Bijou Drains

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  • in reply to: Is the Pope a Marxist? #98717
    Bijou Drains
    Participant
    mcolome1 wrote:
    Tim Kilgallon wrote:
    Should we send him a Form A to complete?the least we could do is a free three month subscription to the Socialist Standard. Thinking about it, considering the last Pope's views, the Vatican might be a bit sensitive about things that have SS as there initials.

    When I was very young I met many Jesuits who were more political advanced than him, and some were taken to prison due to their political view, and they can not be considered as Marxists.The  Vatican wants to cover up  his enrollment with the reactionaries military forces of Argentina, and the assassination of bishop Romero.( considered as a communist by them )   The Vatican wanted Romero  to be killed, and in Argentina priests were denounced by other priests during the dictatorshipGeorge Soros has criticized capitalism. Does that make him a Marxist ?  He is just another capitalist crookThe proponents of the so called liberation theology can not be called as Marxists either, including Camilo Torres who became a guerrilla father, and the pope does not support them.There is a Salesian priest who participated in workers strikes,and street demostrations, and the Vatican asked  the government to deport him to another country Sometimes peoples like to talk shits without checking history or checking the appropriate principles.The new Pope is not a Marxist, he is not a Socialist-communist either , he is just the representative of a reactionary institution called the Catholic Church, he is just the new CEO wearing different mask.Pio XII, and Paul I  had more advanced conceptions than him and they were not  Marxists either, According to David Yallop in one of his books he indicated that they killed Paul I to be replaced by the anti-communists Paull II

    I did have my tongue placed very firmly in my cheek!i

    in reply to: Is the Pope a Marxist? #98715
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    Should we send him a Form A to complete?the least we could do is a free three month subscription to the Socialist Standard. Thinking about it, considering the last Pope's views, the Vatican might be a bit sensitive about things that have SS as there initials.

    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    Yes definitely feeling nauseous, might be your comments, might be the gallon of Newcastle Brown and the kebab I consumed last evening, hard to tell really.welcome back anyway

    in reply to: A few questions regarding economics #120530
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    Aside from the difficulty in labour time accounting presented by taking into account the labour time involved in producing the machine that makes the toothpaste or the hair gel, what about the amount of time involved in training the hair gel maker or the toothpaste maker, or indeed the amount of time teaching/studying involved in becoming a hair gel machine or toothpaste making machine designer and creator. Taking it further, what about the socially useful labour time involved in teaching the person who taught the person who trained the person who made the toothpaste machine, to be a toothpaste making machine maker's teacher. If I then make the decision to go for the hair gel, how long will it take to re-train the toothpaste maker, the toothpaste making machine designer, the teacher of the toothpaste making machine designer, and the teacher of the teacher who taught the toothpaste making machine designer to make the toothpaste making machine, to do something else more socially useful, by which time I may have changed my mind and gone for the toothpaste after all.You can get into the same argument about carbon emissions, the electric car may produce less CO2 but what about the bloody big coal fired power station that produces the electricity, what about the CO2 produced in making the new car, as opposed to the CO2 being currently produced by the very polluting 10 year old diesel?My view is that in a Socialist Society we would make decisions democratically, based on the best information available to those making the decisions at the time and no doubt get some of those decision wrong on a regular basis. Some of those decision will be based on a rough estimate of how much labour time will be involved in creating things and no doubt some things will take more time than estimated and some will take less.

    in reply to: Labour MPs revolt against Corbyn #120299
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    The reported rise in labour party membership is a bit of a curious one. I thought to myself "187,000 new members couldn't all be entryist Trotskyites", then the thought struck me, perhaps with all of the different sectarian Trotskyite groups, all arguing about which tactics they are going to use to infiltrate the "mass workers party" in order to take control, the silly bastards didn't realise that there were 187,000 of them and they all ready were a mass party!

    in reply to: How does it work #120472
    Bijou Drains
    Participant
    robbo203 wrote:
    Ralph wrote:
    robbo203 wrote:
    Hi Ralph,  Socialists do sometimes turn their attention to the practical organisation of a hypothetical future socialist society.  In fact the SPGB published a pamphlet on this very subject here http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/pamphlets/socialism-practical-alternative 

     Finally read this, it's really good… It starts to look persuasive, if this was done back in 1994 was there a different attitude or was this  just a rebellion! If you can go this far you can go further surely… 

     I wouldnt disagree with that.  What happened to the whole "Productiion for Use "  initiative back in 1980s/90s? It seemed to have just fizzled out, Such a pity.  It was one of the most positive projects ever embarked upon  by the SPGB

    The motive force behind it was Pieter Lawrence. Since his sad passing the work of the production for use committee seems to have fallen by the wayside,Ralph may be interested to read another of Pieter's peices:http://theoryandpractice.org.uk/library/how-socialism-can-organise-production-without-money-adam-buick-pieter-lawrence-1984The link also mentions a guy named Adam Buick, wonder what ever happened to him?I think there is a need to continue this practical work within the party, anyone else up to do some of this work?

    in reply to: How does it work #120448
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    I've always questioned the “the cook-shops of the future"  argument. I can agree that Marx and others at the time could not create specific formats for a Socialist Society, the conditions for World Socialism were not in existence. The difference we face now is that the conditions for World Socialism actually do now exist. I fully understand the need to have democratic shaping of a Socialist Society, however I think that as Socialists, we need to provide the Socialists of the future something to start shaping. Using the cookery analogy, unless we start thinking about what we might have to eat, nobody is going to go as far as putting the kettle on. Providing a feasible plan for socialist production is not making a blueprint for the future, it is giving a suggestion as about how the future might be. Pieter Lawrence's work on Production for use Committee was, in my opinion, a missed opportunity for the Party.

    in reply to: The Revolution Referendum #120412
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    Bloody Vulcans, coming over here,taking our council house, claiming our benefits. There logic just doesn't fit into our society. I don't know why people don't see it. They refuse to integrate their logical, rationilist view of the world into our irrational, parochial world. Pointy eared bastards

    in reply to: The Revolution Referendum #120407
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    Kaz you have persuaded me, I've looked through the arguments both for and against and I for one am definitely voting for Socialsim, can you let me know when the referendum is being held?

    in reply to: Was Thugee any worse than other religions? #120256
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    I've got to say, I think there are two answers to this question, the individual answer and the global. On a global level thugee, if it actually was a religion, was probably responsible for the deaths of 10s of thousands of people. In that sense it probably compares very favourably with the many millions of deaths associated with most of the other major religions. On a personal level, as one brought up as a Catholic. I would much prefer a childhood filled with feelings of guilt, being slapped by nuns and being watched as an altar boy whilst getting changed, by a creepy priest, to being strangled and robbed by the roadside in India.We could turn this into a jolly parlour game. Following "was thugee any worse than other religion",, how about "is syphalis more painful than gonorrhoea",  "which limb would you prefer to have amputated' or "Tory or Labour at the next election". No doubt some spotty faced twat at Channel 5, with red specs and a pony tail, is trying to recruit stand up "comedians" to appear on a "hilarious" panel show, based on this idea as we speak.

    in reply to: The Revolution Referendum #120402
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    Fuck me, talk about angels on pin heads

    in reply to: The singularity and socialism #119843
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    An in depth discussion based on years of research, according to the "great author" yet in his interview he states:"The high intellectual theorists of Communism/Socialism stated that socialism was only possible in the realm of abundance, and no leftist theorist of any strong Marxian standing that I can think of before the 1950’s advocated a return to medievalism in any form."So years of research never took him as far as William Morris, where was he doing his research, the Public bar of the Crown and Anchor Hotel?

    in reply to: The Nature V. Nurture False Dichotomy #110993
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    Contrary to your hypothesis, Newcastle United Season tickets actually create horrid stressed environments, believe me I know, I'm just off to measure my sperm

    in reply to: The Nature V. Nurture False Dichotomy #110990
    Bijou Drains
    Participant
    ALB wrote:
    I don't know whether there's anything in this or not but at least it's a contribution to the debate:http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/poverty-is-genetically-damaging.html

    Interesting how the geneticists are catching up with attachment theorists. However typically they fail to see the social context of the situation, early anxiety is not specifically about poverty but rather a function of the absence of what Ainsworth called the Secure Base. Bowlby's theory was based on how we learn to regulate and manage anxiety, the presence of a predictable and calm care giver is how infants and growing children learn to regulate their anxiety. Quite obviously poverty and social depravation can cause more distraction and unavailability in care givers (usually parents however this is not always the case, writers have recently started describing "boarding school syndrome" amongst those educated from an early age, including those who have had multiple care givers in their early but privileged lives (different au pairs every week, parents too busy to bother etc.).If the secure base is not available then the limbic system is over stimulated. In the case of children who suffer early years abuse, neglect and privation, the impact has been known and understood for decades, hype vigilance, social anxiety and in extreme cases Borderline Personality disorder, Psychopathy, etc. They seem to be mistaking the social effect for the genetic impact!

    in reply to: Stuck in the middle with EU… #119866
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    One of the best covers for agesCongrats to the team who put it together

Viewing 15 posts - 1,861 through 1,875 (of 2,057 total)