Sigh. You know . . . fuck. You know . . . gah. Alright, so I'm a bit of a raving anarcho-syndicalist pinko, right? And that's fine. Most of the people I know aren't, and that's fine too. And as I pointed out to a good friend a couple of days ago at lunch, many of the people who are quite the opposite are some of my favorite people, which is a lucky thing in a family full of fascists. It's all a question of the sort of relationship you have. I wouldn't want my aunt with the Mussolini calendars to run the country, and I wouldn't want Gough Whitlam to cook me dinner. I made my peace with that fact of life a long time ago.
But what continues to grind my gears is when people who have spent a lot of time complaining about the fuckery of the right start voting right. Retired teachers in Ontario especially, as I've been talking to a fair number of them at the moment, voting for the fucking provincial Conservative Party after the dedication with which said party fucked over educational funding when they were in power. Not to mention all the other institutions designed for the vulnerable, which in my naiviety I've always sort of believed teachers had a special affinity for, them having spent time with the vulnerable when the vulnerable were kids, and perhaps therefore believing that the vulnerable are possibly deserving of some sort of social protection . . . ah, fuck it.
I think this is at the root of the distrust I have for North American Liberals, as silly as such generalizations sound. To me there's pretty much one reason to be left-wing, and that's that you want a society where everybody has a fair shake at making it. And I think fascists and people of the so-called libertarian persuasion who are quite far to the right actually have the same ideals; they're just wrong, and they don't count immigrants, aboriginals and/or women in their visions of "everybody", and they believe that the people who don't make it don't deserve any further protection - any help that they do receive should be a charitable exercise on the part of the people who have made it, and not a social obligation. So far, so clear.
But I've met so many North American Liberals who I just can't pin down. They get pissed at people they consider right-wing right at the moment of being affected by them, but seem to be missing their sympathy chip when it comes to issues that DON'T directly effect them, and then will vote for whichever MP or local representative or mayor they like best, or whoever promises to tax them least, or whoever promises to boost property values by getting tough on hoodlums, or whatever. I don't know how many Liberals I've met from New York who goo-goo over how awesome it was that Giuliani turned the place into a police state - that's one of the more egregious examples, but there are others across Canada and the States . . . And the drunken racist comments, WELL.
Anyways. If things didn't bug me, I wouldn't be me.
5 commenti:
Being a right-wing-libertarian-secessionist in North America, I can at least offer this small consolation...it isn't any tidier on this side of things.
Smoking bans are good example...the gov can't ban smoking in Jukes and Groceries fast enough for Mr Property Rights. National IDs are another one...to hell with the sovereignty of States, or that we don't actually have a national gov., we've got to do something about these Mexicans.
I'm afraid the true believers of any stripe are few and far between.
Sigh. Well, I supposes the United States of Me Me Me Me Me Listen to Meeeeeeee actually does include Canada as its 51st state. Despite the last hundren years or so I remain attached to ideology and impatient with people who have none except the way their guts are grumbling at that moment.
Everything you said in the post, times ten. Knee-jerk arseholes abound on every point on the poilitical compass and, worryingly, that seems to be the way politics works in the UK now, ideology and principle be damned, leaving us with the Brokeback coalition we now have to fucking suffer, which seemingly takes it's cues from the lowest common denominator tabloid arsewipes or whoever shouts the fucking loudest. Fuck knows where I fit politically, as I share yr opinions on the state's responsibility to the fucked-over and disenfranchised, but hold so dear to my heart the Libertarian principle of "what business of yrs is it what the fuck I do unless my actions impinge on another without their consent?" (I said this to someone who is generally much less left leaning than me and they replied, "don't you think that's a dangerously right wing idea?")
The aftermath of the recent riots have been most instructive in this regard, watching Liberals turn into Tories in front of my eyes and then tearing themselves apart about said reaction is priceless and reminds me of a wonderful old Bill Burroughs interview where he talks about provoking cognitive dissonance. Take a Marine, a chair, and two commanding officers. One shouts "sit down", the other "stand up" and the soldier's brain explodes...
Sorry, ranting again.
On a lighter note, there will be more lovely music winging it's way to you in the next day or two..,
A shame about that situation. I was hoping I was just getting that impression of the UK political scene because of my addiction to tabloids, and that actually people were considerably more together than they sound. Mind you I've never imagined the Lib Dems could be anything but schizoid given their history and crippling lack of identity rivalling that of a concussed Australian.
Thank you for the more music . . . I'm enjoying what you've sent already a lot.
BTW really getting the feeling David Lynch listened to too much Sandy Bull, if such a thing is possible.
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