Young Master Smeet
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Of course, there were two reviews of that book in that issue. The key point is that urbanism did not require domination, nor did ‘the state’ arise from concentrated population.
I didn’t suggest it would be “smurf land where everyone agrees”, but, rather, that in cases of conflict it would involve prolonged discussion, debate and attempts at consensus, rather than one side (even a majority) being able to simply enforce its will by force.
I’d like to think that socialist humanity could find a solution to disputes different to the manner in which dogs resolve their disputes over the ownership of a bone.
At present politics is depressingly about ratting on rivals to teacher ‘surely XXXX can’t be allowed to do that’ and in a socialist society we’d rely on freedom and responsibility: with no group able to claim a monopoly of violence.
When I read Graeber and Wengrow’s ‘Dawn of everything’ I found their account of early anarchic cities a fascinating thought experiment: how could a group of humans without a central authority build a city, but fi they can, it must depend upon resolving disputes, and maybe resolving them without resort to force (and, maybe, sometimes living with being unable to resolve them because of one recalcitrant individual).
I suspect that dispute in socialism about driving speed would be resolved through long debates, late into the night, because we’d have the time to care about such things: or it’d be settled, and noone would dispute them.
And, just because ALB loves this article so much: The Pace that Kills
Absent the coercion of poverty, people in socialism would be free to choose to box: and many do box without leading to Parkinsons.
You’d get penalties for many of the moves of soccer when playing rugby (last time I played soccer, I had to restrain myself from shouting offside every time someone passed to a player in front of them).
Try some of the marvellous tricks of AFL in a soccer match: they literally are different ball games. They’ve banned the shoulder charge and the spear tackle in rugby, so it is very unviolent. I mean, even MMA has stopped kicking the head on the floor (which I did find disgraceful). The point of sport is the rules constrain what can be done.
The rules of soccer partially came about because one public school didn’t have a proper playing field and so had to modify their football code to avoid hitting the floor.
Now, where is my ticket for the chess boxing match…
Given some people pay to play rugby and boxing now, I think they will continue to exist in some form. Sport answers a need, I’ve heard the stories of the Cumbrian miners coming straight from the pit unwashed to play rugby because they needed that excitement and exercise. What capitalism did is it took popular sport, codified it and regulated it and then commercialised it, given back to the people it can be a beautiful thing.
(Also, I’ll dispute rugby is violent, physical, yes, but violent, no: and boxing is all about not being hit).
“When men stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything.” – attrib CK Chesterton.
widely attributed, although not traced in his works; first recorded as ‘The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything’ in Emile Cammaerts Chesterton: The Laughing Prophet (1937)
I think we can add in there are those scientifically weaponising doubt and ambiguity for their own ends. It’s recorded the Putin regime propaganda involves stoking (weirdly) conspiracy theories, as they are also disempowering (“They” control everything, so action against them is futile).
Very kind of you to include smoggies in the English speaking world. Frankly, I’m spent enough of my life explaining to folk that I’m not a Geordie to know the difference, but don’t forget the influence of mass culture on shifting dialects: my sister’s kids call her ‘mum’. While I’m there, bairn is old English, but you’re right about Northumbrian generally as a conservative dialect. Teesside has added Irish inflection.
BTW, the second speaker clearly has picked up a few Geordie notes in his accent.
My point, though, wasn’t to criticise the magpie fans – the point was a general human one about how we stand our ground intellectually when we care about something, and how facts are absorbed.
After all, Gibbo is involved in all this freeport nonsense, capitalists are gonna capitalist.
OK, I’m going to close this thread now, I was concerned it would flare up.
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It’s a mix of authoritarian social controls, education and making the workforce competitive to attract inward capital investment (backed up by a good dose of national pride). Possibly the Singapore model – there seems to be a lot of attraction to Singapore’s methods in Westminster.
Yes, there do seem to be more tools there, however, for now we’re working with what we’ve got, but, yes, I’m sure the internet committee are keeping an eye on such comments as this.
I’ve removed a post by @Lizzie45 for hinting at a user’s real name, after being asked not to. They are welcome to repost the content, or signal that they are happy for me to remove the offending phrase.
This is an informal warning, in my opinion you’re perilously close to trolling, violation of rule 7: “Do not use the forums to send […] purposely inflammatory remarks” and violation of rule 6:
“Do not make repeated postings of the same or similar messages to the same thread” – please either provide factual information or structured arguments, rather than postings of the ‘you guys suck’ type.More generally, just to echo Paula’s message upthread, rule 7 requires us all to be civil: attack ideas, not people, do not respond to provocation.
Remember, our moderators are part time, and there will be some delay until we can assess any given post.
Finally, for anyone other than moderators, moderation is axiomatically off-topic. Please do not send on forum posts about moderation. Do not reply to this message, I will nuke.
This thread is broadly on topic, but can I remind people that people’s motives for being on the forum and their behaviour is always off-topic.
@lizzie45 Could I remind you to address people by their chosen handle, please?So, Lobster magazine has this long detailed article on the rise of Zelensky, detailing in particular how he was sponsored by the Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolmoisky.
Today, the BBC has the news that Kolmoisky has been arrested for corruption “The president faced accusations of acting as Mr Kolomoisky’s puppet during the election campaign, including from rival and former president Petro Poroshenko.” This is the power of political office in action (but let’s see how it plays out and whether Kolmoisky actually gets taken down.
There’s lots of chatter about the regime eating itself, and there may be something in that, but I suspect it’s more the president asserting his power, alongside the pressure of war. Let’s not forget, the Kyiv regime is basically bankrupt (the civil service is now paid for by western backers).
Sky has a list of the schools affected Tellingly, they seem to cluster in a few areas, maybe reflecting the practices of a few architects or building firms? Particularly, Essex seems to be a serious locale.
