Sinister or Sense?

David Attenborough says we should curb some of the excesses of capitalism. I think he’s right. He says that those that have a great deal, should, perhaps, have a little less. I think he’s right. His words: "We are going to have to live more economically than we do. And we can do that and, I believe we will do it more happily, not less happily. And that the excesses the capitalist system has brought us, have got to be curbed somehow." I think he’s right.

The chatterers are railing against the UN agenda to ‘build back better’. I think that is right, too. As an ambition would you prefer to build back worse? They also point to the ‘massive conspiracy’ that is Agenda 21, a non-binding action plan from way back in 1992 that is so far, two whole decades past its target date to achieve global sustainable development. As a sinister plot to rule the world it is pretty poor, given that it will also miss its current optimistic deadline of 2030. So much for all-powerful elites, eh?

How can it not be right to wish for a more equitable world, one where developed companies do not relentlessly pillage the third world; one where we all give a little for the common good? And for all the gnashing of teeth The Great Reset is no Machiavellian plot to subjugate, rather is an injunction to curb some of our excesses. If you are on the breadline it is not aimed at you. If you are self-sufficient it is not aimed at you.

But if you are a rapacious super-consumer who disproportionately eats up resources with an arrogant sense of entitlement it may be aimed at you. If anything, then, the great reset disproportionately affects the very people its opponents rail against on a daily basis. You and I are impotent against the grotesquely wealthy, the egregiously powerful, so isn’t it a good thing that world leaders (who are not these wealthy and powerful people in the main) are taking a stand?

It would only ever be conjecture to imagine a world where nobody has an excess until everybody has a sufficiency; that world will never exist. Our species survived and evolved because of greed, lust, desire to succeed; strip that out of our DNA and we cease to be human; we are back in the forests, grubbing about just to survive. It’s just a shame that the instinct which ensured our success also inculcates envy.

Humans thrive on competition, both directly and vicariously. And the very best vicarious success is that which you achieve via your offspring. People might agree to an equality pact, but they will break it in a heartbeat if it gives their kids a head start. Who wants their kids to be average? (There are several types of average but none of them are desirable. Nobody want to be the median and only the unthinking dullard wants to be the mode. The alternative is just mean. 😉)

This man is not your enemy

So what it boils own to appears to be this: conspiracy of my guys to achieve what I believe in = good; conspiracy of others to an end with which I disagree = bad. Also my conspiracy is not a conspiracy, but their aims, by whatever means, most definitely is a conspiracy. I think that’s the reality; I think that’s the sane view. Occam’s Razor tells you that new-world-order cabals couldn’t organise a piss up in a pub; this has been confirmed time and again. David Attenborough wants a better world? What’s so sinister about that?

Thoughts of an Angry Gammon

The intended insult ‘gammon’ is usually accompanied by the invocation of an angry person, screwed up by hatred and unable to process a world in which black people aren’t merely servants. This is funny. It is funny because it so grotesque a caricature that even Spitting Image would reject it as facile and it is funnier still because so many angry young people actually believe it.

There they are, huffing and puffing, going red in the face and looking quite gammony as they chant their slogans and jab their pointy fingers and raise their black power salutes, while kneeling before their new masters. Hey, young people will believe anything, right? But belief in false prophets is, sadly, not confined to callow youth; plenty of older folk have gone corona crazy as they try to make sense of their current, temporary state of being.

The coalescence of all their suspicions, the apotheosis of all their tinfoil hattery is the out-in-the-open conspiracy of the World Economic Forum and ‘The Great Reset’. Oh. Come on! Have you seen their handy little infographic (below)? Fuck me, that’s going to take some joining up! But just apply that well know razor to the actions of our current government. The same people who think it is being controlled by extra-governmental forces are also critical of its farcical incompetence. I’d put it to you that if some all-powerful organ was really pulling the strings, the marionettes would at least be dancing in time.

Ah, but that’s exactly what they want you to think, say the Resetters (everything has to have a label these days). They want you to believe it’s clumsy rather than coordinated. And then, as if this somehow validates their supranational control theory, they point to Sweden which did the opposite of what most European countries have done. This is as sophisticated a level of doublethink as employed by the practitioners of Critical Race Theory which simultaneously posits that both racists and anti-racists are racists… as long as they are white.

I sit back and laugh at all of this because, while organisations like the WEF might have high and mighty ambitions and BLM may think that by stoking the race wars they will somehow create tolerance and light, ultimately it is down to fallible humans to bring about change. And this they will do as they always do not by combining forces in some great global crusade, but by individually exploiting opportunities that come their way.

And anyway, so what if the powerful want to create a better world? What’s not to like? If their methods are excessive you will resist. If their ideals are not yours you will reject them. And please (oh, please!) stop referring to 1930s Germany every time you want to validate your fears. What am I doing to make the world a better place? Well, for one, I’m not spending my time jumping aboard the latest hoaky bandwagon and panicking.

When you all come back to your senses don’t worry, all your usual gripes and grievances will still be there to wallow in. If you hated Boris Johnson before you will still hate him later. If you think that Extinction Rebellion are a bunch of unemployable unwashed louts then the soap dodgers will still annoy you. The only thing that will be reset will be your level of angry and that will dissipate once you put down your placards.

This all looks simple enough...

But I do see, now, the simple utility of bread and circuses. Lockdown has given too many people with too easily stimulated imaginations plenty of incentive to make mischief. And far too many, with too easily suggestible sensibilities have followed them. Following the breadcrumb trail to grandma’s candy cottage has made some of you quite giddy with the excitement of a new, imaginary enemy to rail against. Help is at hand, however; I hear the coming vaccine will contain a powerful sedative which will render you compliant and quite, quite content.