rodshaw
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The BBC tries to be so pally with its viewers and spends a lot of airtime vaunting itself and its wonderful programmes. And yet is there any clearer example than the Lineker fiasco that it is an organ of the state, implicitly supporting the government’s dreadful policy? It dresses up acts of censorship and gagging with its line of supposedly being impartial and all-embracing. And all the while at least one of its top nobs is publicly donating to the tories.
Not that it would make much difference if it were Labour.I have read three of his sci-fi books and they were very entertaining, especially Perdido Street Station. All about wacky dystopian worlds though and I can’t remember anything about socialism/communism in them.
Good for him, although he does seem to support various left-wing, i.e. non-socialist, organisations. From Wikipedia:
“Miéville is active in anti-capitalist politics in the United Kingdom and has previously been a member of the International Socialist Organization (US) and the short-lived International Socialist Network (UK). He was formerly a member of the Socialist Workers Party, and in 2013 became a founding member of Left Unity. He stood for Regent’s Park and Kensington North for the Socialist Alliance in the 2001 United Kingdom general election, gaining 1.2% of votes cast. He published his PhD thesis on Marxism and international law as a book in 2005.”
Ah well, there’s always dark energy and dark matter, which some scientists theorise are occupying that space which we consider vacuum and nothingness. Otherwise they don’t think there’s enough ‘stuff’ in the universe to explain why it’s expanding.
So we can certainly have a concept of nothing but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the universe is full of it.There’s also the multiverse theory, by which there is an infinite number of universes each of which reflects a different set of actions and choices. It’s just that we can’t perceive them. So there’s at least one where you ‘chose’ to have tea instead of coffee for breakfast, at least one in which you never existed because your parents never got together, and no doubt several versions of socialist societies.
All highly speculative of course, but subject to serious scientific thought nonetheless. It would suggest that all possible choices are actually made. Where exactly it leaves the notion of free will I’m not sure.
“Maybe but they knocked out a NATO team (Portugal) so making an all non-NATO final theoretically possible. But for that they need to beat France. It looks like the main hope for delivering your karma to NATO, for engineering the exclusion of Russia and arming the Ukranian nasties, will be Argentina.”
I don’t see the point being anti-Nato any more than being anti-Russia.
Politically, Argentina can hardly claim any moral high ground. And this bunch of Argentinian players have been pretty nasty. They jeered at the Dutch players after the shootout and Messi swore at one of them in a live interview.
Pretty much all footballing nations have nasty politics behind them. Even if they don’t, of course they are still part of this awful capitalist system. Which is why I just want the team that plays the best footie to win. Failing that, an underdog. As long as it’s not on penalties.
Just to throw a bit of dodgy science at it – as I see it, for reincarnation to happen, the atoms in a person’s body (or at least in enough of the brain to form a memory) must all reconvene in another person’s or animal’s body at a future date, such that a memory of the previous person is maintained.
Given that all our bodies supposedly contain at least one atom of Isaac Newton (or name your preferred grand person of history, maybe Mr Marx himself?), then there is maybe a trillions-to-one chance of a large group of atoms reconvening and some form of reincarnation happening.
Maybe there’s a scientific calculation to cover the chance of this, just as there is one by Feynman to work out the length of time it would take for an object to spontaneously disappear.BD said:
‘Rodshaw- ” I think some of the people who professed no religion still believed in angels, spirits etc. ”To my way of thinking that is not an issue, in the same way that some people think their lucky underpants will help their football team to win, or that saying hello to a magpie when you see them is not an issue.’
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Maybe if all party members were to wear their lucky underpants it would help to create more socialists. I’m not holding my breath though.
I remember a couple of years ago somebody wrote to the Party that they weren’t religious but believed in an all-pervading spirit or some such. They got mercilessly dissected in the next issue of the Standard.
I seem to recall a similar survey a few years ago. I think some of the people who professed no religion still believed in angels, spirits etc. The feeling that someone or something is watching over you is quite strong. Hence, I suppose, why people still think leaders know what’s best despite all the evidence to the contrary.
“I’ve sometimes wondered what music I would select, if I had to go on BBC’s Desert Island Discs. I wonder no longer! My comrades on this forum have given me the complete playlist. Thank you one and all!”
If Desert Island Discs survives into the socialist era, maybe Paula should be its first guest.
‘Lyrics to our one-time party song (there is sheet music for it in archives, I think)
“The World for the Workers”.
Words & Music by H. J. Neumann’Somebody could have a go at doing a modern version of this. Same lyrics to rap, maybe?
(Don’t tell me, somebody already has…)
So as mentioned already, none of these songs really packs a socialist message but at least most of them are anti-capitalist in some form.
For me it begs the question (and I know all you can do is speculate) – what would people write about in a socialist society? Would there be anything serious to protest against or would it be all party music and songs about broken hearts?I couldn’t believe it when I saw the Iranian team not singing. Teams always at least make some semblance of singing. Good for them. I only hope it doesn’t land them into serious trouble.
I found out about this through one of my daughters, who knows someone in this organisation. She was pleased to have found someone among her friends she can actually talk to about politics.
But – she knows his brand isn’t the real thing, and to my total surprise one day she started to ask me why people didn’t get the point about socialism. It was the first time she’d mentioned it and it turns out she’s fully convinced about it all, so some of my ramblings over the years have obviously rubbed off on her.
I certainly hope her generation manages to get it sorted.
