tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post7519973507188292110..comments2024-03-28T21:25:08.138+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Ten Years Ago This Week: "On The Back Of The Beast"Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-63190420371795800332010-05-20T01:26:48.494+12:002010-05-20T01:26:48.494+12:00Lennon sure predicted 'smile n wave' Key d...Lennon sure predicted 'smile n wave' Key didn't he? <br /><br />Sadly, I'm not sure Labour-Alliance of 2000 showed enough awareness of the untamable beast they were riding (and the MPs seemed happy to extend their own claws with those of the Beast to savage Afghans a year later...)<br /><br />Even today, few on the left even discuss how to transition away from capitalism to a better society - they mostly engage with worthy but short-term battles against the bosses (eg Unite union $15 an hour, etc) and talk of the evils of capitalism, without proposing alternatives. Not many societies will jump into the void unless clear options for a capitalism-free NZ is proferred. <br /><br />Lest I be called a hypocrite, I suggest a transitional move to a 3-prong tariff regime (to counter Roger Douglas' efforts to scrap them) - nil tariffs on everything.... except we tax imports for the environmental, human rights, and workers rights protections their source nations/industry sectors/companies have. Similar to our domestic ACC scheme of ratings. <br /><br />For example, where a TV made in Oz would get a better rating on those 3 criteria than if made in China, so the TV gets a lower tariff, making it more competitvely priced. Start with assessment of national data, and let companies pay for their own firm to be assessed quicker if they think it will show a better record than their country overall (rewarding better practice with lower tax).<br /><br />This would not kill capitalism but it would severely damage the boss' ability to lever-down pay & conditions, which gives breathing space for unions and activists to go further. And it would be very hard for the free trade nutters to argue against it on ideological grounds ;)<br /><br />Mad MarxistAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-29191974150980457742010-05-19T13:33:42.650+12:002010-05-19T13:33:42.650+12:00So perhaps the loss of beauty is collateral damage...So perhaps the loss of beauty is collateral damage that results from elevating an instrumental activity (self-defence, transaction) into an absolute position.Olwynnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-72325804247899856492010-05-19T13:17:57.433+12:002010-05-19T13:17:57.433+12:00Ancient Sparta, perhaps, Olwyn.
They were a rela...Ancient Sparta, perhaps, Olwyn. <br /><br />They were a relaxed, pleasure-loving people once, but they changed. <br /><br />Their unfortunate neighbours were conquered and became their slaves - responsible for ammassing the surplus that allowed the Warrior Sparta and its peculiar constitution to survive.<br /><br />All art, all literature, all memory of softness and pleasure were abjured - even the food they ate was deliberately made foul-tasting. Only hardness and duty were valued.<br /><br />Every year the young men, in training to become warriors, were sent out to run down, hurt, rape and kill members of the subject people they called "healots". This ritualised brutalisation of the weak and defenceless was an important aspect of state policy.<br /><br />The proof that all Spartan men were equal lay in the fact that they all had innocent blood on their hands.<br /><br />John Lennon saw something similar in corporate capitalism: <br /><br />"There's room at the top they are telling you still, <br />But first you must learn how to smile as you kill, <br />If you want to be like the folks on the hill,"<br /><br />All the more reason to be a working-class hero ne c'est pas?Chris Trotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-89280751789983146612010-05-19T12:54:48.530+12:002010-05-19T12:54:48.530+12:00Barbara Ehrenreich's "Bright-Sided" ...Barbara Ehrenreich's "Bright-Sided" attacks the cult of positive thinking, and has a chapter on corporatised, positive-thinking religion. The final sentence of the chapter says "Positive theology ratifies and completes a world without beauty, transcendence or mercy." Now tyrants and tyrannical ideas are not known for their mercy, whatever else they may do, but corporatism, wherever it makes it presence felt, seems to stand out in its contempt for beauty; they seem only to favour function and excess. I cannot think of another dominant force with a similar disregard for beauty, though you may know of one. Stalinist Russia perhaps? I think they still loved the ballet, since they maintained dance schools.Olwynnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-89064987611409472612010-05-19T09:55:59.299+12:002010-05-19T09:55:59.299+12:00Err, that's a bit opaque - even for me - Anony...Err, that's a bit opaque - even for me - Anonymous.Chris Trotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-67060121813534076072010-05-19T08:28:19.137+12:002010-05-19T08:28:19.137+12:00"if i told you earthly things and you don'..."if i told you earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if i tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but he who 'descended' out of heaven, even the son of man" (John 3:6-14)<br /><br /> And yet the collectivism's flow so easily, don't they?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-87582176101315206292010-05-18T11:21:10.720+12:002010-05-18T11:21:10.720+12:00Nice piece of history there Chris. Interesting yo...Nice piece of history there Chris. Interesting your writing seems to have lost some of its hyperbole and rhetoric over the years. I think that's a good thing. It's much less dense and more readable for it now.JJnoreply@blogger.com