Wez
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‘ The same way we can expect people to self-educate forever, it will never happen, as long as they are imprisoned in wage slavery and exposed to capitalist media all the time.’
And yet you, like all of us in the Socialist movement, were also exposed to the same unrelenting 24/7 media indoctrination – and yet we rejected it. It has always interested me how we achieved this as we are not special, geniuses or aliens. We are just ordinary people like every one else. I would be interested in how you explain our existence. I think it is as important to understand why we became socialists as it is to discover why the majority did not.
‘ exactly what gives you the qualification to make such sweeping statement? ‘
What qualifications do you need to state the blindingly obvious? The 20th century saw experiments in every conceivable form of capitalism – from Fascism to Bolshevism, Anarchism and Co-ops to Keynesian reform and Monetarist free markets. And after all the suffering and dying was over what do we have in the 21st Century? The same old capitalism.
One of our greatest problems is that, unlike all of the above, we appeal primarily to the intellect and not the emotions. In this age of marketing, advertising, slogans and sound-bites our appeal to the intellect is drowned out. The paradigm shift from emotional individualism to a rational social being is a huge challenge for most. Schekn itrch, with his rational discourse, must be aware of this when he attempts to communicate with the politically naive or the downright cynicism of our age. Unfortunately I fear XR are just another example of appealing to the emotions without any understanding of what capitalism really is and how it works and that in their emotionalism they will not be able to hear us.
‘We cannot afford another hundred years of the Socialist party, there will be a lot less to build socialism from if we fail to act now.’
Do what now? We have to achieve socialism before anything meaningful can be done. There are no magic formulas, no shortcuts – they’ve all been tried and failed (usually making things worse). Raising political consciousness among the majority of the working class is the only meaningful activity.
‘Wez, Speaking specifically of the new society, class will not feature. So class conflict won’t remain.’
That’s why I said ‘historical change’ – it will always be true that the class struggle generated change up until socialism. I agree with Marquito that LBird’s hypothesis is redundant and thoroughly repudiated here but a debate about the nature of truth will continue as long as there are people to think – the lies of our masters and the belief in them by the majority is the main reason that ‘The world is falling apart’.
‘Of course truth will exist, but it would be in context of its being a live changing one, subject to interrogation and reinterpretation, in light of new knowledge and challenging of its veracity and not some absolute entity, which is impossible in any case.’
But surely it will always be true that: class conflict is the dynamic element in society that produces historical change, bacteria causes many diseases, the Earth is spherical, there are no gods, we will die without access to oxygen etc.?
Given the ever changing scientific hypotheses we must be careful not to throw out the baby with the bathwater – there are some things that will always be true and some things that will always be a lie like holocaust denial, creationism, religion, racial superiority or that Queen was a great rock band.
I used to regard our feathered friend as merely a distraction and nuisance but this time he’s perched too close to a slumbering lion who, upon waking, has delivered a tour de force to swat away the unhappy avian. As ever LBird will not answer the points made for the simple reason that he can’t. You’ve got to admire the depth of knowledge present in our Party. Bravo.
Friars are different from monks in that they are called to live the evangelical counsels (vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience) in service to society, rather than through cloistered asceticism and devotion. Whereas monks live in a self-sufficient community, friars work among laypeople and are supported by donations or other charitable support. A monk or nun makes their vows and commits to a particular community in a particular place. Friars commit to a community spread across a wider geographical area known as a province, and so they will typically move around, spending time in different houses of the community within their province.
Perhaps a weekend live radio broadcast from H.O? Initially online and then DAB if it is successful? I have experience as a broadcaster and would be up for it. A mixture of radical music, debates, phone-ins etc. Minimal online tech and a sound proof room together with a DJ and tech guy wouldn’t be too expensive.
Two of the many things that the Party has learnt in its 100 years of existence are that:
a) It is not our fault that the working class cannot hear us and
b) There is no magic formula that can transform someone into a socialist.
No political party has had a membership that has fought so tirelessly and consistently for socialism and any accusation of being complacent or sectarian etc. is an insult to those who have given their lives to the struggle. Every conceivable tactic has been tried but in the end it is history that will decide if and when we will be heard by the millions who will make the revolution. Our job is to be here for them when such a revolutionary epoch arises.
The same question applies: what made you into a socialist? Like you I thought of myself as a socialist before I encountered the SPGB (a brother in law who pointed out the difference between Bolshevism and socialism helped) but without the SPGB I may still have ended up a cynical lefty. What was ‘your journey’ to socialism? I suspect it is similar to others in the Party and features a high level of what I call a ‘high facility for criticism’; in other words we take nobody’s word for anything until we’ve thought it through ourselves. This represents a contrast to the way many others acquire information (authorities in the media, parents, peers etc.).
