- Interesting post by bevin on Crooke's article .. Archived Message
Posted by Tomski
on April 12, 2023, 4:28 pm, in reply to "Re: Crooke: We are Closening to a Move Through the Cycle – But First Will Come Disorder"
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MoA ... A peculiar feature of the Crooke article to which you refer is his argument that the 'elites' are bent upon 'levelling' the population into equality. Would that it were so. The opposite is true as every social metric known to man shows: after fifty years of unrelenting neo-liberalism capitalist societies are more unequal than ever. To take just the United Kingdom the great reforms of the war and post war years were effective in making society much more equal: kids had a much more equal chance of getting an education, the University system expanded and tuition was low or free, while most students had living allowances from the government. There was no fear of graduating with mountainous debt to deter young people from finishing their education. The result-evident throughout anglophone culture- was enhanced social mobility and a very dynamic and culturally rich society. And that was only the tip of an iceberg: Trade Unions were powerful, respected and able to shape legislation and living standards. Unemployment was not only kept low but an accident from which all were automatically insured. Those in need to claim benefits with minimal difficulty. There were no beggars or homeless people to be seen. The Health Service was efficient and embraced every aspect of health, including dentistry and pharmaceuticals without payment. It was buttressed by a public health system which included nursing at home for the elderly and free milk, vitamins, fish oil etc for pregnant and nursing mothers and infants. School meals were free and every child was supplied with a third of a pint of milk in midmorning. A large part of the population lived in 'council housing' let at a low rent based on cost to working people. Work was generally protected by comprehensive regulations as well as unions and 'unofficial' action at the workplace which saw grievances dealt with quickly. Now all these 'levelling' measures have been rescinded: in every respect the UK is a badly unequal society in which the poor are unprotected and victimised. This is the reality throughout the western world. Crooke seems oblivious to the fact of the near revolutionary situation in France in which millions are fighting to protect pensions from neo-liberal ideologues, at the service of a ruling class which grows greedier and greedier as it scythes its way through the markers of equality and fraternity generations strove to establish- for themselves but also for millions of others. This is what the 'cycle' which is passing is distinguished by not levelling but accelerating inequalities throughout imperial society. A society in which, for example, the distribution of wealth and property becomes increasingly unequal with the great mass of wealth being owned by a tiny slice of society, and the great mass of people being virtually without property. The various agendas of the WEF are nothing new, they are the current aims of the neo-liberals. Crooke, who sees the minimal and largely irrelevant questions of transexuality and homosexuality, which have almost nothing to do with the problems most people face, as of major importance then characterises the burgeoning BRICS cultures as comfortably conservative and underpinned by religious belief. And there is some truth in this but not enough to obscure the fact that setting the pace in BRICS are movements which see neo-liberalism and the rule of capitalist classes, in their own interests, as the major cause of the destructive imperialism practised by the US and its satraps. Without going into detail surely even Crooke can understand that the Chinese government, ruling according to the counsels of the Communist Party not only calls for more and more equality but, in lifting hundreds of millions of the poorest people on earth into comfortable subsistence in its pursuit of socialism, but is guided by principles derived from the Marxist tradition. Posted by: bevin | Apr 12 2023 2:56 utc | 151 |