DJP
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““Only 2% vote up from last time, lost several seats, total vote share a pathetic 34%, leader loses 18,000 votes in his seat, overall turnout a near historic low.”
With first past the post you win by winning seats not by getting the largest total vote share. I’ve heard someone comment that the low vote share for labour may indicate a high instance of anti-tory tactical voting. This could also explain the rise in seats for the lib dems.
Seeing as the whole republican conception of freedom, which motivated the American revolution, is about not being under the arbitrary will of another it would seem strange if the Founding Fathers really wanted to create an elected absolute monarch. Weren’t they concerned with things such as the rule of law?
Thomas Paine – “[…]in America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the Crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is.”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/paine-on-the-idea-that-the-law-is-king-1776Seems to me that there really is a move by conservative elements in the USA to try and cement minority-rule through capture and use of state power, Project 2025 and all that. I don’t think it’s melodramatic to say that there is more at stake in Biden vs Trump than just who manages capitalism for the next political cycle.
Or have I fallen for a leftist conspiracy theory?
Obviously the religious fundamentalists don’t like evolutionary theory is because it undermines their literal translation of the bible, obviously.
The question to ask is why is religious fundamentalism gaining ground in some countries (another example is Indonesia) while some others are becoming more and more irreligious (the UK and the Netherlands for example).
These days if someone is using the term “Darwinism’ they are more likely to be a creationist than an evolutionary biologist. If “Darwinism'” is used by scientists usually it will be referencing a historic period rather than evolutionary biology in general.
More reading:
https://evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1007/s12052-008-0111-2Of course it’s a concern but the modern theory of genetics and evolution isn’t really the same thing as ‘Darwinism’ – there’s nothing about DNA in the work of Darwin (or Wallace).
I’m not an apologist, I’m a sympathiser. I feel very sorry for them. (Weak attempt at humour I know).
So it’s not wishful thinking or fantasy to think that some fringe candidate in a UK election will have a meaningful sway on Israeli military policy? Another interesting take.
I was asking more about how you thought this is connected to your more general claims about the impossibility of achieving socialism and the futility of even trying. The fact that the price of gas has temporarily fallen doesn’t seem to be here or there.
I was just merely trying to provide some evidence for my anecdotal assertion. And I wasn’t just talking about academic conferences for other academics. I’ve been to the grand total of one of them in my whole life. But doesn’t seem much point labouring over it here.
Communism, properly understood, isn’t an obscure idea at all. It’s widely known, internationally and especially in political theory circles. I meet and talk with people from all over Europe and wider that know about it. The SPGB didn’t invent communism – as we all know.
The SPGB, unfortunately doesn’t get a wide reach with its publicity. It could ands should do much better at using digital media. But that’s another back-seat driver comment from me. Make of it what you will.
TBH I don’t think SPGB vote shares are a very good metric of anything and, given the current climate, am also unsure of the publicity value of standing in elections. But that’s just my back-seat driver opinion.
Most people that understand socialism in the non-market sense will not have learnt it from the SPGB and most likely never even heard of it.
But there’s nothing in this which means that a mass socialist movement is a logical or psychological impossibility, just an indication of the long and lonely road to get there. Which we all knew already.
