Showing posts with label Russell Brand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russell Brand. Show all posts

Tuesday, 5 May 2015

Do it now!

There is a lie which nestles deep in the disturbed heart of the welfare state. It is not an intentionally cruel lie, but it kills with its surfeit of kindness. It is a lie more deadly than ‘work will set you free’ and a lie more ubiquitous than ‘the cheque is in the post’. Worse, it is a lie that is presented as an obvious and irrefutable truth, accepted as gospel in the face of indisputable evidence to the contrary. It is so insidious that it is enshrined in the American declaration of Independence, to wit: “…that all men are created equal…”. Palpable bollocks, promulgated by those who would rule over us and accepted by useful idiots who wouldn’t see the truth if it actually palpated their actual bollocks.

Equality requires an excess of effort that would rule out any selective drive for its perpetuation and would quickly render extinct those mutants that displayed it. Look around you and say it ain’t so. But what a lovely idea to promote; and what a very clever way to foment emotional urges to feel better about ourselves. Because while competition is the real driver of progress, cooperation is one major way in which the human species has overcome the limitations of simple herd instincts. People aren’t ‘created’ equal; nothing could be less self-evident, but this doesn’t mean we can’t also be kind without coercion. Inequality and ‘social justice’ (for want of a less puke-inducing, tree-hugging, lentil-munching phrase) are not incompatible.

But I’ll tell you what is incompatible: enforced ‘equality’ and meaningful social justice will never co-exist successfully except in the minds of those who imagine themselves to be innately superior. And there is the central paradox – those who swallow the socialist equality myth think they are inherently better than those who create the wealth that allows our cooperative society to indulge their little dreams. And those same brave comrades cannot accept that, to paraphrase Sting, the Tories love their children too. So it is that without pausing for a moment’s thought, Mummy’s Little Marxists brand everybody who doesn’t need shoehorning into a charity pigeonhole as ‘baby-eating Tory scum’.

But here’s the stupid, the real, couldn’t-make-it-up stupid. Those same big competitive beasts DO love their children too and willingly cooperate and contribute to help the children of others by bearing the lion’s share of the tax burden. To label those who labour in the real world to pay for the socially engineered fantasy world of the equality of low expectations as cruel really takes the piss. To try and make people ashamed of their success and strive always to take more of the wealth they have created is a game with only one end; the final whistle blows when they take their ball away.

We'll keep the red flag flying here!
The real 'Ed Stone'

So the idea of filthy rich, tax-over-easy, famous junkie role model Russell Brand exercising his own unnatural hold over impressionable minds and coming out for Red Ed, the Unite puppet and advocate of state-control over everything is irony indeed. Hate the rich Tories? Be careful what you conclude: Don’t fall for it kids; while we’re still paraphrasing stuff remember the old adage “Tired of being hassled by stupid politicians? Act now! Get a job, pay your own bills, pay taxes then vote for Labour to take away your gains and give them to others. Do it now, while you still know everything!”

Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Now go and tidy your room

What short memories people have and what propensity to believe soothing lies. People will still tend to select their supposed local representative based on tribal loyalty to those lies rather than on any firm factual or observational basis and some will abstain altogether from the democratic process, further entrenching the stale, safe-seat stasis which means the lies will keep on coming. Lies such as the Living Wage campaign.

If you’re going to lie to people you might as well go for big ones. And one of the biggest category of lie available to politicians and individuals alike is the fantasy that you know how the economy works or will work. For instance, Cameron and Co have stuck with Plan A throughout all the time the Eds urged more of the borrowing that has cumulatively resulted in a national debt which will never be repaid. Now that growth is suddenly, conveniently, being seen, both sides are claiming victory; one that we got there in the end, the other that we could have got there quicker.

The living wage – it sounds such a noble idea, doesn’t it? – is just another way to draw the battle lines. On the one hand increasing wages will cause a spiral of inflatory prices rises, force businesses to close or employ more illegals, putting more people out of work and adding to the welfare bill. On the other hand people will be gloriously lifted out of poverty, making ends meet for the first time in years, creating magical prosperity which will fuel higher individual spending, thus creating more jobs and reducing the welfare bill.

Neither side knows what would really happen and both sides will claim evidence, whether or not living wage proposals go ahead, that they were right and more importantly, that the other side was wrong. Who you support, no matter what you like to think, will depend on your beliefs more than your unique insight into the mysterious workings of man and money. Thus the fiscally thrifty will align themselves with the worthies on the right and the profligate will join the queues for more pocket money on the left. The net result will be, as it always is, that those who can adapt to circumstances will get by and those who can’t will fall by the wayside; no amount of manipulation of the figures will disguise the reality that we will never all thrive. It’s never happened yet.

So, no wonder the kids are confused. Some adopt the tribal loyalty of their parents’ clan while others utterly reject it and make a dash to join the enemy. Some are so confused they end up in the LibDem camp, forever wondering what they stand for and still more will flock to join the incoherent ranks of Russell Brand and his Million Mask March cronies, peddling a rambling narrative of emotive, fluffy bullshit.

Hilariously contradictory, this rag-taggle army of evangelical, revolutionary, hippy, libertarian anarchists demand the government does something to make it all better, just so long as they don’t have to vote for it. I suppose when you’ve done as many pharmaceuticals as Brand it really is as simple as dragons and unicorns, pirates and princesses and oh look – a squirrel!

He's not the Messiah - he's a very naughty boy!

The trouble is, they don’t know what it is they really want; just, like children everywhere, that it’s not what they’ve got. So having made a bit of noise - stick it to the man, power to the people, blah, blah, blah - and kicked up a fuss they will shuffle off home to mummy and daddy when it gets cold or they’ve run out of booze. Meantime the majority of their peers are busy making themselves employable and bothering with neither the manipulative lies of politicians nor the naïve rabble-rousing, incontinent fictions of a nob in tight trousers. The winner, as ever, the status quo.  Politics is no place for kids.