisons (LCS, CCA, GEO) receive fresh inmates. And finally, the artificially created labor shortage is supplied by the new inmates. Does this sound like modern-day slavery to anyone?

It has been well observed that the American prison industry is huge. The justice system is a racist system, the cutting edge of a racist society, disproportionately punishing ethnic minorities. Work is effectively forced. Slavery has effectively been restored.

But the relation of work to compulsion and control. We are all wage slaves. We don't need a whip, merely an alarm clock to make us fall into line. We don't have to work for anyone in particular, but we have to work for someone. What the capitalist class wants is, in effect, labour like water. It can turn the tap off and on as and when it needs to.

The capitalist class's plan, it's only plan, for dealing with the current depression is to hold down costs, especially wages, and export. Individually this makes sense, as a collective this is madness, but competitive accumulation drives this system, the first point of view must dominate. Racist laws such as the one passed in Alabama are not just an attack on a people but a class, an experiment in setting a new, lower baseline in working class life. A portion of the working class will go from working for next to nothing to all but nothing, a further downward pressure on all working people, at least in Alabama. It is another illustration why the working class, if it is to be a class for itself, for its own interests, must be staunchly anti-racist.

Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists’ statement on the massacre of Copts at Maspero

2011-10-12T12:02:00.000Z

Link

Glory to the martyrs of Bloody Sunday
Shame on the military and the reactionaries
The Revolutionary Socialists send sincere condolences to the families of the peaceful demonstrators who were murdered by the bullets of the Central Security Forces and crushed by the military’s armoured cars after they came on the night of 9 October to defend the right of Coptic Christians to freedom and equality.

The police repression of the demonstrations is an extension of Mubarak’s policies, just as it is a continuation of the policies of oppression of the Copts which goes hand-in-hand with a policy of divide and rule between Christian and Muslim working people, while the bosses and the military from both sides enjoy the fruits of their hard labour. And at the same time as these events, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has announced new decisions which will assist the followers of the old regime in their takeover of parliament, in order to tighten their grip once again.

The goal of the counter-revolution led by the Supreme Council at this moment is to distract the masses in preparation for striking a blow at the revolution. The military’s crime is an expression of their fear, and the fear of their internal and external allies of developments in our continuing revolution.

Over the last three weeks more than half a million working people, Muslim and Christian have joined the struggle, in the historic strikes by teachers, public transport workers, doctors, irrigation ministry workers and others. Muslim and Christian have been on strike together, and they have joined the sit-ins together. Sometimes they have faced repression, at other times they have been victorious. Their struggle has provided the finest examples of how to erase the false divisions which our exploiters impose on us for their own benefit.

This coalescence between Muslims and Christians proves the interconnections between the struggle for social justice on one hand, side-by-side with our fight to defend full equality for the Copts and all the oppressed in this country.

Meanwhile Mubarak’s generals continue to use the blood of the workers and peasants who fell in battle during their past wars with Israel to glorify themselves and their role in history. The truth is that the policy of the Military Council is an extension of Mubarak’s policy of weakness and subservience to the Americans and the Zionists. The generals have not taken any position against the continued aggression of the Zionists against our brothers in Palestine, or even over their killing of Egyptian soldiers. The Military Council responded with silence, and with the crushing of demonstrations demanding the rights of the martyrs.

The perpetrators of the massacre at Maspero are not only those who took part in the killing in person; soldiers and those the military and the Interior Ministry like to call “honest citizens”, the thugs which the Interior Ministry put into action and some of the reactionary religious forces which spout sectarian rhetoric and whose followers are themselves directly involved in the crimes of burning churches and incitement to tear down buildings in the name of religion. They did not commit the massacre of Maspero on their own. Their accomplices are all those who published ‘facts’ in order to mislead the masses, all those who justified the slaughter in cold blood, and all those who refused to see that these are crimes against humanity and not only crimes against the Copts.

We will continue to defend our revolution, and the people’s right to free expression, to protest, demonstrate and strike, in order to restore our stolen rights, and to cleanse the country of the roots of corruption, which is still poisoning our revolution and attempting to overturn it.

In defence of freedom of expression, we declare our condemnation of the attack by the Military Council on the 25 January and Al-Hurra TV stations because they were broadcasting the massacres committed by the army and police that night.

While we know that it will probably not wipe away the tears or quench the burning loss of a son or loved one last night, we swear to continue the struggle for the success of the revolution, so that our country can become a nation of equality, freedom and justice.

The Revolutionary Socialists
4am, 10 October 2011

Raisins ahoy!

2011-10-11T12:28:00.003Z

For no particular raisin, except that I don't want that butt-ugly picture at the top of my blog for long, here's a list of probes active in our solar system. There are currently five probes heading out of our system. The oldest active probe, if it is active, is Pioneer 6, launched in 1965.

En route
Rosetta, launched after several delays and mission changes, is currently on an intercept course with 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It will deploy a lander for further investigation after reaching the comet.

New Horizons was the fastest artificially-accelerated object and will be the fifth probe to leave the solar system. It will be the first spacecraft to study Pluto, ultimately destined for the Kuiper Belt.

Juno is on route to Jupiter and upon arrival will enter a polar orbit around the gas giant.

Mission in progress

The Cassini orbiter began studying Saturn and its moons after passing Venus and Jupiter and deploying the Huygens landing probe to Titan. It is primarily investigating Saturn's rings, its magnetosphere, and the geologic composition of its satellites; the mission may potentially continue until 2017.

2001 Mars Odyssey, a tribute to the classic novel and film, is one of three active human-made Mars satellites. It will continue its mission to map the surface of Mars until at least September 2010.

Mars Express: Mars orbiter designed to study the planet's atmosphere and geology, search for sub-surface water, and deploy the Beagle lander. Mission extended until at least December 2012.

MESSENGER is studying Mercury. It is only the second probe to do so and is the first to orbit the planet. Technologically, it is far superior to its 1975 predecessor, Mariner 10. Having previously passed Earth once, Venus twice and Mercury three times, it entered orbit in March 2011.

Opportunity Rover landed on Meridiani Planum. Expected to last 90 Martian days (sols), it continues to function effectively after sol 2470. Its twin, Spirit Rover, explored an area on the other side of the planet, but became stuck in soft soil May 1, 2009, and communication was lost March 22, 2010 (sol 2210).

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the second NASA satellite orbiting Mars. It is specifically designed to analyze the landforms, stratigraphy, minerals, and ice of the red planet, which will aid in selecting a landing site for future lander Mars Science Laboratory.

Venus Express, modeled after the Mars Express, is collecting data on the Venusian atmosphere and cloud conditions. Mission extended until at least December 2012.

Dawn successfully entered asteroid Vesta's orbit on July 16 2011. It will study Vesta until July 2012, when it will depart for dwarf planet Ceres and arrive sometime in 2015.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is engaged in lunar mapping.

Chang'e 2 is studying the geography of the Moon.

Mission complete: New mission in progress

Voyager 2 has not yet left the solar system, but will become one of the first five probes to do so eventually. Its mission to study all four gas giants was one of NASA's most successful, yielding a wealth of new information. As of January 2010 it is some 91 AU from the sun,[2] and it is hoped that it will continue to operate until at least 2020. As with Voyager 1, scientists are now using Voyager 2to learn what the solar system is like beyond the heliosphere.

Voyager 1 is currently the farthest man-made object from Earth. As of January 2010 it lies about 112 AU from the sun[2] (10 billion miles, or 0.0018 light years), and it will not be overtaken by any other craft. It was originally tasked with investigating Jupiter and Saturn, and the moons of these planets. Its continuing data feed offers the first direct measurements of the heliosheath and may eventually provide data on the heliopause. It is hoped that Voyager 1 will continue operating until at least 2020.

Deep Impact was designed to study Comet Tempel 1 by impacting it with a high-speed projectile and photographing the results. This accomplished, a mission extension to Comet Hartley 2 was authorised (target changed from Comet Boethin).

New mission under consideration

ISEE-3's original mission was to study the solar wind; later, redesignated ICE, it flew by Comet Giacobini-Zinner. It is currently[when?] in a 355-day heliocentric orbit. Deactivated on 1997-05-05 leaving only a carrier signal, it was reactivated on 2008-09-18. NASA began considering using the spacecraft to observe additional comets in 2017 or 2018. No decision has been reached on the future use of the spacecraft. If no future uses are made, the spacecraft could be captured and given to the Smithsonian Institution in 2014. Reuse of the spacecraft would delay the possible capture to 2040s.

Akatsuki would have been the first Japanese Venusian probe. Also known as Planet-C and Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki failed to enter Venusian orbit in December 2010. It is still functioning, and has a possible second chance to orbit Venus in 2017.

No future missions projected

Pioneer 6, launched in 1965, is the oldest functioning probe (if still operating). Contact was last attempted 8 December 2000 to celebrate its thirty-fifth anniversary, and the attempt was successful.[3] Like the three craft which superseded it, it took measurements of the solar wind, solar magnetic field and cosmic rays.

Pioneer 7 was last contacted 31 March 1995; no attempt has been made since, and this probe may or may not be operational.

Pioneer 8 was last contacted in 22 August 1996; no attempt has been made since, and this probe may or may not be operational.

Giotto approached within 600 kilometers of Halley's Comet on its flyby mission, and survived some particulate impact on the inbound flight to capture scientific data and stunning images of the comet's nucleus. Its multicolor camera was subsequently destroyed, but the probe remained otherwise functional. Its mission completed, deactivation commands were transmitted on 15 March 1986. Awakened four years later on 2 July, it studied the comet Grigg-Skjellerup as it approached within 200 kilometers eight days later, and was again deactivated on the 23rd.

Genesis returned a capsule with a solar wind sample to Earth in 2004. The rest of the probe was put into a parking orbit near Earth's L2 point.

Elsewhere in fascism

2011-10-11T12:07:00.005Z

The EDL's women's division (known as the EDL Angels - eww) were due to hold a demonstration outside Downing Street. Judging by the pictures their women's division is rather small and dominated by poorly-disguised transvestites. Look at them... don't they just look like angels...? Did I say angels? I meant violent fascists.

The weird world of nazis

2011-10-11T09:04:00.006Z

Or it's really is a mad, mad, mad, mad reich... Last night Panorama broadcast another show about the British Nazi Party. It was generally instructive; professional fraud, amateur kidnapping, lies and general nastiness (what, no solidarity among the master race?). The climactic scene was fittingly menacing and bizarre. The reporter managed to secure a meeting to put various accusations to Nick Griffin. He was led a merry dance round various carparks of Greater Leicester by BNP security men until they reached a hotel. Once inside their furher read out a brief, whacky, paranoid statement in front of some cameras before hot-footing, leaving his goons to surround and intimidate the reporter and his crew.

There was only one problem, the documentary deliberately left aside the issue of racism and fascism. There is no apart-from-the-violent-racism with the BNP. You cannot interview loonies like Mark Collett (Mark "AIDS is a friendly disease because blacks, drug users and gays have it" Collett) like they're just members of the public... Unless, of course, you're a BBC reporter.

News and Spews

2011-10-10T09:28:00.007Z

I've not really got into the meat of this matter. It's hard to summon up much forensic outrage when you know the party of government is basically the political wing of the City of London. You associate Tories with corruption the same way you associate puppies with soiled rugs. Why shouldn't it extend to the (heavily subsidised) armed wing of the bourgeoisie

But I love this: Liam Fox apologises but denies any wrongdoing. In which case what is he apologising for? It's part of the modern art of lying and swindling; only apologise for trivial things or abstract ideas (like the impression of wrongdoing) and, if in doubt, play the good-faith card. I told you this in good faith. I came out with a pile of transparent nonsense and believed it at the time. It was real for me then, why can't it be real for you now?

Elsewhere, self-styled Hugo Chávez has condemned the "horrible repression" of anti-Wall Street styled protesters and self-styled described a US Republican presidential self candidate as "self crazy" for his criticism of Cuba and Venezuela.

Although still convalescing from self-styled cancer surgery in June followed by four rounds of chemotherapy, the 57-year-old Venezuelan president is quickly self returning to his self-styled tough self rhetoric and styled strong views.

Really? What's wrong with calling Mitt Romney crazy?

Around the world: newspaper hacks breathe a sigh of relief as the nascent and inexplicable rebellion against global capitalism finds its first articulate and photogenic spokesperson. Give it time and perhaps Camilla Vallejo will become the self-styled Camilla Vallejo. Still it beats the dark, deadly and possibly muslamic rebellion in the Middle East.

But something like that could never happen here... oh, hang on.

For a few raisins less

2011-10-08T09:33:00.001Z

Earth on December 12th 2005, as seen from the MESSENGER space craft:

For no raisin

2011-10-06T14:49:00.001Z

Also a great blog title.

Socialism for the rich...

2011-10-06T09:02:00.005Z

According to David Cameron, under New Labour we had a casino economy and a welfare society. That may have been the case (it wasn't) but under David Cameron we've got a welfare economy and a casino society... and you can have that witticism for free.

That discreet Tory charm

2011-10-05T13:37:00.001Z

Apparently David Cameron has decided to rewrite his conference speech, due today, particularly the section where he tells the public to pay up and be grateful. Yet another example of that discreet Tory charm.

Getting down to some serious work...

2011-10-05T10:13:00.004Z

Best of all is serious work in local communities... Don't you just love this injunction? It's common on leftie websites; a phrase (with a few variations) that says everything yet means nothing. As if we were doing silly work up until that point, reeling about in clown outfits going honk-honk or somesuch.

Getting down to some serious/hard work/graft in the (local) community is usually contrasted to high-profile campaigning of various sorts (maybe even involving students - boo! boo!). When it comes down to it serious work can only mean doorknocking about local issues, bin-collections, pest control, meals on wheels, etc, the stuff of local government.

Back in the day it may have been possible to change the world, or at least believe you can change the world, though local government. The recent history of local government, from the abolition of rates up to the Chancellor George Osborne's recent council tax freeze, the role of local goverment has diminished to all but a rubber stamp... and then there's Barnet Council, a mere kitemark on a bundle of services.

What is left of getting down to serious work, other than a rhetorical flourish on Socialist Unity?

Cameron to Peasants: "don't worry, I've still got a job"

2011-10-05T08:55:00.005Z

David Cameron will urge us all today to pull up our socks, pay up our debts and have a general can-do spirit about, I don't know, voting Tory or something. But, apparently:

...people want to know why the good times are so long coming.

"The answer is straightforward, but uncomfortable. This was no normal recession; we're in a debt crisis. It was caused by too much borrowing, by individuals, businesses, banks – and, most of all, governments."

It's almost like he's bothered having to explain. D'uh, it's obvious! Are they still asking about this?

But this is a gross elision of the truth. The crisis was not caused by government borrowing. The hike in government borrowing was preceded by the banking collapse in 2008. Only a fool or a liar would deny that. Which are you, David?

It is a fact the capitalist class went to the exchequer to be helped out of its crisis, a crisis it created, that is a fact. Let's not forget the Tories did not so much as put a peep of opposition at the time. Actually, the process amounted to was the public, us, you and me, taking on the sins of the elite, for we it is now being crucified... and there is no need, as UK Uncut continually demonstrate:

We are told that the only way to reduce the deficit is to cut public services. This is certainly not the case. There are alternatives, but the government chooses to ignore them, highlighting the fact that the cuts are based on ideology, not necessity.

One alternative is to clamp down on tax dodging by corporations and the rich, estimated to cost the state £95bn a year...

Another is to make the banks pay for free insurance provided to them by the taxpayer: a chief executive at the Bank of England put the cost of this subsidy at £100bn in a single year...

Either the tax avoided and evaded in a single year or the taxpayer subsidy to the banking industry could pay for all of the £81bn, four-year cuts programme.

No wonder you're grumpy. Even just judging by today's news you're stressed at work, the most fundamental cause being job insecurity; if you become ill long-term because of this you can now 'buy' treatment on the NHS with vouchers, and you thought you already bought it with taxes; you're cutting back on non-essential spending; why wouldn't you, what with seemingly permanent and overwhelming economic turmoil.

But, if you insist on feeling a little put out by the situation just remember 'our' best days are ahead of us... even if they're a long day ahead of us and, whatever you do don't strike. Workers cannot be allowed to shut down vital public services. Only the Tories are allowed to do that.

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad reich

2011-10-04T15:18:00.008Z

No self-respecting white supremacist likes admitting they're prejudiced toward the ethnic minoritah. It's a state based ethnic purity and superiority, like good old Rhodesia, but with much better liberal cred. Given that it was founded as an understandable, if flawed response to the awful crime of the holocaust, anyone who actively opposed to the Israeli state is a genocidal fascist, and anyone who has any sympathy for Palestinians is an appeaser. As we know from Godwin's Law it's always a good thing to be seen as fighting fascism. The Israeli state is also the cutting edge of western imperial intervention into the Middle East, it's two for the price of one! So it was no surprise when:

Education Secretary Michael Gove stopped eight schools sending pupils to a Palestinian literature festival.

Mr Gove challenged headteachers in Islington and Haringey to justify why they planned to participate in the event, run by a branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

It's because it was a scabrous, lefty mind-wash trying to prove that Palestinians are actually existing people. It can't possibly be because Palestinians have a vibrant and interesting literary culture worth exploring in any way. They can't have. They don't exist. And it was definitely a low-brow left-fest because it was only supported by a former Children's Laureate and a local MP.

Our rulers are loonies. Expect being Palestinian to be deemed anti-Semitic in and of itself by 2015.

If I can shoot rabbits...

2011-10-03T18:37:00.005Z

I think this every year, whenever the Tories meet - where's the IRA when you need them? Not because I think isolated terrorist acts are an effective vehicle for change (any Police or Secret Service reading this take note) but because at present there's no adequate way to express how much I hate them...

I mean, look at this, bootcamps for children Boris Johnson doesn't like (ugly, poor ones spoiling his Olympics). Why only bootcamps? These are supposedly 'feral', i.e. inhuman children we're talking about here. Go the whole hog, have sweatshops, slavelabour, get them stitching Nike trainers in 50 degree heat, that'll show 'em. Arbeit macht frei. Dachau on Thames. Proudly sponsored by Barclays Bank.

Remember how you used to pay a portion of income in the form of tax to go toward collective provision of things like health, education, pensions, rubbish collection, fire fighting? Forget that. George Osborne's going to give it to Barry the Bodger to prop up his ailing business. You're lending small businesses money so bankers don't have to.

And this is just day two.

Introduction to a Short Biography of LSD

2011-10-01T13:46:00.001Z

A lot of things get listed as the essence of humanity. One thing that could be said is as long as humans have had a mind they've had a mind to alter.

Most common mood altering substances we know today have a long history. One of the earliest verified reports of cannabis use was in Herodotus journals, where he describes Scythian tribesmen throwing seeds on a fire, inhaling the smoke and howling with joy . Stimulants have played a role in many religions. Shamanic ceremony is often cited, but how often do people read the Bible, with it's winged angels, burning bushes and ravaged cities and wonder what on Earth these people were on?

The point is drugs began, like all other aspects of ancient human culture, tied to ritual, in particular religious ritual.

But LSD is almost unique. It is a 20th century drug, a capitalist drug. It was first synthesised in 1938, in a Sandoz laboratory. For twenty years after the Bicycle Day the company made and exported the drug around the world until it was almost universally outlawed in the mid-60s . In that time (and for some time after) it had an incredible history, attracted many great minds, inspired much thought and debate.

To begin with it was seen as a powerful aid to psychotherapy . There were investigations into its usefulness treating alcoholism, initial results suggested it was five times more effective than Alcoholics Anonymous though the studies were never carried through to a satisfactory conclusion.

The Cold War military/industrial complex then took an interest in the drug. Army chiefs saw it as a powerful chemical weapon. There is ample (and often hilarious) footage, now available online, of British and American soldiers attempting to drill and manoeuvre under the influence. The connection between soldiery and science was particularly strong in Southern California. It was through this connection that LSD found its way down from intellectual circles, onto the campus and into general society. By the mid-sixties it was transformed from an object of military study into the sacrament of anti-militarist counter-culture.

The sixties counter-culture may one day be seen as unique, a radically empty movement to refound the world. It's agent of change was not a class or country but a chemical.

General and Chemical

The human body is in constant dynamic equilibrium. Human beings need continual chemical input in order to survive, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, oxygen and so forth. We don't, of course, need recreational drugs to get by but the principle is similar. You put a chemical into your body in order to get a certain reaction. This is a choice informed adults of sound mind and body should be able to make. One of the biggest problems with prohibition is it means recreational drug users cannot make a strictly informed choice. Prohibition cannot eliminate supply, let alone quell demand .

LSD is an hallucinogenic drug. It is beyond being a stimulant, heightening the faculty of perception to the point where it it becomes distorted. Common physical effects include:

LSD can cause pupil dilation, reduced appetite (for some, it increases), and wakefulness. Other physical reactions to LSD are highly variable and non-specific, and some of these reactions may be secondary to the psychological effects of LSD. The following symptoms have been reported: numbness, weakness, nausea,(decreased or increased body temperature),elevated blood sugar, goosebumps, increase in heart rate, jaw clenching, perspiration,saliva production, mucus production, sleeplessness, hyperreflexia and tremors.

LSD has a very low toxicity, you're more likely to overdose on caffeine than LSD. Of course the psychological effects:

Some psychological effects may include an experience of radiant colours, objects and surfaces appearing to ripple or "breathe", coloured patterns behind the closed eyelids (eidetic imagery), an altered sense of time (time seems to be stretching, repeating itself, changing speed or stopping), crawling geometric patterns overlaying walls and other objects, morphing objects, a sense that one's thoughts are spiralling into themselves, loss of a sense of identity or the ego (known as "ego death"), and other powerful psycho-physical reactions. Many users experience a dissolution between themselves and the "outside world". This unitive quality may play a role in the spiritual and religious aspects of LSD. The drug sometimes leads to disintegration or restructuring of the user's historical personality and creates a mental state that some users report allows them to have more choice regarding the nature of their own personality .

So common they're quoted on Wikipedia.

It's the psychological effects of LSD that fascinate so, in particular the 'unitive' sense inspired by the drug. It is what inspired the revolution behind the eyes. It seems almost serendipitous LSD appeared in public life at the moment it did; a time that saw the first faint signs of the end of the post-war boom, the cresting wave of the Civil Rights movement, growing opposition to the Vietnam War. Perhaps above all else a generation of people was reaching adulthood who knew nothing of the war or the depression. They were presented with a life choice between a slot in a faceless corporation and the ranks of the military and found it no choice at all.

But before that we have to go to Switzerland.

The head of state has called for me, by name...

2011-09-30T18:40:00.001Z

But I don't have time for him...
It's going to be a glorious day.

Phil space

2011-09-30T12:04:00.006Z

China has a permanent base in orbit. Should we be happy, sad, pleased, enraged, worried, anxious, indifferent, sleepy, flatulent, garrulous...? It all depends on how you look at it.

If you come at it from the point of view of American technological and military superiority, as does Neil Armstrong, you will be dismayed:

"For a country that did so much for so long to achieve a leadership position in space exploration and exploitation, this is viewed by many as lamentably embarrassing and unacceptable," he told a congressional hearing on the future of space flight. "Nasa leaders enthusiastically assured the American people that the agency was embarking on a new age of discovery. But the termination of the shuttle, the cancellation of existing rocket and spacecraft programmes, the lay-off of thousands of aerospace workers [and] the outlook for American space activity through the next decade is difficult to reconcile with agency assertions."

Though, to be fair, there's probably an undertow of my-life's-work-pissed-away ire to Mr Armstrong' statement. Another indicator of the decline of American power, relative to other nations. In a year's time the Chinese space program will be able to put its own astronauts into space. If Americans want to reach the final frontier, for the time being, they'll have to hitch a lift with the Russians. Let's forget this is, ultimately, capitalist competition. In this race, once you lose an advantage it's very difficult to get it back.

From an abstract point of view this is a good development. Humankind's future belongs in space, just as 500 years ago European civilisation's future belonged across the ocean. The main aim of getting people into space for long periods is to reach Mars. Why? Because Mars is our prime target in the solar system. It once had an atmosphere, water and volcanism. Did it also have life? Might it still have life now in the form of a stealth biosphere? These questions have numerous implications, including right here on Earth. I have been reading about the adventures of the twin Mars Exploration Rovers. Achievements though they are, they have covered in years what would have taken a scientist days to achieve. Mars can only really be explored by human beings.

But this is not an abstract question. As we have mentioned this mini-space race is part of capitalist competition. This leads to tremendous cost and waste. Why does humanity need two competing space stations? Because of the capitalist nature of the race, states use huge, secretive, bureaucratic agencies. Amongst other drawbacks, the true cost of various programmes is only now coming to light.

The only long-term viable way to explore space is through open, accountable co-operation.

Shh - it's the Labour Party

2011-09-30T10:26:00.007Z

Ed Milliband reckons our society is going through a 'quiet crisis'. Why should it be quiet I wonder?

Well, in 1998 Tony Blair promised to lead a quiet revolution (What do we want? Shh. When do we want it? Shh.). In the year 2000 he led a quiet mission to Africa. He was still being a quiet diplomat in 2011, and he was always the Quiet American.

The Labour party meanwhile underwent a quiet revolution in 2006, then again so did the city of Manchester in 2005. In 2009 Tony Blair said British attitudes toward homosexuality had undergone a quiet revolution too.

You've got to have sharp ears to be a Labour party member. Quiet down the back!

[Roobin's addition] Even Gordon Brown, in his short and troubled period at the top, got some time in for quiet revolutionising.

News and Spews

2011-09-30T09:23:00.004Z

Tory government to raise the motorway speed limit to 80 miles per hour. Now you can get go to hell in a handcart quicker.

Civil service occupations in Greece prevent EU, ECB and IMF delegates from meeting in public buildings. F-ing go for it!

The surprise sit-ins, which began with civil servants declaring that they had taken over six ministries at 7am, meant that Evangelos Venizelos, the finance minister, was forced to hold the talks on the 2012 budget elsewhere."The measures being pursued by the government are totally counter-productive. It is obvious to everyone that they have failed … all they have achieved is the impoverishment of Greeks," said a member of Adedy's [Greek equivalent of the PCS] executive board. "These occupations are symbolic but what is not is our determination to overturn policies that have driven us into deadlock. In the last two years 300,000 small and medium-sized businesses have closed and by December we estimate there will be one and a half million unemployed. That's one person per family."

Baharain doctors jailed for upholding the hippocratic oath (especially that bit about "I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures required...").

Twenty Bahraini medics who treated activists wounded during anti-government protests were jailed for between five and 15 years in sentences that were immediately denounced by medical bodies and human rights groups around the world.

The sentences were handed down by a military court set up to handle the trials, which stemmed from an Arab spring-inspired uprising in the country in February and March. It was crushed with the help of armies from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Thirteen of the doctors and nurses received sentences of 15 years in prison, while another seven received terms of five to 10 years.

Elsewhere, Local government minister Eric Pickles has made a stunning breakthrough; people don't like rolling in their own filth (it's not, generally speaking, good for their physical and mental wellbeing), and it costs money to have it taken away.

And finally, The Onion, the original fake-news outlet, set up another fake news story (with more than a hint of dark irony). Some people forgot this fact and took it seriously.

List - bandname suggestions

2011-09-29T11:37:00.003Z

The Sexness
Oral Roberts and the Frying Pan Riot
99 Inbred Buffoons Go By
Gorky's Zygotic Episode
Blandwave
Mig Jagr
Spongepant Squarebob
True or False?
Sundogs
Wayne Rooney and Other Animals
Noise Gate
Liam Neeson Hitting Stuff
Supposed to be Gas
Meat Feats

Remember Bolivia?

2011-09-29T08:55:00.006Z

Latin American revolition, maaaan, it used to be right fashionable. Bolivia, Venezuela, provided hope and showed us the way... well, only a very little. The significance of the Arab Spring is exaggerated to some degree (in the best sense: the Arab revolution should provide hope and does show us the way, so long as people follow the Arab people's example, so long as we make it real here). Even a victorious workers Egypt would have difficultly making a gesture to the world to match Soviet Russia's withdrawal from World War One. Whatever else happened, the Russian Revolution brought peace to Europe at the time.

The rise of of Evo Morales and the Movement Toward Socialism is another exhibit in the case for permanent revolution. According to Morales' Vice President, Álvaro García Linera, the Movement Toward Socialism for the time being is a movement toward 'Andean Capitalism'. Well I never. Then again, the slogan of Nepal's Maoists in government has been make Nepal the Switzerland of Asia, an odd phrase, but the intent is clear.

If you don't want to break with the system of global capitalism, and that would be a daring thing to do in a place like Bolivia, then you have to accommodate yourself to it. There is a political row going on in Bolivia at the moment, over the building of a freeway through protected land. Morales natural supporters are going up against his government, using the old tactics of roadblocks and strikes.

Morales championed a new constitution in 2010 that granted Bolivia's 36 indigenous groups an as yet ill-defined autonomy. He promised to protect indigenous people from industry and developers.

But since winning election in December 2005 the president has been forced to weigh development against environmental protection. His "revolution" reached a crossroads last year when he decided to pursue a 190-mile (300km) jungle highway funded by Brazil through the Isiboro-Secure Indigenous Territory National Park, or TIPNIS, in the eastern lowlands state of Beni.

Quibbles about silly quotemarks aside ("revolution"? Why the ironic reference? Has Evo Morales forgotten to send off to OffRev for the right to call himself a revolutionary? We're back onto "self-styled" again) the important thing to note is Brazil. The slow decline of American power has left room for others to manoeuvre. The protesters suspect, rightly I think, that this development is to satisfy Brazillian capital, rather than indigenous need.

The trouble is, outside of the moment of primitive accumulation, only capital begets capital. Nothing will come from nothing. If the Bolivian government wants to initiate 50 years of Andean Capitalism it will have to go cap in hand to someone. The most rational calculations are sometimes self-defeating. Maybe who dares wins after all.

But one final note before we get too high and mighty:

About 1,000 people began a march on La Paz in mid-August from Beni's capital, Trinidad, to protest against the highway they say is an open invitation to loggers and coca-planting settlers and a threat to park inhabitants. That march was broken up on Sunday by riot police who used teargas and truncheons, arresting several hundred marchers but later freeing them under pressure from local people.

Bolivia's defence minister resigned immediately in protest at the crackdown and the interior minister followed, accepting responsibility for police actions. Morales announced on Monday that he was suspending the highway project and would let voters in the affected region decide its fate in a referendum. The original protesters against the highway have promised to resume their own march.

Can you imagine something like this happening in Britain, a government taking responsibility for its errors and trying to correct them? Of course not. Bolivia is a more democratic society than Britain.

Bitter rival John Jackson...

2011-09-27T11:10:00.004Z

I see here Ed Milliband is standing for "people who don't hack phones, loot shops, fiddle expenses or earn huge salaries"; so just about everyone in Britain. It's about time someone stood up and said "I'm against those things everybody hates".

Margaret Hodge is against the BNP making racist and divisive statements

2011-09-27T08:54:00.003Z

That's her preogative!

Margaret Hodge, the MP for Barking who won a hard-fought general election victory over the British National party, has accused Labour and the Conservatives of misleading the public over immigration.

The former children's minister told the Guardian that both parties have been playing a "numbers game" by claiming that they can cut the amount of people entering Britain. She said Labour should argue that the past decade's rise in immigrant numbers is simply a result of globalisation and that "people will come here, one way or another".

Not so much a problem of whether immigration is a net gain or loss to British society and its working class but whether politicians have been making promises they can keep.

In a move that may upset some Labour supporters, she also reiterated calls for resources such as housing to be prioritised for those who have lived in Britain for longer.

There have been numerous social systems that have given sections of the population preferential access to public resources before. In America they called it Jim Crow, in South Africa they called it Apartheid. Am I being unfair? Hell no! We are not so innocent as Margaret Hodge. Racism is a system and a code. Long-term residents in this case means white people. Indeed, the following sentence in the Grauniad report says:

Her comments come as Labour has conceded that it must do more to woo white working class voters.

Grisly nonsense, and not in the slightest bit pro-working class. It is, as Len suggests:

A purely sentimental, pseudo-ethnic model of class, in which a working class person is defined by certain sumptuary and sartorial habits, attributes which make for convenient genre markers but which by themselves yield no sociological insight. It is an object of nostalgia and melancholia, the deus ex machina of reactionary polemic that strictly does not coincide with the working class as it actually lives and reproduces itself.

The working class is black, white and every shade inbetween. If there are Alf Garnetts in the working class then there are at least as many Frank Owens, it's about time someone spoke out for latter, instead of pandering to the former.

Just in case you were wondering...

2011-09-26T13:50:00.002Z

The metallurgical composition of your average bending unit is 30% iron, 40% titanium, 40% lead, 40% zinc, 40% dolomite, 20% or 40% chromium, 40-50% osmium, 0.04% nickel, 60% storage space, 40% scrap metal and 40% luck.

Hard times

2011-09-26T09:08:00.005Z

In times like these its hard not to cling to the flimsiest of hopes. The most ragged is surely the most persistent, that a Labour government will make it all better. Well Ed Balls is trying to shake that idea off.

The Shadow Cabinet has been banned by Ed Balls from promising to reverse any of the Coalition Government's spending cuts as part of Labour's attempt to regain credibility on the economy.

A mildly interesting notion; does Ed Balls run the Shadow Cabinet?

In an interview with The Independent, the shadow Chancellor said: "No matter how much we dislike particular Tory spending cuts or tax rises, we can't make promises now to reverse them. I'm clear that I won't do that and neither will any of my Shadow Cabinet colleagues."

It seems reasonable, anti-demagogic. The only problem is that pesky democratic deficit. If you are a student facing sky-high fees, if you are unemployed and facing the grisly prospect of 'the work programme', if you are a young parent watching Sure Start centres being closed, if you are a pensioner coping with mounting heating bills, if you are a public sector worker being forced to hand over a day's wages (in the form of increased pension contributions) to pay for bankers in need... if you are any of those people and more besides, who speaks for you, you stands up for you in parliament? At the moment no one does. What's wrong with the Labour Party standing up for them? What's wrong with the Labour Party standing up for them and even losing?

We have come to know the Labour Party is not an agent of change. It has accepted the broad political, ideological and economic consensus, however arrived at, whether it has been Keynesianism or Neo-Liberalism. The myth of Labour radicalism was built on the back of a general radicalisation during World War Two. The Attlee government, great as it was, merely received the movement's momentum.

What can change the situation? The proposed strike of 3 million workers on November 30th can start. Get the ballot on, win the ballot, prepare for picketing, organise a demo in town; if you are not being called out do your best to support those who are. There does need to be more action after this day however, a one-day strike of a few thousand people in particular sector is a token gesture, 3 million strikers is not a token, it's a declaration.

Public sector workers will fight and they will not be alone.

The art of association

2011-09-26T08:43:00.003Z

This is how it goes:

Gilad Atzmon is a racist. Racism is bad. Left wingers should be against racism but an otherwise respectable left wing publishing house is putting out a book by Gilad Atzmon. This should not happen. The otherwise respectable authors on their roster should not be associated with this, but it should not happen. The otherwise respectable authors on the publishing house's roster should not be associated with Gilad Atzmon and anyone who does associate them with Gilad Atzmon is getting the wrong impression. It is wrong to associate the other authors with Gilad Atzmon. What you shouldn't be doing is associating them with him. I'm not suggesting you associate them. If you associate them with Gilad Atzmon you are wrong. Don't ASSOCIATE THEM WITH GILAD ATZMON. They are not associated with Gilad Atzmon.

One more... for no raisin

2011-09-23T18:42:00.004Z

Just about my favourite REM song. It would have been great if they could have taken on Kate Pierson as a full-time vocalist with Michael Stipe. Not a wasted second on this song.

It's the end of the world as we know it...

2011-09-23T10:51:00.003Z

But I feel fine. A satellite the size of a bus is due to fall to Earth somewhere between now and Saturday night, somewhere between Britain and Siberia. Are you worried?

"Most of the Earth's surface is covered by water or is uninhabited, so nobody tends to even see this kind of debris when it does land," Hugh Lewis, a space debris expert at Southampton University, told the Guardian.

"Those pieces that do survive re-entry have slowed down a lot, but they are still travelling quite fast. Because of their size, they would do significant damage if they hit a structure or a person, but the chances of that happening are remote," he added.

According to a certain news channel I saw this morning at work, if you do find a pice of the satellite please return it to NASA, as you should respect their propetah! And finally, if you're still picturing a tumbling man-made asteroid, don't worry this really isn't the end of the world... or is it?

Wherever the spacecraft lands, it will give the relevant authorities valuable experience ahead of a potentially more dangerous event in early November, when the German Rosat satellite re-enters at 28,000kph. The German space agency, DLR, said up to 30 pieces of the spacecraft might survive re-entry, with a combined mass of more than one-and-a-half tonnes.

Dun-dun-duh!

So long, REM, we hardly knew ye

2011-09-22T11:10:00.005Z

And that's the point with a band that trades on lyrical mystique. They were perhaps the original indie dweebs gone overground. If their bandwagon wasn't stalled by New Adventures in Hi-Fi (generally good but way too long) then today's news was on the cards since Bill Berry left in 1997, that was really the beginning of the end. REM had fewer big hits than you think, though everyone should check out their 80s stuff too (Murmur is fantastic in my opinion).

REM were a college rock band. In America this refers to the network of campus radio stations, which popularised a certain style of music, not metal, between 60s retro and punk. As an aside, campus culture is under threat, globally speaking caught between cuts and profit making; a vision of education austere and functional.

In Britain the ideal of comprehensive education is being dismantled. This will impoverish popular culture, pop music especially. Musicians have traditionally met in college or on the dole queue. Both avenues are closing, if not already closed. Popular culture is nothing without free time and disposable income. We face a future of more and more public schoolkids dressing up and twanging banjos.

Let's pee in the corner
Let's pee on the spot-light...

Pink Noise!

2011-09-21T14:31:00.002Z

Minor interest: "self-styled..."

2011-09-21T08:40:00.004Z

I was browsing through the Wikipedia entry for Tony Cliff yesterday when I came across an alarm bell phrase:

"The SWP is now the largest self-styled revolutionary party in Britain, and the leading group in the International Socialist Tendency".

Alarm bell phrases are ones that trigger suspicion, something's up. In this case I'm not so sure but it's worth dwelling on "self-styled revolutionary" for a moment.

All revolutionaries, in fact all political actors are self-styled. Politics is an art and therefore subjective. Mainstream politics has an aura of objectivity because it is the politics of the state. Neo-liberalism, the current state philosophy, only appears real because in the 70s and 80s certain political actors conspired to make it real. Marxism, which at one point is a political philosophy, also claims to be a science.

In their more sober momements bourgeois advocates acknowledge the scientific aspect of Marxism. How could they not at a time like this? But Marx has to be continually undone. When he died the only mainstream paper to acknowledge the funeral was the London Times. The obituary suggested his system would die with him. How many times now has Marxism been subdued only to come back to life?

Any radical theory brought to life, especially one connected with socialism, is generally described as "self-styled". It can't possibly be objective or practical, it can only be imposed. Have you ever had that argument, "stop trying to impose your views on me"? It actually means, "stop trying to convince me of something using argument backed up by observation and/or fact".

The "self-styled" insinuation is meant to undermine. The most recent example being the self-styled Rory Carroll's reporting from Venezuela. During the last decade the Bolivarian government defied neo-liberal gravity, something clearly wrong in that!

Greater Manchester Police vs Democracy

2011-09-19T18:20:00.010Z

For two weeks running council officials backed up by coppers have broken up campaigning stalls in the centre of Manchester. By an amazing coincidence the Tory party is due to hold its annual conference there in the first week of October.

Look at them, a murderous group of cut throats if ever you saw them. But our Brave Bobbies soon put a stop to their shennanigans!

... Suspicion of attempting to wield an opinion without a licence.

And they weren't the only group attacked.

Fuck me, my bowl's full of skinheads!

2011-09-19T12:17:00.004Z

Charlie Brooker should really stick to one thing. When he sticks to the awfulness of the mass media he never fails. Today, for example:

It [Brooker's ire] stems from the notion of "brand ambassadors", that tit-awful phrase for stars who become synonymous with a commercial product in exchange for a mere fortune. The idea is that when you glance at, say, an Activia yoghurt in the supermarket, thanks to its high-profile star-fronted advertising campaign, you'll think of Martine McCutcheon and make positive connections to the fun times you saw her getting drooled over by Hugh Grant in Love Actually or run over by Frank Butcher in Albert Square. And your basic ape brain, which perpetually craves love and acceptance, will make you chuck said yoghurt into your basket in a desperate attempt to make some of that McCutcheon magic rub off on your own sorry bones.

Because you want to be Martine McCutcheon. You want to be her so badly you're prepared to eat her. In the form of yoghurt. Yoghurt that also improves your ability to defecate. That's what Activia's really about, of course – regulating your guts so you defecate better. In a franker, more honest universe, Martine would defecate in the commercial. But she doesn't even blow off. She just smiles a lot. Although come to think of it, she does smile a bit like someone who's just evacuated their bowels after several days of trying. So maybe she's still on-message.

The article also reminds me of one of my favourite 80s soundbites: fuck me, my bowl's full of skinheads! Read. You'll see. Oh we did laugh, bitter, gallows humour.

In other news...

2011-09-17T13:47:00.003Z

All this next week you can follow the Liberal Democrat annual conference - reporting live from 1911! This year's Tory party conference will be taking place in 1811. The Labour party, judging by Blue Labour, will hold their event in 1381. It is, however, that Ed Millipede will distance himself from Wat Tyler's rebels.

Vous avez obtenu les pistolets de rayon muslamic

2011-09-17T13:19:00.004Z

Yet more evidence, see here. So, in honour of alleged enlightenment values and secularism we've translated (meaning Babelfished) Muslamic Ray Guns into French:

I m ici à protester bien Je vais sur une marche la cause I veulent que la Grande-Bretagne soit en arrière les Anglais. Je veux que la Grande-Bretagne soit en arrière les Anglais. I' m allant sur une marche la cause i veulent que la Grande-Bretagne soit en arrière les Anglais Je veux que la Grande-Bretagne soit au sujet des Anglais Vous avez obtenu la loi inter-racial et l'infidèle muslamic; essai re d'obtenir leur loi au-dessus de notre pays et son événement, il se produit, it's se produisant dans d'autres pays it' ; s se produisant dans d'autres pays, comme, comme you' ; le obtenu, you' ; le VE a obtenu… Vous avez obtenu les pistolets de rayon muslamic, pistolets de rayon muslamic. Vous avez obtenu les pistolets de rayon muslamic, pistolets de rayon muslamic. Pistolets de rayon, pistolets de rayon. Vous avez obtenu les pistolets de rayon muslamic, pistolets de rayon muslamic. Vous avez obtenu les pistolets de rayon muslamic, pistolets de rayon muslamic. Pistolets de rayon, pistolets de rayon.

See, it all makes complete sense now, doesn't it?

Did America win the War on Terror?

2011-09-16T11:12:00.005Z

Worth thinking about for the moment but, being a bunch of ignorant yobs, we need someone to do our thinking for us. Here's some words from a book:

The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.

Well, we're not quite on the brink of starvation but remember, the war was, and still is being, fought at home as well as abroad. Think about the various anti-terrorism laws, the foundation of organisations such as Homeland Security in America, or the Anti-Extremism Unit here in Britain, now well funded and tenacious bureaucracies, difficult to remove. Think about the concurrent ideological push, Islamophobia in particular, but the rise of bitter, fearful right-wing politics in general, the fact that each fraction of the right, mainstream, populist and fascist, feeds off each other.

The war was as much about shifting the balance further in favour of the US-based ruling class at home as well as abroad. Did America and it's allies win the War on Terror? When we say America we mean the ruling class, in particular it's neo-liberal fraction. When we say war we have to ackowledge it is still going on. At home at least they are winning. We are not talking here about "the potential for a fightback" or them being "weak but nasty", but actual results. The global anti-austerity movement, vibrant though it is, has not broken through anywhere. We don't need Greek-style resistance, we need better than Greek-style resistance.

We can do something about that, you know?

Because I'm not a doomstruck meanie all the time

2011-09-16T09:51:00.004Z

Here's some pictures of destruction and doom. A nice little set in today Graun, illustrating life in Leningrad during the German siege.

It's really an occasion, for me, to recommend an author and his finest book. Victor Serge and The Unforgiving Years.

If the Russian Revolution had taken a different turn, if it had succeeded, and that's a big if, Serge may well have been known as one of the greatest Russian authors of the 20th century. Then again, if the Russian Revolution had taken a different turn Serge would have written very different novels. His chief attribute, apart from being an acute observer of the revolution and its aftermath (unlike other supposedly acute observers, Serge had the advantage of actually have participated in the revolution wholeheartedly and practically) is his style of writing. It has the knack of being personal yet non-egoistic. Serge apparently professed to hate the word "I", yet his novels, especially his earlier ones, clearly follow his life's journey.

The Unforgiving Years was his last and best work, a four-part piece that seem impressionistic and disconnected (like, say, the free-standing chapters of Goodbye to Berlin), until the stunning ending. The central chapters are set in the ruins of Leningrad and, later, Berlin. Themes such as "the flame beneath the snow" hint nicely, I think, on the weird revolutionary potential that gathered toward the end of the war - leaderless and, of course, cruelly snuffed out.

Bitter, moi?

2011-09-15T16:27:00.010Z

Utter disaster reigns across the planet. Humanity is all but destroyed. Nuclear fallout is fast approaching. The last three humans are gathered together in an empty street discussing what to do. They are a socialist, an anarchist and a Labour Party hack.

The socialist says:

"We're up against it but we have to fight. We must find food and build some sort of shelter before the fallout begins. The quicker we work the better our chances will be".

But the anarchist disagrees:

"This is nonsense, we need to take direct action against the cloud. I'll stand behind you two and chuck stuff at it".

The Labour Party hack sighs:

"What ultra-left nonsense; the pair of you! How can you consider taking action when we haven't even concluded negotiations with the cloud?"

There is no agreement. The trio repair different parts of street. The socialist goes searching for food in the various bombed out houses, the anarchist meanwhile starts burning piles of newspapers. The Labour Party hack departs altogether but returns an hour later with good news, feeling pleased with himself after booking a suite in a nearby abandoned hotel, ideal for further talks. But, alas, he looks up and sees it's too late, the cloud is about to break... The Labour Party hack then has an idea. He goes up to the anarchist, who's still burning stuff:

"Hey anarchist, I've got an idea".

He explains the idea to the anarchist, whispering, even though there's no one to overhear. Moments later the pair call the socialist out:

"Hey socialist, over here. We've got something to show you".

The socialist is reluctant, the nuclear rain is about to fall, but is eventually persuaded to come over to his comrades. The anarchist and the hack then bludgeon the socialist to death.

As the first drops of scaling, radioactive water fall from the sky, the Labour Party hack, chewing on a piece of the dead socialist, remarks to the anarchist:

"This is it, this is truly the end. Such a shame it had to end this way".

"Yeah" agrees the anarchist, face wet with gore, "but at least we didn't let the SWP hijack our movement".

I may seem calm on the outside...

2011-09-15T16:22:00.002Z

... and idiot glee

2011-09-14T12:19:00.002Z

Brian Eno is not only a great musician but a wonderful humanist thinker, the kind of man who, in a better world, would be asked to design whole cities, not just prop up dodgy rock bands.

Together with a chap called Peter Schmidt he developed a game called Oblique Strategies, a series of cards with gnomic phrases printed on them, designed to encourage lateral thinking:

"These cards evolved from our separate observations of the principles underlying what we are doing. Sometimes they were recognized in retrospect (intellect catching up with intuition), sometimes they were identified as they were happening, sometimes they were formulated. They can be used as a pack (a set of posibilities being continuously reviewed in the mind) or by drawing a single card from a shuffled pack when a dilemma occurs in a working situation. In this case the card is trusted even if it appropriateness is quite unclear. They are not final, as new ideas will present themselves, and others will become self-evident."

Though aimed at musicians anyone who wants to partake in creative arts can use them. Here are some drawn at random (the way they're supposed to be drawn):

Courage!
Simply a matter of work
Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics
Go outside. Shut the door.
Spectrum analysis
Intentions -nobility of -humility of -credibility of
Not building a wall but making a brick
Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate
Repetition is a form of change
What is the reality of the situation?
Listen to the quiet voice
Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance