Melanie Phillips....you certainly know how to hurt a man with an insult

The point I was making was that within a couple of generations we have lost most of the Working Mens Associations, Sports Clubs and other societies that made life bearable for our grandfathers and replaced it with crap TV and binge drinking. I think we are the poorer for it and at the same time had our militancy and our capacity to fight the Revolution has been 'dumbed' out of us. Marx's "Opium of the People" has been replaced by Trisha and Stella.

I'm totally hacked off with the state induced coma that half the population suffer from. Opportunity and hope has been lost for vast swathes of the population. What Thatcher started I'm sorry to say New Labour has finished. The betrayal of ordinary people by the political establishment, left and right, is nothing short of a disgrace.

Only when the people are free can they reach their and the working classes' potential.

Jack Sparrow wrote:

Melanie Phillips....you certainly know how to hurt a man with an insult The point I was making was that within a couple of generations we have lost most of the Working Mens Associations, Sports Clubs and other societies that made life bearable for our grandfathers and replaced it with crap TV and binge drinking. I think we are the poorer for it and at the same time had our militancy and our capacity to fight the Revolution has been 'dumbed' out of us. Marx's "Opium of the People" has been replaced by Trisha and Stella. I'm totally hacked off with the state induced coma that half the population suffer from. Opportunity and hope has been lost for vast swathes of the population. What Thatcher started I'm sorry to say New Labour has finished. The betrayal of ordinary people by the political establishment, left and right, is nothing short of a disgrace. Only when the people are free can they reach their and the working classes' potential.

I agree with where you're coming from. Not sure that it's all 'state-induced' mind - which party do Trisha and Stella belong to? Binge drinking has always been a local anaesthetic for the poor, witness Hogarth's paintings of gin-addled poverty. Big business is using the media in much the same way as the Romans used bread and circuses (McDonalds and Sky instead though) to court popularity. Sure governments play along and even encourage, but as Mr Weller did say...'the people get what the people want....' I'm not completely despondent, a benevolent communist dictatorship could soon put things right..... or could they? Maybe it will take global meltdown, the population reduced by millions by an ebola outbreak, meteor impact, climate shift or mutated bird flu. From the rubble a shining golden age emerging to replace the old corrupt systems.
Get building your Ark Jack (and stick a skull and cross bones on the mast......)

I think that while the cultural issues are an obstacle to be sure, the fundamental issues of the working class and its relationship to the mode of production havent significantly changed.

People still have to get up in the morning and go to work, thanking whomever, that they arent the homeless person that they are stepping over on the way... today! They still get talked down to by middle level managers. They still feel under the gun to try and put food on the table and keep the roof over their heads, all while hoping that their children turn out ok and dont see them as a failure.

They are still the victims or racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, etc. and it is still perpetuated by greedy capitalists. They see prices rising on fuel, food, entertainment, healthcare, education, etc. with no end in sight and as much as they want to think that they are 'middle class' because they saved enough money to buy an x-box, they know deep down inside that they are one paycheck away from losing it all.

As long as this dynamic continues and the workers have their hands on the levers of the machine, there will always be hope for revolution.

Class conciousnous, however, doesnt exist in a vaccuum, folks. But if you can intersect people in stuggle and bring this self awareness to them, at the right time, with the right words, so they GET IT, the revolution will be right around the corner.

*stepping off soapbox*

thanks for indulging me.

Quote:

I'm totally hacked off with the state induced coma that half the population suffer from. Opportunity and hope has been lost for vast swathes of the population. What Thatcher started I'm sorry to say New Labour has finished. The betrayal of ordinary people by the political establishment, left and right, is nothing short of a disgrace. Only when the people are free can they reach their and the working classes' potential.

bit of a "horse & cart" / "chicken & egg" semantic aside here, but: surely the people can only achieve freedom BY reaching their potential?

thatcher (apparently) on some (radio4?) interview was asked a while ago her most satisfying achievement:

NEW LABOUR! she replied (apocryphal.... who knows?)

i would say this can't really count as "betrayal" as the political establishment have NEVER had the interests of the working class at heart or, for that matter, even at BIG TOE!

still, INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVOLUTION versus METEOR IMPACT?

while i accept which is MOST likely i'll carry on fighting for the socialist revolution.... while keeping a close watch on the night skies, obviously!

DIMITRI

KEEP YER AK47s CLEAN AND YER POWDER DRY, COMRADES....

TILL THE CERTAIN DAY!

dimitri wrote:

KEEP YER AK47s CLEAN AND YER POWDER DRY, COMRADES....

Les, apparently, is forever buffing up his "weapon" - no chance of him being caught out, no sirree!!

John x