- Re: Shows what you know. Archived Message
Posted by Ken Waldron
on April 5, 2019, 12:09 am, in reply to "Re: Shows what you know."
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It seemed to me that your view of "rich English Brexiters" as well as being inaccurate (j=not rich) is disparaging in a way most (not I) would describe is racist. -Scottish and English are not racial terms. Personally I'm agnostic about Brexit and always was, because the EU project is in reality another imperial endeavour dressing in ridiculous, gaudy and shoddy liberal humanist rags; it's doomed to failure, is failing, and fewer and fewer want it here, there or anywhere else. -I agree. So supposing your dream comes true and the stuck gears of the ancient anglo political machine stutter out a Remain - we'll still be out. I'll repeat too: your view, thoroughly reasoned deductively, of the unendingly reactionary Anglo elite, is the privilege of someone from elsewhere; a counsel of despair. Here we demand hope in spite of all that - or emigrate. -My dream is reform. Failing that the Norwegian model. I don't care about being left-wing. My values remain what I always considered left: of self-sacrifice, justice, respect for human life and intelligence in awareness of how it's wasted in a system where all is commodity. -Well put. These days however I see the left too as commodifying with their precious economic model. -I don't even see the left (who they?) as having an "economic model" never mind a "precious" one. This was bourne out in the Soviet Union where compassion, grace , love were frowned upon, at least. A minor detail. Left-Right as I see it is the product of an 18th century secular cult. -I'm more basic: there are the plans of the wealthy which involve the rest of us and there are our plans which barely reach out from the room you are sitting in... Both sides underpinned with a worship of man, one through a worship of reason, the other worship of "the best" (aristocracy). Something like that. The point is you get nowhere unless value is underpinned by the timeless grace of spirit - the Holy Ghost some call it. Otherwise you end up worshipping man, or nature - similar things. -Materialism. I comment here to chip away at false dogmas of those I'd like to make common cause with, in a spirit of friendship. At least, that's what I tell myself. Perhaps I shouldn't bother if it just leads to enmity. I chip away here because its its one of the few places on the internet where the conversation is not entirely insane or inane: just verging on it sometimes. I used to, and still do on occasion, post more about Latin America and the Middle and near east both areas close to my heart. Is that left wing? I hope so. Its notable that both are areas where there is actually a firm consensus on Lifeboat, as likewise when it was when Medialens Message board. I could post a lot more about modern medicine and doctoring, on which I work at the fringes and have suffered for not conforming to the agreed bullshit. Is that left wing? It's another area where most of the wonderful "left" take a reactionary-mainstream position. -Please do so. Could say more about immigration and so on. I can see that's what gets your goat. I must say it gets mine a bit when middle class people living in beautiful areas (where I'd love to live!) with apparently strong, healthy communities pronounce loftily about what are essentially urban issues - ones personal to my very self, my family and where I live. Not saying that's you exactly. I live in a very beautiful place: not because I am moneyed; on the contrary, I come from the very "street" (It wasn't a "street") where the first junkie died in the book "Trainspotting": just a couple of doors down... But because I rebuilt it from a ruin when no one else wanted it or saw anything in it so I got it for next to nothing and did it up myself: studding, roofing, plumbing, heating, electrics. The truth is (not that I care than anyone knows) I'm pennyless but that's nothing new. I hardly know a family brought up on less money than mine: that's what a love of the arts brings to your door. I will say: migration of anyone, anywhere, for any reason was never permitted, or possible, even within most countries. This seems to be the endpoint of most left opinion on this, and it's nonsense. I don't claim to be some virtuous protestant hero who's "definitely not racist", but I offer more to most immigrants than most white liberal heros I know. My mother's next door-neighbours, south African strict muslims, yashmak and all were ostracized by everyone but us, me and my wife, who befriended them and their children and invited them for Christmas!! That was a bit of a laugh. Contrary to what you might think about rural Scotland, most of my neighbouring families are nor insular and Scottish but Polish ( three families out of five: one is English, one Scottish) and I get on ok with them all: I'm in the midst of the whole issue and can understand why the Poles are here. On the other hand I'm Scottish and can see things from the outside that English people seem entirely unaware off. You see a colourful band heading a Brexit march: I see from my perspective a Protestant white supremacist group with strong links to the Klu Klux Klan. Ah yes: "deep roots". I'm referring to the historic dispossession of the people of these islands by: the Romans, the Normans, the Protestants. Yes, the rapacious "English" have laid waste nearly to your country too, but who were they but heirs to Charlamagne, the Franks, the Normans, the usurpers of the Christian ways of peace. And no btw I don't think Brexit will bring peace and prosperity! I have "deep roots". I can trace my Scottish ancestry back many hundreds of years and of my English ancestors: four of them fought at the battle of Trafalgar. I also have both Jewish and Romany ancestors. I am a Scottish nationalist like most because its a good idea and not because its some kind of an ethnic crusade. In short I'm essentially an Anglo-Celt who is tolerant of others because I am them too. |