alanjjohnstone
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Quote:Despite repeated requests to post less (even from blog committee members and a recommendation from the internet committee) nobody takes any notice.
ALB, we do take notice but just happen to disagree with that position which you yourself prefer which is simply another member expressing their own personal views. We have discussed it and 3 out of the 4 on the blog find merit in multiple posts therefore we continued as we have done.There are several very popular news/blog websites that judge that their visitors are cerebrally capable of reading several articles a day (actually with SOYMB it is over the course of the day since time zones mean we post our contributions at various times and most internet users are on-line a few times a day.)Perhaps some will accuse us of quantity over quality…i would refute that…particular blogs are posted for a various purposes, some are purely informative, some are op-eds, some are follow-ups to previous posts. On other occasions we post because we have been asked to (…hmmm….? i wonder who has requested the most, could it be a certain editor of the Standard who find his columns sometimes limted in space…or…?). Unlike print we do have the luxury of repeating ourselves (Socialist Courier is nearing a 100 posts on the Arctic sovereignty disputes.).Anyway, if we fail to meet high expectations and standards with several posts, who is to say we would succeed with one or two?If however we received an instruction from the Party to change our policy then of course we would comply. As yet, i don't think the blog has received a full debate at conference/adm but usually skipped over in the reports section which usually includes an opening in it for further discussion and has not been subject to any specific motions, either. Our party democracy does not give precedence to the most vociferous of members in policy or decisions.Now that the WSM website has been revamped, the blog committee had previously concluded that we, too, required a new format and we have had a prototype suggested. We, ourselves, due to lack of technical knowledge and slow connection speeds, are hesitant upon taking on such a challenge and hope for assistance. The proposal also involves much more direct participation in a new blog from the WSM parties, taking responsibility for regional reporting and following the example of the wsm different blogs coming under the same umbrella. But in comments about the new website, i believe i submitted an opinion to a member of the internet committee that the repetition of all the blogs was not desirable…"i think the number of news item posts should be edited and not every one carried." i also pointed out that it includes the defunct Jamaican socialist Review, African Banner and maintains the fiction of an Australian socialist party.
“My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I’m not selling bread, I’m selling yeast. “ – Miguel UnamunoMaybe that should be our approach…simply offer the activating agent rather than the finished product.other quotes by him There is no tyranny in the world more hateful than that of ideas. Ideas bring ideophobia, and the consequence is that people begin to persecute their neighbors in the name of ideas. I loathe and detest all labels, and the only label that I could now tolerate would be that of ideoclast or idea breakerScience is a cemetery of dead ideas, even though life may issue from them.Imagination, which is the social sense, animates the inanimate and anthropomorphizes everything; it humanizes everything and even makes everything identical with man.http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno
Quote:Ditch conscious socialist ideology, and take on board, unconsciously, bourgeois ideologyJust a thought…can we adopt a pre-bourgeois ideology then?…the Peasants Revolt..Thomas Muntzer… they represented rebellious ideologies, didn't they?What about ditching socialist terminology, replacing the language of revolution and all the loaded biased words and phrases…Why be slaves to a lexicon that i think we can all accept has been corrupted so that meanings of the same words are different for different people?Doesn't the scientific method invent a new vocabulary? Didn't Marx give new meanings to established words? Hasn't many activists done that too…changed the standard interpretation of a word (and even of actions) ?I'm no expert on philosophy but isn't their a whole school of it devoted to language and the expression of ideas.To paraphrase "There is no ‘objective’ language " Shouldn't we go beyond words and connect with emotions by creating political "images" of our position where people relate without requirement of adopting the language of an ideology.
http://rt.com/op-edge/180636-fracking-another-commodity-bubble/“The word in the world of independents is that the shale plays are just giant Ponzi schemes and the economics just do not work.”Of course this could be as ALB may well point out RT protecting Russia's gas export industry
In reply to my question , Lbird says, go find your audience, and shock horror gasp , DJP agreed…Mohammed go to the mountain via the YouTube route, he suggestedI think we are a bit too late … drowned out by all the noise and clutter of cyber-space. Successful penetration of social-media i think takes a lot more than posting on it. Paddy S on another forum in relation to our blogs has made me question its existence and purpose. Still have little to show for my own thoughts but he called such attempts at blogging as vanity projects and then strangely suggested we make them even more personal and individual in content. (i wonder if that is dialectical thinking !)I thought ALB provided an answer but i read him out of context when he said
Quote:"Can we not say that we are right and they are wrong without being labelled (or labelling ourselves) as elitist?"…those two last words revealed he was talking about something else but perhaps he was inadvertenly on to something.SB-something-or-other on another thread has been putting the Zeitgeist view that we should indeed drop our labels and simply present the evidence to persuade people. I don't want to go into their lack of politics and lack of political process for change…but stick with this for the time being – how to describe ourselves and our ideas. The debate on whether we are Marxist materialists, Engelian physicalists, or whatever, is not the name on the can, is it ?I have raised it a few times…tentatively and exploratively…i simply want to investigate alternatives and new possibilities, not make any decisions on the matter for the time being…it seems we will have plenty of opportunity while we wander the wilderness to contemplate meanings and consequences.We have not been afraid to use different terminology …google "free access" and socialism and i think most hits will be from ourselves. We have de facto dropped the label communist (i note only LBird describes himself as such)…When was the last time we applied it to ourselves? Yet we cling to the word socialism like a life-ring as if our political life did actually depend upon its use, and hesitate and procrastinate about details of what sort of world it meant to depict. Do we require all the baggage that we carry with us? Or can we travel towards our destination much quicker with a much lighter ideological load?Should we offer a more detailed road-map rather than a world atlas as a guide to what path to take?Should we describe just what awaits at the end of the journey in more detail so we all know want to get there as quickly and as directly as we can?Our party is branch based but just how active are branches in themselves without direction from the HO? One think i was very pleased about in the EU elections was that it re-animated branch activity – people acted locally. Is it time to return initiative and imagination to branch-level (and even individual isolated members) by simply the party being a resource centre to tap into and not the political campaign centre to follow.Questions on the nature and essence of our political ideological reality and specualtive suggestions for th future.We can all agree that the thread is a total irrelevance if it is not all about our class and our relationship to it which cannot be in the sphere of lofty exchanges in philosophy but about practical application of that philosophy …and the only way way disputing interpretations will be resolved is putting things to the actual test. Arrrggg…i'll be shot at dawn for being an empiricalist now…testing won't be neutral… but surely the results can be measured..membership…circulation…web-traffic…
Quote:ALB -Pity we were not able to continue the other discussion about how socialist workers should go about establishing socialism/communism, at least not on this thread.I have said it on other related threads that IMHO they have been flawed by their esotericism. For all remarks about workers ideology and determining meanings and intent and content, i doubt many would have a lot to say about the protagonists and antagonists on these threads……oh i am sure there will be an instant retort of the importance of this discussion for working class ideas and the promotion of their consciousness…but again on those other threads i have asked just what relevance it all has for us mere workers with mundane matters on our mind such as ALB's question.Since you forgo membership of the SPGB (and other groups), LBird, can i hear some practical advice on how we firstly communicate our ideas so that the meet with a receptive audience that our ideology (and yours, despite differences) are simply is not reaching. How should our magazine, leaflets and blogs be themed to capture the imagination and sympathy of workers who presently reject our ideas but who on the plus side also increasingly reject the status quo and the left's and the right's too and are searching for something that reflects their own outlook more accurately and currently unable to find it Thats my impression of the present state of consciousness. That there exists not a prevailing workers ideology but a vacuum of ideology ..a dearth of ideas…which shows in the shallowness of the political opposition and the sterility of protest and resistance we witness…i consider Piketty as an example of this lack of revolutionary ideology in that he is only re-editing, re-phrasing the run of the mill, bog-standard amelioration of capitalist conditions, not their abolition and reinforcing the ruling class by making its inequality less visible, less important, so that we pay no attention to the man behind the curtain and the deeper social relations of alienation, non-control of the means of production, etc etc…The offer is a fair share slice of the cake for letting some get all the icing on the cake.
"It became an elitist language, not that it was or is of itself."i recall from my school days that Latin qualification was still required for entry into medicine, and indeed only a very few of the brightest in school didn't drop it the moment they could. But i keep forgetting i am getting old now. Today having a Latin GSCE doesn't even count for UCL med school entry much less being compulsory.
This may be of interest…the creation of conspiracies conspiracyhttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/14/men-in-black-ufo-sightings-mirage-makers-movie
I think New Zealand has a history of "unorthodox" politics. Didn't they have a strong Social Credit movement with MPs at one time?SB-UK does that mean we can now rest on our laurels..not only the SPGB but TZM too and simply let history take its course…oops …history actually does nothing does it and social evolution is not the exact same as biological evolution, either , is it ……people make history…social systems evolve because of the actions of people…perhaps you are a bit premature in deciding the SPGB and politics is now superfluous. Global unity needs political action…capitalism has already achieved the global economy, it has achieved the material basis of abundance …but it will take people to implement it…and persuading people and giving them the power to carry out their will…that is political action.Not sure you are right about population…on numerical figures you are right, Germany has a declining population too…demographics show we need a young immigrant population in Europe and North America to support the increasing older folk…the graph shows a projected rise then a drop in population…but isn't the growth for capitalism going to be about providing for the supposed rise of the "middle classes" and offering a western consumer culture. Capitalism still has life in it still.
While the UK/BBC quite rightly criticised Syrian government obstacles to aid relief, they seem to appear to be following the see no evil , hear no evil, speak no evil of Ukraine's government's ban on aid supplies coming from Russia. http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/08/13/375156/russia-aid-trucks-not-allowed-in-ukraine/
Yet again the information that the UK will arm Kurds is buried in the text of the BBC article. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28783068Press tv banned, by European tv satellites stations, reported"The announcement came in a statement released by British Prime Minister David Cameron’s office on Tuesday. The statement did not give any further information regarding which states would provide the military supplies. In addition, a number of Chinook helicopters might be deployed to the volatile region. The statement was released after British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond headed a meeting of the emergency response committee, COBRA, and following a telephone conversation between Cameron and Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott."
In regards to religious beliefs..the irrationalist versus the materialist, i found myself realising my own weaknesses.I have this idea that there is good and bad luck…i know…there is no such thing , events and opportunities have causes and have some logical reason for happeneing but i still keep returning to it. "Just my damn bad luck"…or .."he or she is a lucky bastard"…A world of "if only…"I also have this …dare i say it..ethical position …that what goes around comes around…that people get their just desserts…Again, a lot of really nasty people never face retribution and get away with their evil acts (ooops another loaded term)…but for some inner reason, i feel the requirement to think they will suffer some punishment in the future …and i have a great delight of shadenfreude when it does occur…..I know…non-Marxist ideas…superstitions or perhaps a vague personal acceptance/interpretation of the Karmic principle of life but so deeply ingrained that i carry them around. Am i religious?..Should i resign for not being a materialist….? Does what i believe individually actually have any importance regards the bigger issues we face collectively.
Since it is off topic…i hate that fucking stand up comedian and comedy reviews have taken over of the Fringe…because the breweries sponsor them (obviously they make more sales on the booze – why do you think it is a free show! ), they have taken all the best venues and all the best times, relegating drama to silly little stages in out of the way places at weird times of the day such as middle of the morning.Don't care if he is critiqueing capitalism, he's just another part of the spectacle making us laugh at the system rather than get enraged at it. Makes me want to cry – not laugh
Hollande having been previously gung ho for intervention in Syria, he is now vowing to send arms to the Kurds. I'm pretty sure we all know where this is heading…a Kosovo type recognition of Iraqi Kurdistan but probably known like acedonia of the Former Yuogoslavia Republic was to discourage Greek Macedonian nationalism and in regard to Kurds to discourage Turkish Kurd's demands. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28770519Hollande is certainly competing with Blair for the title of war-monger prime-minister of the decade
