Everyday doublethink for beginners

[Brainaddict]

And you can be a droning, single issue moaner at times, but I get fucking frsutrated with people who look for single-cause answers like 'It's all about distribution of wealth', as if throwing money at social problems has EVER solved them.

But it has solved lots of problems, such as people dying of malnutrition and of easily preventable diseases in this country.

Of course it's a sticking plaster solution and the longer term solution would be to completely change the economic structures, but I haven't seen you advocating that.

 

[treelover]

Maybe its because the issue I moan about, welfare, is ignored by most progressives in this country and that sometimes I feel like a a one man band, and btw, i dont do it because of my ego, who would choose welfare as an issue to campaign on, not exactly sexy is it? Its because some of the most vulnerable people in the UK are going to get hit, but hey slag off those who are trying to do something about it.....

 

[_angel_]

My point was that it's not a redistribution issue, it's a demographic one which has been exacerbated by social changes to the traditional structure of the extended family (somethign that capitalists and socialists can take equal pride in having dismantled - caps for increasing alienation, socialists for saying that the extended family is a barrier to class consciousness as it prevents people from thinking as a class entity). Family elders would be supported by their kids, and in return were able to offer emotional, practical (babysitting and education) and sometimes financial help to their families.

By atomising the family unit, and thus alienating parents from children and vice versa, old people are now forced to look after themselves and look to the state, not their own families, for suport, and the converse applies - if you've got easy access to babysitting services, the whole noise made about state nurseries, company creches, having to take time out of work because kids are ill etc wouldn't happen.

This is not to say that the extended family was a perfect social institution - (for example I suspect that the 'rise' in things like sex abuse are nothing of the sort, only that the atomisation has removed internal pressures from extended family units to not say anything) but it did provide a massive array of social support services that are now abrogated to the state.

Reason why there isn't easy access to babysitting services is more and more grandparents are working themselves, and, more to the point one wage isn't enough to sustain a family anymore. Hence the problem with lack of childcare for parents.

 

[TAE]

Today's sample:

We are getting richer as a society with every passing year.

We can no longer afford the free education or decent pensions that we could twenty years ago.

According to today's conventional wisdom both of these are manifestly true - indisputably so, as the debate is framed by politicians and the media. And it's not just in this country but across a lot of Europe too.

What percentage of people notice the problem with this I wonder?

I think the problem has to do with expectations. Advertising causes people to want things and a clean hospital bed is not at the top of the list for christmas. So saying "we can no longer afford" is only true because we spend so much money on stuff that we really do not need.

 

[TAE]

Perhaps one part of the problem is that political advertising is highly restricted - so there is no effective counter balance against the flood of 'you need to spend your money on goods' which we are bombarded with. I wonder how voting attitudes would change if we had a ratio of one "pro public services" advert for every "pro private product" advert.

 

[poster342002]

Perhaps one part of the problem is that political advertising is highly restricted - so there is no effective counter balance against the flood of 'you need to spend your money on goods' which we are bombarded with. I wonder how voting attitudes would change if we had a ratio of one "pro public services" advert for every "pro private product" advert.

All that would translate to in the current political climate would be endless propoganda adverts to "support YOUR nation! Do not ask for above-inflation wage rises!" along with an avalanche of anti "benefit fraud" adverts.

 

[TAE]

Perhaps.

 

[kyser_soze]

You can do poltical advertising, you just have to be really clever about how you word stuff.

 

[TAE]

All I really meant was the effect that unopposed commercial advertising is having should not be underestimated.

 

[Demosthenes]

Maybe its because the issue I moan about, welfare, is ignored by most progressives in this country and that sometimes I feel like a a one man band, and btw, i dont do it because of my ego, who would choose welfare as an issue to campaign on, not exactly sexy is it? Its because some of the most vulnerable people in the UK are going to get hit, but hey slag off those who are trying to do something about it.....

I think quite a lot of them already have been.

 

[looneytune]

I think the problem has to do with expectations. Advertising causes people to want things and a clean hospital bed is not at the top of the list for christmas. So saying "we can no longer afford" is only true because we spend so much money on stuff that we really do not need.

That is so true

 

[WeirdlyGreen]

My best recent one of these is:

One of the stated aims of the Respect Task Force is:

Encouraging respect for public servants and services including teachers and schools, health and emergency services and the Police

BUT

Sir Cyril Taylor (head of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust) said there were about 17,000 "poor" teachers in England.

Naughty Cyril - perhaps he should be give an ASBO?

Also getting me into a froth is the demand for 'continuous improvement'. Surely this can't be possible? There must be some law of physics against it?

 

[TAE]

"Well Sir, we could create the perfect school, but then we'd fail on the annual improvement assessment."

"In that case you'd better create a poorly performing school so that it can improve each year!"

 

[WeirdlyGreen]

"It's all about distribution of wealth', as if throwing money at social problems has EVER solved them"

It's my understanding that there's lots of evidence on this. While nothing in social science is for certain a huge amount of evidence shows that narrowing the gap between the richest and the poorest (something that Labour has monumentally failed on) has a positive impact on a whole range of things from educational and health differentials to reported violence.

 

[WeirdlyGreen]

"Well Sir, we could create the perfect school, but then we'd fail on the annual improvement assessment."

"In that case you'd better create a poorly performing school so that it can improve each year!"

Brilliant! Perhaps I we should suggest it. That way they can feel like they're making progress. It's like a job creation scheme. Or like writing down a job on your list that you know you've done so that you can have the joy of crossing it off.... er, I might have done this.

 

[treelover]

Its the neo-liberal version of the Maoist mantra, 'permanent revolution', many similarities actually, N/Labour is ideological to its core, with plenty of former trots involved.

Also getting me into a froth is the demand for 'continuous improvement'. Surely this can't be possible? There must be some law of physics against it?

 

[Steve Booth]

Profit margins wider

The idea of old people as a 'burden' or 'problem' pisses me off. Pensioners do all kinds of unpaid work that is not factored into the calculations of economists. They are a resource, a boon, a positive fucking success story.

Is it that the UK GDP has risen because the manufacturing jobs have been shifted to the third world? The wages have gone down, with people making stuff in Bangladesh sweat shops, or these factories in China we keep hearing about where electronic goods are made, DVDs or toys with lead paint and dangerous chemicals etc.

The wages have been cut out there, but the prices are up here, meaning the profit margins have increased. Isn't this really how the GDP has increased?