It seems to me that the nature of the ultimate revolution with which we are now faced is precisely this: That we are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy who have always existed and presumably will always exist to get people to love their servitude. (Aldous Huxley)
Programmes on television with a historic or political bias tend to attract my attention. I would suggest that history and politics are indivisible, especially geopolitics, either by direct implication or by intended inferences you may be drawn to. I think that political programmes intending to entertain, also intend to portray – or to influence - contemporary history. While this may be obvious, in the past I’m sure that I felt entertained, rarely recognised any attempt at what may be seen as ‘thought reform‘ by the media, in this context, empathy with a programme’s content could also be described as thought reinforcement. Read more of this post
When the State spends more money than it receives in taxes — a fact indelibly written into the bond — it is deliberately committing an act of bankruptcy. The use of the word investment in connection with a bond issued by the State is a treacherous euphemism. Read more of this post
My post Democracy – Do we really have it?, stated my concern over ‘democracy’ being ‘Majority Tyranny’, perhaps I should have addressed some concern over a ‘Minority Tyranny’. Certainly the popular right-wing media seem to advocate that such minority tyranny as exercised by trade unions needs to be curbed.
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The English law, in judging of men’s behaviour whether it is right or wrong, refers it to an ideal, but not to a very lofty one.
Sir Francis Taylor Piggott (1852-1925) - Two Chapters In The Law Of Torts (1898)
Sir Francis Taylor Piggott (Of the Middle Temple, Barrister-At-Law, Procureur And Advocate-General, Mauritius; Late Legal Advisor To the Japanese Cabinet) recorded in his book - Two Chapters In The Law Of Torts - an address that he had made to members of the Japanese Cabinet Office, in which he presented the philosophy of ‘The Reasonable Man’ and its significance in English Common Law. The following is an abstract from his opening address:
Retirement doesn’t leave me literally ‘as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean’, or indeed day after day, stuck, with neither breath nor motion, although I can relate to the metaphors in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
A poem from which we had to learn verses when I was at school and which I have never forgotten, well – perhaps – partly remembered. Increasingly drawn to the view that the very deep does rot and that slimy things crawl with slimy legs upon this slimy sea. As the spirit slid, a curmudgeon, contemplating my hand in ‘the shooting of the albatross’. If you will: my own diffuse dissatisfactions. Read more of this post
The history of Britain in the last thirty years, under both Conservative and Labour governments, has been dominated by one figure – Margaret Thatcher. Her election marked a decisive break with the past and her premiership transformed not just her country, but the nature of democratic leadership. when Thatcher came to power in 1979, she inherited the Britain of the three-day week, the Winter of Discontent, and the Sick Man of Europe. Read more of this post
In Lashed by Lash I mentioned the American social critic Christopher Lasch. Towards the end of his life Christopher Lasch focused on the socio-psychological change in the US public, especially in his book The Culture of Narcissism. The following is based on abstracts from a review of the book that doesn’t encourage me to read it, having little patience with anyone whose neurosis has become’diffuse dissatisfactions’. Read more of this post
One of the many character sketches written by Joseph Heller into his novel Catch-22 , was that of Colonel Cathcart and his obsession with ‘neat bomb patterns’. A recent Dilbert Cartoon reminded me of Catch-22, and how often I have come across variations of the ‘neat bomb pattern’ concept at work and in life. Where ‘hitting the target’ becomes an irrelevance. Summing up his intentions in writing Catch-22 Heller remarked
“Everyone in my book accuses everyone else of being crazy. Frankly, I think the whole society is nuts – and the question is: What does a sane man do in an insane society?”
I would hesitate to describe myself as pragmatic during my time spent in the Civil Service. In its archaic use (pragmatic – active in an officious or meddlesome way) it fits too well with my perception of the Civil Service. I would often describe myself to my colleagues as a ‘Socialist Thatcherite‘. My early childhood during WWII made me ‘a socialist sympathiser’ and in this I would claim a philosophy of pragmatism. While ‘Socialist Thatcherite’ fits well into the category of an oxymoron, my colleagues, who for the most part were Tory supporters (in varying degrees) could well be described as ‘Thatcherite Socialists’. They were quite happy for the reforms advocated by Thatcher to be implemented elsewhere, but not in the Civil Service sector served by them. Public money was perceived as being a horn of plenty but they soon found out that Thatcher was no Abundantia. She in turn was to find out that the Civil Service was conservative only with a small ‘c’. Read more of this post
An amusing article with the header To swim, perchance to drown, is an undeniable human right appeared in The Telegraph last Monday. in it we were regaled with the decisive event in Britain’s geographical history that occurred about half a billion years ago, when the river Thames changed course. For silent aeons, it had been debouching pointlessly somewhere in East Anglia. And then big things took place in the Chilterns. The chalk barrier finally gave way in a Niagara-like explosion. The Thames rushed through the Goring gap – and flowed meandering through what is now London. Now there’s not many people know that! Read more of this post
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