Songs From the Last Century

Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet:

CHORUS:
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

The starvation army they play,
They sing and they clap and they pray
'Till they get all your coin on the drum
Then they'll tell you when you're on the bum:

Holy Rollers and jumpers come out,
They holler, they jump and they shout.
Give your money to Jesus they say,
He will cure all diseases today.
If you fight hard for children and wife --
Try to get something good in this life --
You're a sinner and bad man, they tell,
When you die you will sure go to hell.

Workingmen of all countries, unite,
Side by side we for freedom will fight;
When the world and its wealth we have gained
To the grafters we'll sing this refrain:

FINAL CHORUS:
You will eat, bye and bye,
When you've learned how to cook and to fry.
Chop some wood, 'twill do you good,
And you'll eat in the sweet bye and bye.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill

When the War Came to Sweden

So it seems that it is here now, creationism, increased right-wing Christian fundamentalism and perhaps increased religiosity. There's been some fuss about it this week, and I think this really marks the point where we are going to see some more debate around the subject for the next few years. Thankfully, we're fairly secular and with some of the court cases lately we might have an incentive against this kind of movement. However, there is also the chance that these kind of fellows will have some success.

Whatever happens, whether this will be a flip or a flop, it is necessary that we have some knowledge of what is going on in the rest of the world. The academic struggles in the US and Britain, the religiosity found in Denmark.

I'm not sure what to say, except to inform about this and to say: stay vigilant. There's going to be confrontations, and we're going to have to take those as strongly as possible from the beginning.

Thoughts on Liberalism

Tony Blair was right when he talked about how the growth of fundamentalism comes from generations of alienation. At least, he's right on the surface. The good Mr. Blair has acted as deplorably as any member of the pseudo-labour movements of Europe, with the exceptions of perhaps Germany which was against the Iraqi war from the start. I have to give the German Social Democrats something for that. Here in Sweden we've just been tagging along more or less, we've let ourselves listen to liberalism that's echoed from the halls of the White House and we've been lied to, lead around and cooperated with a murderous imperial power, hell-bent on making sure that the rest of the world bow knee to it now that there is no real "legitimate" existance of it's massive armaments (that's to say that the US was generally considered the protector of Freedom and Good and Right in the face of the Evil and Bad and Horrible Soviet Union).

Liberals lack history. They seem to believe that the things that happen time and time again, such as the Enron scandal, the Swedish Scandia affair, the Swedish bonus wages for highly placed directors and similar, the Iraq invasion, the new talk about Iran, are just aberrations. They happened by pure chance. There is no such thing as a system that is causing these problems, oh no.

The fact is though, that I'm really storming the ramparts of what I once believed to be the main stronghold of the liberal worldview - economics. And I'm realizing that the words they envoke, the things they say are the abracadabra of the clerics of old. They're there to make sure that an invisible barrier to who most people can't speak up against is kept intact. They mumble phrases they believe is true, while in reality it doesn't hold fast. Now, I'm not saying that it's all this easy, but I am saying that there are many, many problems with the neoclassical school of economics.

Again, liberals might talk nicely but what they're really saying remains pretty senseless in comparison to their actions. Neoliberalism is perhaps the clearest example of how liberalism has moved more into the light of what it actually is. A protection for those at the top. And that's it. It's moral theories of individualism remain entirely untenable, even more indefensible than the problems that plague the biggest moral schools of today, Kantianism and Utilitarianism. Most liberals, knowingly or not, remain utilitarianists deep down. What's a better theory than one so eminently suited to self-interest and an open market? It's overbuilding, that's what it is.

In this post I've rambled more than I have before, I suppose, but what I'm getting at is perhaps more my own feelings and some loose thoughts about some ideological structures as well as part of my own development into Marxism and my own criticism. What I am not looking to do is to lower myself to the level of smacktalking these kind of things in private and not face up to them in public, like so many people do. I overhear liberals chitchatting here and there, and I'm struck by their sheer ignorance and idiocy. So, what I am going to do is that I am going to examine and I am going to try and provide some criticism of their ideas, from an internal as well as an external perspective. I have a great deal of respect for the originators of liberalism, John Stuart Mill and Voltaire to name two, but I believe it only to be a phase who's bad side is all too apparent.

Ridiculous Things People Say. - Version 2.0!

Hello and good evening to you dear readers! Today I might regale you with more fantastic myths that are being spread by idiots.

Paraphrasing, but this is what some woman said today: "In the US all you have to do is be black and get shot and then make a song about it and you can get rich." Yes, yes. It's true, you know. If you're part of a minority then you WANT to get involved with crime. Actually you LIKE getting shot at. It's great - and it gets you -so- rich. Why do you think America has so many powerful black people, really? It's because they all went to jail and because the liberals there just love it!

Aherm.

This is just a loony idea. One of the looniest. The worst thing is that they actually believe it. Sure, some people who are involved with crime and make music that is based around that do get filthy rich. I don't like it, but what can you do here? It's your own capitalism that causes this. I don't believe in five year plans, but you have to face the facts. And you can do it without getting all worked up about it. I mean, it is the simple fact that some people buy their albums. But what does that mean? It only means that a small group succeeds. It doesn't make their situation any better, it doesn't lessen their poverty, their crime, their oppression. It doesn't change the situation of black people and other working class citizens around the world. This is just sheer outright racism.

And would these people ever complain over weapons contracts? You're making a -lot- more money than these rappers are, and you're murdering people all around the world. What's the difference?

Ridiculous Things People Say.

I have been graced by listening to some outstanding idiocy lately. Let us look at these sentences:

1) "I thought they [gay people] had stopped trying to make the world gay."

2) Someones friend or sister had been in a bad relationship: "she needs a new, good boyfriend."

3) "I don't mind gay people, I just don't think they should be trying to spread their values to me."

One of the amazing things with other people is that they say such outlandish things. Let's analyze this.

1) Do gay people have an agenda? Are they sitting around somewhere, plotting how to make everyone gay? Does the Gay Supreme Council scheme nightly? One day... one day!!
No, to be serious, even if it is hard with this sentence, it doesn't make any sense. This person reflected over some guy hitting on another guy when he didn't want to. But don't men do this, too? And don't do women, as well? It has nothing to do with their sexuality, because you can't look into someones brain to find what is in there and who they like to have sex with. If I were to hit on a woman she might, for example, be a Christian who didn't believe in sex before marriage, she might be taken, she might be a lesbian, she might not like people with my appearance. Shall I then respond with something like "It's the females trying to make the world [X]!" or rather "It's the socialist bloggers trying to make everyone socialist bloggers through hitting on them!". It doesn't make any sense to say this. If some woman hit on me, I might not want her to do it, but I wouldn't believe it was part of some overarching agenda.

2) Women don't need boyfriends. Viewing women as somehow "half" without a man is incredibly stupid. They can be just like everyone else, they might need someone, but that is then based on their personality (and how they are affected by their culture). But there is nothing essential in being a woman that necessitates a man, -anywhere-! This kind of structural sexism is unfortunately way too common.

3) Again, where do these gay values come from? I know gay people which are quite different from one another. They share none of the stereotypes, they share no similar traits except their sexuality and they are very different people. Where do gay values come from? The Gay Supreme Council, again? I can only imagine that the poster is talking about their sexuality like in 1. However, again, I am sure gay people would think it was nice if there were more people around there who might love them as intimately as they can love others of their sex. Considering what a small percentage they are it's definately true that it must be rough to find someone.

Let's spring clean! Let's wreck everything and start over! Tabula rasa, we start from scratch, we clean out what is not essential and we go out to try and prove our ideas. When we fail, we must abandon them. We must also do and act. In so doing and acting we become *aware*. We can change our nature in ways that were unprecedented through sheer thought in that.