Most mornings I wake up and it is obvious what I think it important to write about. Not so today. What I get from this morning's news is a wall of noise.
There is an ongoing media frenzy about Russia, which Russia now says helped propel Putin to re-election yesterday.
There is stress over Facebook and its involvement in the undermining of democracy.
And there is stress over Trump's trade policy.
I would remind you that there's still Brexit going on as well.
It's hard not to think that physical, ideological, economic and self-destructive warfare aren't being waged simultaneously.
I would then just like to ask for a moment of calm. It would be easy to turn up the rhetoric on all this. Many are. But there are moments when the exact opposite is required.
When it is right to seek the facts.
When it is appropriate to take a deep breath and say ‘what can be done' rather than ‘who is to blame', not least because if there is nothing that can be done then apportioning blame is only an exercise in stress creation.
And when it's worth asking what are the issues worth fighting and to consider whether there are better ways of resolving conflict than those that are currently being presented.
The current situation is dangerous, and with so many simultaneous variables on the table hard to predict as to outcome.
My question is, then, what can be done to lessen that danger?
Where are the talks possible?
Where are the better regulators?
Could trade be better organised?
Is agreement with our neighbours the wisest course of action?
It's my suspicion that these alternatives exist. I am hoping there may be wise heads that are still looking for them.
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Is there a problem with your blog? It only seems to accept comments to the last 2 items you posted? Not sure if that’s intentional.
Comments close after a few days
That’s to give me a chance of managing my life
Sorry….
“Comments close after a few days
That’s to give me a chance of managing my life”
Self. Self. Self. 🙂
You got it….
I have a life beyond blogging
I think
I think what you have highlighted is the dismal state of our political, social and economic landscape, from a government determined to push through its dogmatic ideology irrespective of who suffers and the social and economic consequences to an electorate seemingly happy to give them the green light. Our political system, from monarchy to HoL, privileged expectations & entitlements through public schooling/Oxbridge, wealth and power concentrated in few hands, and a craven journalism the mere puppets of their oligarchic proprietors, FPTP, professionalisation of politics at every level and the constant deference to the mythology of our history is preventing the formation of any meaningful alternative.
” a government determined to push through its dogmatic ideology”
That was then. Now, with the exception of a few delusional blowhards, they’d be happy just to survive.
Welcome to a beautiful new day Richard. At least up here beyond Inverness. My supposition has always been that simultaneous unresolvable sources of distraction / aggravation such as we see too frequenly are firmly under control. Not by me, my friends, or anyone I might know, but by groups who benefit in the environment they have created. Social environments, financial and industrial envnironments, etc. It is not an accident that so much distraction is abroad. I guess that yesterday you described how this forms part of Putin’s game, as but one example.
“What I get from this morning’s news is a wall of noise.”
Are there alternative sources of news?
Some under-rated, under-reported, non-distraction stories of real significance perhaps? If I get time I’ll see if I can find one.
I’ve had a quick look around and found that this messy but interesting piece from Salon isn’t quite as silly as it sounds and it kind of suits this blog:
“Some millennials aren’t saving for retirement because they don’t think capitalism will exist by then”
https://www.salon.com/2018/03/18/some-millennials-arent-saving-for-retirement-because-they-do-not-think-capitalism-will-exist-by-then/
In looking for a really interesting piece I’m finding that they are not the sort of thing that you can search for at will. They hit you at random or not at all I suppose.
It’s not hard to agree with them
Will what we have last?
Clearly not
Will what replaces it embrace the promise to pay a pension is meant to deliver? Who knows?
The predictions (or expectations) being discussed range from human extinction (worst case scenario) through to “That utopian hope, that we could theoretically end up in a sort of fully-automated post-work social democracy à la “Star Trek,”
A la Star Trek à la Marx à la John Stuart Mill.
Nothing lasts. Capitalism in its current incarnation will go the way of all other human consructs. In terms of whatever positives it had to offer, it’s well beyond its sell-by date. But there’s no politically feasible ‘shovel-ready’ alternative yet to replace it. In this respect MMT still has a way to go. Hence, one keeps returning to the Gramscian insight. In the interregnum the best we can expect is a mitigation of the most damaging policies neo-liberal capitalism is inflicting daily on the planet & its inhabitants. It seems like the bad guys (Putin included) – using their ill-gotten gains – are still winning the hearts and minds of the masses. Across the Pond, the mid-terms could offer a glimmer of hope.
A progressive’s work is never done. I like this recent suggestion from J D Alt – https://www.realprogressivesusa.com/news/economic-issues/2018-03-14-the-big-three.
Marco Fante says:
“What I get from this morning’s news is a wall of noise.”
“Are there alternative sources of news?”
You know there are Marco. Lots of them. And they don’t come at you, you go find them. They’re not much less depressing in their content however because they tend to be telling you about the things that go on in the world around us and so much of it is sh…….Shuboptimal.
On “seeking the facts”, I see Paul Johnson (IFS) has now explicitly said in The Times that MMT is delusional, and that there are only small pickings to be had from the tax gap –
“Then there are those who seem to believe that all our public spending needs can be solved by printing money, that in the long term extra tax revenues are not needed. Or those who think that there are many tens of billions of tax revenues that can be painlessly magicked from the vastly rich and from multinational companies.”
Article is now freely available at https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/12851
We can’t excuse him any more on the basis that he’s just analysing Government economic policy.
Thanks
It is pure dogmatic diatribe
I heard on Radio 4 this morning that they’re broadcasting a series this week called “Keywords for our time”. Thursday’s episode is “The National Debt” presented by Oliver Kamm.
From the BBC website:
Oliver Kamm – journalist, language columnist and former City man – dismantles a brilliant metaphor: the idea that national economics are similar to household economics. How useful is it, when we’re thinking about the contemporary global economic situation?
I am flying in Thursday night
Send me a review
George S Gordon says:
” I see Paul Johnson (IFS) has now explicitly said in The Times that MMT is delusional,..”
He must think it worth trying to undermine the traction the idea is gaining. I reckon that a good sign.
I rate him with his namesake Boris as beneath contempt.
I see the Oliver Kamm programme is being broadcast two days after Episode 2, which is “Prophets of Doom by Alex Deane, PR consultant and former chief of staff to David Cameron, and explores the long history of the phrase ‘prophet of doom’, from Jeremiah to the modern day”.
The R4 blurb doesn’t mention any of Deane’s other activities.
“Prophets of Doom” was broadcast on Monday morning, but is not yet available on iPlayer.
As far as I can see, Deane was executive director of the ‘Grassroots Out’ campaign to leave the EU, and also involved in ‘Brexit Express’, so I wonder who he’s chosen as the modern day Prophet of Doom – I suppose anyone the Daily Mail has accused of being a “traitor” would fit the bill.
Perhaps I should avoid listening to that, and look forward to Thursday’s episode instead.
Andy says:
“He must think it worth trying to undermine the traction the idea is gaining”.
Yep, as some are known to say: ‘you are only as big as your critics’.
I apologise for returning to the Russian theme but I can’t resist sharing this quote from Boris Johnson when interviewed yesterday by Andrew Marr:
” Now you have people such as the US ambassador to the UN … pointing the finger squarely at Russia. That indicates the change in people’s attitudes to Russia.”
“I think it’s obvious they do care. They look at us and think, This is the country that time and again has called Russia out.”
However, he went on: “It’s important we don’t allow a miasma of suspicion about all Russians in London and indeed all rich Russians in London [to develop].”
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/boris-johnson-says-russia-may-have-been-creating-and?utm_term=.ntKB03jXr#.fsZxBN8pG
Yep, he actually said that.
Boris Johnson ‘went on: “It’s important we don’t allow a miasma of suspicion about all Russians in London and indeed all rich Russians in London [to develop].” ‘
No indeed, when they have received £800K+ donations from rich Russians and he likes to play tennis with Russian ladies in return for a bung to his Party.
There are rich Russians everywhere in Europe and elsewhere in the world ( loving Miami at the moment they are ). Some actually made their millions honestly but they are in the minority. I used to work in Russia and ordinary Russians have only disdain for those who have plundered the country. They are also wary (afraid) of speaking out so they don’t. Boris must be in someone’s pocket if he believes what he said. At least here we can say what we like and disagree as much as we like. I like that.