alanjjohnstone
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I was never drawn to cults but i did have a friend who became involved with one of the Christian cults…and heard about her first introduction to it…a rough and ready country cottage , well away from others, a basic meal in the evening, community singing long into the night, and then an early rise (sleep deprivation) to do the household chores and again a very basic breakfast leaving her hungry and tired all day and non-stop interrogations (confessionals) with the long-standing members of the church group….i told her i considered that type daily routine to be a physically making her vulnerable to brainwashing and in fact tantamount to psychological torture techniques…Fortunately it was merely a passing fad and she re-joined family and friends. Regards to the Army, you are right about de-humanising them…and the first act is to shave off their hair and place them in identical uniforms so they no longer have individual identities.
I had comradely relations with AK in Edinburgh…, always helpful and willing to assist the Party anytime we asked….sad to hear of the bad news to their American affiliate.
This Canadian legal case might be an interesting one to follow. Whether it adds anything of importance to the debate, we shall see.http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1290580-bank-of-canada-faces-lawsuit-for-alleged-imf-conspiracy/I think the consensus opinion from the Money Creation folk is now is that banks don't really survive from depositors money and the difference in interest rates of lending and borrowing …but from the difference in the rates they borrow from other banks and lend to other banks… soit is still all dependent upon deposits…even if from other bnks as customers/clients
Now starts the discussion upon who will be the person to be our voice.Someone who has already the experience, or someone new so to increase our overall experence?…The choice is ours to make…I'm very happy either way, tbh..and content enough to i leave it to others to decide…Great news though that we are now featuring in at least the BBC's selection criteria for those worthy of being given a public airing of political views even if it is just a 5 minute thing…One day, we may get a full documentary devoted to us with a Paxman interrogation…..
"We Arra the People""Power to the People" I know at a stretch, people may include our rulers…and worse, some Orange bigots in Northern Ireland and Scotland insist in appropriating the term to prove they are the "chosen people"…I have now got a tendency to say "working people"…but some who don't work may feel that they are excluded by the word's usage…I am uncomfortable with the word proletariat(n) ..i think it is easier describing our enemy..the capitalist…the plutocrat…the oligarch…the ruling class, employing class, employers, the masters, the bosses, the wealthy, the rich, the 1%, the parasite class, these blood-sucking leeches, those fucking bastards……
http://socialistbanner.blogspot.com/Our African blog Socialist Banner has not neglected on reporting upon the problems of the DRC over the years and also frequently covers the much reported problems on the vast African continent. Even trying to present a geographica perspective is worthy such as emphasising that Africa is bigger than the USA, China, India and Europe all combined…Our atlases and maps are WRONG and misrepresent the vastness of AfricaSadly we are amiss in posting about the more positive developments that take place although we try to blog on workers or people's political struggles that take place.
Can the continuing persistence of religions be also used to describe a failure of Marxist theory? The strengths of ideas ebbs and flows with the tide of history, waxes and wanes like the Moon. But we can say that over the course of capitalism…300 years…belief in religion has lessened, despite a seeming resurgence in some parts of the world…And from something like hundreds of countries in Europe we have been reduced to a few score so nationalism (or at least parochialism) has also proved weaker…i think this was a part of Marxist theory, so being literal, nationalism or the overall decrease in it confirms the global nature and the centralisation of capitalism as predicted for the course of capitalism by Marxist thinkers.My two bits of input to the thread
Quote:I don't think even capitalist governments would allow a runaway greenhouse effect turning Earth into a second Venus to developNot intentionally, of course…what use is it for capitalistsif there is no people whatsoever to produce and buy products…but who says they cannot do so accidentally, without meaning to…We are already at the brink of IRREVERSIBLE climate change….what happens when we cross the line is not as yet fully knowable or predictable according to what i have read…it is speculative scenarios … The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chair R. K. Pachauri, said “The solutions are many and allow for continued economic and human development. All we need is the will to change, which we trust will be motivated by knowledge and an understanding of the science of climate change…Addressing climate change will not be possible if individual agents advance their own interests independently; it can only be achieved through cooperative responses, including international cooperation.”You have more faith and trust in this still to be proved unity of capitalists than i have….i tend to side with Istvan Meszaros…"Barbarism IF we are lucky"…and as i keep saying, i'm the glass half empty type of personality, so i'm not optimistic in expecting any good luck…bye-bye beautiful world…hello barren lifeless rock…One of my blog posts was called .."Share the World, Spare the Planet"…and my personal blog now has a sub-title "A World to Win, A Planet to Save" …i think i have become an apolcalyptic catastrophist socialist…"Socialism …Either Now or Never"….But who really knows, eh?…But some say this pessimism is self-defeating negativism…Some argue it adds a sense of urgency to our case…you takes your picks, comrades …But…"Its the end of the world as we know it…and i feel fine", as the REM song goes..
I'm sure it will be raised in the hustings or elsewhere that Russel Brand expressed the anarchistic anti-politics message to not vote.I think this has been clarified by him'What I said was, 'There's nothing worth voting for.' That's why I don't vote . . . . . . If there was someone worth voting for, I'd vote for it and I'd encourage other people if they think that there is a political party that represents their views; if they think there are politicians that are speaking on their behalf, by all means vote for them . . . …He says that he'll vote when there is a political party who will take on the "financial economic elites and corporate entities", but notes such a party would be difficult to create due to "global trade agreements which prevent that kind of thing happening at a national level"…'…I’m not saying don’t vote, I’m just saying it doesn’t make any difference . . . There’s no one to vote for'. "http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/russell-brand-occupies-wall-street-and-calls-for-revolution-again-9798218.html So our model answer is that he would be voting for ourselves as we tick all the right boxes.
Some now want to make the war a religious war…Proddies V Orthodoxhttps://news.vice.com/video/secret-protestant-churches-in-donetsk-ukraines-religious-warAnything for justification and camoflage
They have also supported our own spoiled ballot paper tactic"Where there is no supportable candidate, the CPGB urges voters to spoil their ballot papers with some suitable message: eg, ‘For socialism’ "So no lesser evil, vote labour without illusions holding your noses recommndation as from others on the Left and have come out against any nationalists , even the left-nationalists of the SSP…No doubt inviting the wrath of being accused of sectarianism…the CPGB frequently taking that mantle from oursleves these days
“In the forthcoming general election we urge critical support for candidates according to the following priority order…Other leftwing candidates: eg, the Morning Star’s Communist Party of Britain, Socialist Party of Great Britain,..”…So they do recommend ourselves but only IF not contested by 15 named Labour Party candidates, LU and TUSC candidates. We do rate low in their pecking order which is to be fully expected, of course. http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1050/framing-our-electoral-tactics/
As i keep saying, often just to myself it sometimes feels like, we should offer a much more detailed vision…yes, a blueprint…a utopia…an ideal…a goal and an aim that has more substance than an ethereal appearance. George Sorel if i recall suggested the revolutionary myth…As LBird maintains being scientificall correct is merely ideological…it is what people think and believe that makes something so and in all the discussions we overlooked Sorel's contribution to the interpretation of truth and science of socialism (i may be paraphrasing LBird's lengthy arguments out of context and apologies)We must offer the HOPE of change plus CONFIDENCE in our means of change. Let us say what we want, what it contains and will look like even if we do need to add the caveats that the future will be written by choices yet to be made and actions yet to be taken, under circumstances yet to exist. But our imagination is based upon the present…as such our aspiration is limited but lets be ambitious and optimistic. We can be critical of Zeitgeist but they have outlined what sort of society that can be imagined even if it is circular cities…We can be critical of the IWW/SLP/Syndicalists but they prepared their democratic decision-making structures in advance… We can do better that both. …And let the Von Mises and the gradualists come looking for us with their analyses of our failures and with their ideological counter-claims. Why should we hunt them down? Let them come to us to debunk us. Stuart, describes the Libertarian Alliance discussions…I also read something of the debates and our best responses was when they sought to challenge us and we grew stronger in our case because of it. It was to our advantage to be attacked rather than seek to argue with them, which is pointless, considering the strength of their think-tanks and media access. Bookchinites, i think, prefer to call their proposals the compass…to offer direction…i think we don't even really do that very well…We should lay down the road-map for the path to socialism we advocate…the sign-posts being all the moral and ethical support for our case…as Robbo and others keeps reminding us of (i hope i do not do him an injustice by being too simplistic with that statement)…In regards to Ken McLeod, at, i think, was his very first encounter with the SPGB at Edinburgh University, the subject of who will do the dirty work was raised…Brian Gardener said he always thought it would be done by Matt Culbert…I don't want to be exactly that specific in a recipe for the cook-shop…but we need to be just that bit more comprehensive and descriptive as he is as a novelist …we have to be as unique in expressing our ideas as he is…I think it is no coincidence that some of our best arguments come from the speculative writings of sci-fi from News From Nowhere all the way down the line …As i said at the start of this, we need to creat a picture for people to associate with with both their minds and their hearts…we have to build desire and passion…I know from personal experience that many members have a strong emotional attachment to the Socialist Party…We need to spread that same sentiment and sensation to socialism itself. A tall order.Anyways…thats how i feel inside me anyways …
Quote:I have been accused of arguing " to be one better than any one else through contradiction", I do not see this! If it had been said, that I was trying to get a message across by "showing the 'contradictions' inherent in the present system", that I could most assuredly agree with.Steve, what was the source of the charge…can you provide the source and what was said to give more context to your letter.
Former Royal Marine Commando Ben Wright, who served three tours in Afghanistan, immediately recognized the weapon handling error. He told RT: “They are going to be dead in a week.”David Buck, 34, served in the army between 1997 and 2006, and is a veteran of operational tours in Kosovo, Macedonia and Iraq. "a rag tag bunch who will get a very nasty shock when they go to Syria," http://rt.com/uk/241473-isis-army-syria-veterans/
