rodshaw
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BD said:
‘Rodshaw- ” I think some of the people who professed no religion still believed in angels, spirits etc. ”To my way of thinking that is not an issue, in the same way that some people think their lucky underpants will help their football team to win, or that saying hello to a magpie when you see them is not an issue.’
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Maybe if all party members were to wear their lucky underpants it would help to create more socialists. I’m not holding my breath though.
I remember a couple of years ago somebody wrote to the Party that they weren’t religious but believed in an all-pervading spirit or some such. They got mercilessly dissected in the next issue of the Standard.
I seem to recall a similar survey a few years ago. I think some of the people who professed no religion still believed in angels, spirits etc. The feeling that someone or something is watching over you is quite strong. Hence, I suppose, why people still think leaders know what’s best despite all the evidence to the contrary.
“I’ve sometimes wondered what music I would select, if I had to go on BBC’s Desert Island Discs. I wonder no longer! My comrades on this forum have given me the complete playlist. Thank you one and all!”
If Desert Island Discs survives into the socialist era, maybe Paula should be its first guest.
‘Lyrics to our one-time party song (there is sheet music for it in archives, I think)
“The World for the Workers”.
Words & Music by H. J. Neumann’Somebody could have a go at doing a modern version of this. Same lyrics to rap, maybe?
(Don’t tell me, somebody already has…)
So as mentioned already, none of these songs really packs a socialist message but at least most of them are anti-capitalist in some form.
For me it begs the question (and I know all you can do is speculate) – what would people write about in a socialist society? Would there be anything serious to protest against or would it be all party music and songs about broken hearts?I couldn’t believe it when I saw the Iranian team not singing. Teams always at least make some semblance of singing. Good for them. I only hope it doesn’t land them into serious trouble.
I found out about this through one of my daughters, who knows someone in this organisation. She was pleased to have found someone among her friends she can actually talk to about politics.
But – she knows his brand isn’t the real thing, and to my total surprise one day she started to ask me why people didn’t get the point about socialism. It was the first time she’d mentioned it and it turns out she’s fully convinced about it all, so some of my ramblings over the years have obviously rubbed off on her.
I certainly hope her generation manages to get it sorted.I’ve posted a comment on this month’s SS front page. I think it’s most heartening that the two reviewed books have been published and that others are seemingly catching on to socialism (even though they don’t call it that – maybe a positive thing?) Will they succeed in getting the message across better than we do?
Football decided to pay its respects to the Queen by cancelling all fixtures over the entire weekend, right down to school level. Apparently it was thought that fans might run riot and cause a policing problem. This attracted much criticism, if not disdain, from other sports and many football pundits. The football authorities have been accused of not trusting their own fans to behave themselves.
But of course, the opponents of the decision to cancel fixtures based their view not on any disregard for the monarchy, but because they thought there were more appropriate ways for people to pay their respects.
Ho-hum.At least they are realising what we’ve been saying all along. But it still doesn’t occur to them to differentiate (or they take great care not to differentiate) between “classes” based on some sort of sliding monetary scale and political classes, i.e. capitalist and worker. That would be too near the uncomfortable truth.
Fair enough, but he’s implying that all that’s needed for meaningful change is for the Labour Party to be in the right hands and presumably follow some kind of left-wing agenda again. Previous decades of Labour leadership have shown how wishful this is.
And most people just tut and say well, that’s life, you can’t beat the system. No, but you can get rid of it.
If the arms industry doesn’t dictate foreign policy, they certainly can heavily influence it. At least if we are to believe our own journal:
‘The eastward expansion of NATO, especially when it extends to the ‘near abroad’ and right up to Russia’s borders, is a bitter grievance of Russia’s power elite. That is because it violates the security requirement of a ‘friendly neighbourhood’ deeply embedded in their psyche. It is also because it violates the verbal promises made by Western politicians to Gorbachev that if he allowed Germany to unite and united Germany to remain in NATO then NATO would not expand ‘an inch to the east’. These promises were ‘forgotten’ under pressure from American arms manufacturers, whose sales were flagging due to improved relations with Russia and who sought new markets in Eastern Europe.’
From the article on Ukraine in the SS March issue.
