Ozymandias
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Look I concede hypothetically that a minority of the global workforce involved in the armed forces/police might end up joining the struggle for World Socialism, in fact it could even be a majority. However you're going to get a small hardcore of fanatics and psycho's in the military who will defend the property rights of their masters to the very last. And this element will exist in every country on earth. It only takes one loony to set off a chain reaction by pressing the button. In my mind all of this is conjectural anyway because for the life of me I just cannot see the 99% ever getting to the point where we've woken up enough to get things organised politically, consciously and democratically to bring about the establishment of a post capitalist society. Certainly not within the dwindling amount of time we have left before environmental or nuclear armageddon finishes us off.As far as Lenin is concerned the only thing the bastard ever wrote that I roughly agree with was his estimation of how long it would take for workers to achieve class consciousness. I think he said it might take hundreds of years. Perhaps he was right on that point although I disagree with his idea that workers at best were really only able to achieve "Trades Union Consciousness". The fact is in 2014 many workers cannot even achieve that! For instance I've heard workers praise gangsters like Thatcher by saying shit like…"At least she was tough on the unions". Workers are more stupid than they've ever been and the Internet is making it worse. It makes workers more isolated, more addicted, more phobic.The SPGB through no fault of its own has consistently failed to capture the imagination of workers for 110 years now. It is almost impossible to convince your average worker of the urgent need for World Socialism, never mind trying to appeal to the human sediment which makes up most of the armed and police forces.These are the kind of workers who love power and it's this unfortunate element in human behaviour that Capitalists are only too happy to exploit. These pathetic slaves enjoy dousing workers faces in pepper spray, they love battering black people to death in police cells, or get some of their kicks by treating "illegal" immigrants like animals in detention centres, they relish beating strikers into submission, getting deep satisfaction from electrocuting protesters with tasers, they create and cover up human tragedies like Hillsborough, they spy on innocents like Doreen Lawrence, they ritually humiliate and patronise members of the public, they protect high ranking paedophiles as well as posing as activists in pressure groups so they can infiltrate them…the sorry list goes on.The bottom line is that many of these pathetic uniformed cretins would love nothing more than to gun down "their own people". Work is like being in a video game for many of them. I do not consider such filth to be members of my class, even though economically they obviously are. For me they inhabit their own limbo land of corruption, lies, racism, violence and very low cognitive ability. Yet the entire gambit of Socialism is predicated on depending on these people to join the class struggle.Also this isn't even taking into account all of the other variables which could make a transition from this society to the next extremely hazardous. We have elite military squadrons, armies within armies, vast spy networks, intelligence organisations, secret societies (allegedly), far right wing armed paramilitary groups, survivalists, cults, religious fanatics, terrorist networks, you name it. How the hell are we ever going to get to revolution with all of this in place?Meanwhile governments continue to invest in researching ever more horrible and ghastly ways of killing workers. Licenses are issued to toy companies so sets of "Swat Team" playmobil/Lego figures can be sold in toy shops to ensure kids are desensitised to the increasing fascist police presence growing all around them. Governments are developing Frankenstein experiments with the very fabric of space time by creating mini black holes. They are rapidly developing drone technology to the extent that such machines can be minimized to the size of insects. Sonic, laser and microwave weapons are being increasingly developed to create "death rays". Robotics and nano-technologies are slowly enabling the fantasy of robot infantrymen which can be controlled like drones. Each branch of the armed forces will have an entertainment office in Hollywood so they can assist the production of increasingly militaristic movies and violent video games which often contain wild historical innacuracies which suit the neo-con worldview. Yesterday I read a report about a sergeant major and former US Army/Vietnam veteran who was caught on video saying some pretty vile things about his fellow workers. This vegetable made his remarks whilst holding a Bible during an address earlier this year to a St Louis branch of the Oathkeepers, an association of former and serving military personnel, police officers and first responders. The group says that its members “pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to ‘defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic". This is only one example of the maelstrom of obstacles we face. How many miriad groups of "Oathkeepers" are there throughout the world? With all of them unwittingly defending their right to be slaves? Each of them staunchly believing all the lies their governments ever told them? Of course I'm hoping I'll be proven utterly wrong about everything I've said here. However workers consistently refuse to stand by each other. I despise them exactly because they lie…to themselves. They are dishonest liars because they don't know any better.The kind of mental leap we would require for Socialism to be established is of near miracle proportion. I left the SPGB 15 years ago because I was disgusted with the pathetic attitude of slaves all over the world in reaction to the news of the death of the parasite Princess Diana. I have no faith in the "Working Class" and that's why I won't be rejoining. Unless as I say there is a never before witnessed mental revolution around the corner then I think either we will blow ourselves up to Kingdom come or the planet itself will get rid of us. What is "humanity" anyway but a disgusting virus which is polluting and destroying its host. This is becoming more and more apparent. Whilst I cannot say Socialism is totally impossible I think it's establishment in our lifetime (or any lifetime for that matter) is at best almost impossible. Sorry but it's the way I feel.
And we expect the police and the armed forces to eventually join the class war? What a fuckin joke. These pathetic slaves will do anything their masters tell them to do because they love power. That's the reason they get up in the morning. How can we possibly rely on this filth? Many of these fuckin cretins are psychopaths. We are so fucked. Socialism? Forget it. That cunt Mao said only one thing that I would go along with (that Nuclear War is in some way inevitable) and I hope when the end does come it's quick.
What is the point of continually humouring this guy? He's as bad as that loon from TZM. The phrase about brick walls comes to mind.
Reading this just depresses me. It reminds me of the hopeless fantasies of that guy from the "Socialist Centre" in India. Clearly your'e never going to attract TZMers to think about joining the WSM. I used to view TZM with real hope but I think apart from popularising the idea of a moneyless society it has also filled workers minds with a whole new set of delusions. A whole new set of entanglements and problems to try and iron out. What a fuckin mess we are in.
I meant to ask if the SPGB have been in contact with RT. I think they have a studio in London. Can the party capitalise on the recent BBC appearance? TZM have been on RT several times. If they can get on the telly why can't the WSM?
I couldn't get anywhere near this guy when I went to see him here in Glasgow a few months ago. He is a movie star as well as social commentator. These people have their entire days mapped out into 15 minute segments. I get the feeling Brand would lap up the party case. He is tapping into something people are craving. Togetherness and real change.
"I have no problem with inequality per se, Up to a point it can be a motivation for growth." Piketty
It's been reported in the past ten days that some experts from the FT or LSE are claiming that Piketty's sources are inaccurate. What a shame that his book has been a best seller yet his conclusions are pathetic reformism. Marx turning in his grave again.
Listen thanks Vin. Believe it or not I'm an Opera Singer and I studied at the RCM in London. I sing Tenor for Scottish Opera Chorus now. Apart from Opera I also write music and these lyrics came to me in the past week. I'm involved with a team of professional songwriters and we are about to start working on this song tomorrow. We utilised samples from the "Concerto for Stan Getz" for Saxophone and Orchestra by Richard Rodney Bennett and I scribbled up these lyrics to go with the jazzy fragment we have so it's a work in progress…
"The best essay(s) will achieve either of the following: a) It will succeed in falsifying part of TZM’s central thesis. If so, TZM will publicly announce a shift in its advocacy, or (more unlikely) will concede that its entire thesis is invalid and will cease to exist (at least as it does now). b) It will not succeed in falsifying part of TZM’s central thesis, but it will provide a decent counterargument to or at least helpful reframing of one (or many) of TZM’s core advocacy points. This will allow TZM the opportunity to expand on or clarify any potential shortcomings or ambiguities in the way it has thus far presented such points." I don't know how serious this is but it could be a prime opportunity for opening up serious debate with TZM. When you read the PDF you can see that issues of political action or class consciousness are not even on the TZM radar. They are terrified of being branded "Socialists" and in order to avoid alienating potential members they have just airbrushed out the entire concept of political organisation and class self awareness thus throwing the baby out with the bath water. A few years ago I wrote this stupid thing on the (then) TZM global forum detailing in 10 points how I thought TZM might fail. It was poorly thought out and it might have prejudiced TZM against the WSM because the tone was a bit wanky. It was even posted on the SOYMB blog but I asked for it to be taken down. I still stand by the points I made though. I just hope the judges won't completely ignore a submission from a Socialist because of what I wrote. I guess such an essay wouldn't exactly be a "debunking" but more a process of fine tuning the argument for the establishment of an RBE and I can think of no other organisation on earth other than the WSM who can get right to the bottom of why TZM are languishing in atrophy. Of course the SPGB hasn't exactly got anywhere in the past 110 years either but that's a different matter and not the fault of the party. When I think of all the great minds in the SPGB I am confident someone can come up with a written challenge which might illustrate that without democratic, conscious and political organisation, TZM will get nowhere.
