Things to do on Snow Day 2
We are trapped in a spiral of political alienation. Politics isn’t working for us, so we leave it to the politicians. The political vacuum is then filled with heartless, soulless, gutless technocrats: under what other circumstances could political ghosts like Jack Straw, Geoff Hoon, Alistair Darling, Hazel Blears, Peter Mandelson or John Hutton remain in office? Unmolested by the public, corporate lobbyists collaborate with this empty political class to turn parliament into a conspiracy against the public. Revolted by these phantoms, seeing nowhere to turn, we withdraw altogether, granting them even richer opportunities to exploit us.
We’re letting them win. In a year or two the political ghosts will be still with us, thinner and paler than ever, just the names will have changed.
If you’re unhappy about it, it really is time to get off your arse. Make your vote count. Unlock democracy. Go here. Give these guys a look. Join Amnesty International. Join Greenpeace. Any more for any more?
We’re alienated not apathetic – there’s a difference.
Posted on February 3rd, 2009 at 8:30am under Activism, UK politics
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• 10 Comments |
[...] H/T Chicken Yoghurt. Tags: george+monbiot, politics, disaffection, apathy, alienation [...]
I’m gonna dissent. I’m more alienated by Monbiot. “granting them even richer opportunities to exploit us.” What does that sentence actually refer to? Taking in the full spread of government activity, what proportion of it can be reasonably described as a conspiracy of “corporate lobbyists” and politicians “exploiting us”. I’d like some examples.
I also love the idea that if only we weren’t so alienated, if only we had a vibrant democracy, we’d be seeing radical left-green policies, instead of bringing back hanging and banning immigration.
I’d like some examples.
Start with Monbiot’s own book Captive State. There are more examples in there than you’ll be able to comfortably stomach.
On your second point, I’d tend to agree but I’m trying to be an optimist today.
Okay, I should retract / add some caveats. I don’t doubt that corporations and individuals use bribes & favours etc. to swing bureaucratic decisions in their favour and to win contracts on more favorable terms than if they had to bid under genuine competitive conditions. And (I don’t know whether George also talks about this) the political process isn’t just distorted by corporate lobbying – there are unions, activists (maybe environmental ones), NGOs, political patronage, pet projects and all manner of reasons why things deviate from the democratic ideal. These are many of the arguments that those ghastly right wingers put forward against government – and not always disingenuously: some right wingers are true to their ideals and genuinely believe in competition, democracy and object to corporatism. So sensible lefties and righties can agree on this one, and support “Enough’s Enough”
And you are right – conniving to get a contract to build a bridge or whatever, on soft terms, is “exploiting us” and if I’d thought about that a bit more, I wouldn’t have asked.
What I meant was, to pick one example, George seems to think that Tesco doing everything it can to ensure it is allowed to build large out of town superstores comes under “exploiting us”. I don’t. I shop at one.
Tesco doing everything it can to ensure it is allowed to build large out of town superstores comes under “exploiting us”
When doing all it can involves resubmitting planning applications and appeals etc until the council/local community run out of money to fight them then it might not be exploiting us directly, but the the people who can change the system to a fairer one for the community who actually live in the area, have no incentive to because of the coprorate connection, that is exploiting us.
And unfortuntley, I shop at one too.
Join Greenpeace? You must be having a laugh. They’ll destroy our economy if they ever get anywhere near a policymaker as their policies (if and when they do put something together) have no basis in the ‘real world’.
A link to proof of your claim just slipped your mind did it?
Goering was a conservationist, you know.
I presume you mean whatever’s left of our economy. Assuming they can find it, of course…
Seriously, now is not the best time to be arguing that business-as-usual is essential to our continued economic well-being. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but policymakers seem to have been doing a pretty bang-up job of destroying the economy without any help from Greenpeace. I’m sure it’s been mentioned in the news once or twice…
Very sad. Sheep to the sheep dip. Baaaaah