Please this poem from top to bottom.
And then bottom to top.
That poem matters.
What Brian Bilston had to say with it matters.
The subject matters.
But there is more to it than just that, however important refugees are.
I have, as has been obvious here, and will be over the coming days, been paying much attention to what Farage is saying, and the total failure of Labour to respond to it and the Tories to take credit for it.
Yesterday, I spent a lot of time reading a new report on SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) from Policy Exchange, which I find pretty horrifying, not least because I am sure Wes Streeting and Bridget Phillipson will lap it up for Labour. I will have much to say on this, maybe later this morning.
In both cases - Farage on migration and refugees, and Policy Exchange on people with genuinely different needs - what is clear is that our politicians are taking us into a frightening place where we must be uniform, compliant, standardised units of production, or they think that we do not deserve recognition as people with our own unique skills, contributions, differences and lives to offer.
The hegemony of neoliberalism, a so-called philosophy that bases its whole thinking on the idea that there is always a perfect market solution, which will produce a perfect uniform product, with all else being cast aside as being of no use, when the whole of our life experience suggests the exact opposite is the case, is now being imposed on us as if this is the apotheosis to which all must subscribe, and in which belief is demanded with deviance set to be punished.
The reality is that neoliberalism is a false worldview.
It creates a deity - the market - in a supposed perfect form, when no such thing has ever existed, or could exist.
It demands that we all bow down and conform to its requirements without questioning why.
And what it seeks to do in the process is crush our creativity, our ingenuity, our individuality, our uniqueness and our spirit, all of which are based on our differences, one from each other.
It's truly terrifying to see this happening in plain sight. I am now genuinely frightened by what I'm witnessing.
And what Brian Bilston shows is that there is always another view, another way of looking at things, a different set of skills we can engage, which can always create a new perspective and a different understanding, all of which are the very things that neoliberalism and the politicians who subscribe to it are trying to crush in our society.
Poets are dangerous people.
I like dangerous people.
This is going to be a difficult time to be a dangerous person.
This is going to be a frightening time for those who can see through neoliberalism in its extreme form, which is what we are now going to get, and which was always the eventual destination for this philosophy that has never had time for democracy, people or government. But unless we call it out, there is nothing left, so call it out we must. This is our fate. Our future depends on doing so.
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I was in Dymchurch yesterday
There was a St George flag flying from a shop
It had England on the horizontal red stripe
And was flying upside down
You can’t make it up
🙂
It may be worth paying attention to the names of two British Operations. One is an historical one called Operation Banner a counterinsurgency experiment in civilian control through creating and operating conflicting local paramilitary gangs rooted in and consciously manipulating real on the ground longterm unaddressed social injustices and was run by British military Intelligence in Northern Ireland from 1969 until 2007. The other is called Operation Raising the Flag and is presently being rolled out across England with St George flags and painted kerbstones. They seem rather similar.
A very fine poem – gets to the heart of the matter.
With the exception of the trolls – hat tip to RM for keeping most of them off the site, – most of the commentators on the site converge on most topics, obvs there are nuances/different PoVs on some aspects – but in the main there is convergence.
How representative are we of the population? &, how big is the “we”. I ask this because it is one thing to call out neoliberalism (that is the easy bit) – it is quite another to organise and develop a political response. Tried to do that last year – election – total waste of time. Now there is 3.5 years to the next one – what to do?
(& – for the last +/- year I and others have tried to push community energy – cheaper elec missus – with very little to show – & this is something concrete – which begs the question – how recpetive is the UK population to ………anything?)
We are a tiny number – but remember only tiny numbers are needed to make a difference.
But we can only do it through the stories that we tell. They are what swing matters.
“But we can only do it through the stories that we tell. They are what swing matters.”
Thought this song by John Sebastian, performed by TP & the Heartbreakers kind of sums this up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9y5FUKfSVU
This morning I woke up to see a kestrel hovering over next field. It stooped, and flew off very low, only just clearing the hedge into back field. Presumably weighed down by its prey, probably a bank vole (we have some in “our” bit of the field hedge). I know the kestrel has to eat, but I still felt sorry for its prey. I guess I have too soft a heart.
Completely off topic: I’ve been missing here, as supposed to be on holiday, but it’s more like hard work! Every day we have to chase up some delivery or other. Royal so-called Mail refuses to deliver to caravans. Evri can never find us. (Rolls eyes) Only decent courier is DPD, who drives into field, finds caravan, and hands over package or leaves it on deck if nobody home (we even know the driver’s name – Egidijus). Plus when the kids & kiddliewinks (daughters and grandkids) were here it was super crazy!
But John has had some good sailing and racing. Today we’re battening down the hatches as we’re due high winds for a few days. So goodbye Shark windsock until the wind abates.
🙂
The link to the SEND report isn’t working for me. Not clickable.
Brilliant poem.
https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/out-of-control/
Policy Exchange is a right-wing think tank. It’s a registered charity that refuses to disclose its sources of funding. How it gets away with this is ridiculous! This is simply Soft-Fascism in action pushing to help the greedy rich pay as little as possible in taxes!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_Exchange
Poignant.
The poem brings home to me the abject failure of our post war world and its institutions. The victors were so full of hubris that they dreamed the new world order into being and kidded themselves that the dream would hold.
If anything, World War II was all about the power of economics, about what how the fair and thoughtful allocation of resources would keep the peace and further human dignity the world over, and my country led the way with the welfare state and the NHS (we learnt what economic chaos led to – Hitler and the like).
Looking back, there was still an innate imperial based racism in the way the second world war finished amongst the victors to the extent that you would think that ethnically it was only white people killing white people. So the victory of WWII became appropriated by white people. Far fetched?
I would advise you to Google and read about Afro-American Sargent Isaac Woodard, who was honourably discharged from the U.S. army in 1946, and on his way home to the South – and whilst still in the uniform of his country – was attacked and disabled in a racially motivated assault.
Had the post war institutions done their job effectively and not just been used as tools of U.S. and Western white hegemony and exploit other countries whose skin colour was darker, we might not be in a position where these people present themselves as refugees and immigrants to our shores out of desperation.
Because the peace would have been fair; these people would have had their own stable governments of their choice, investing in their own people health and welfare services, and have been welcoming and safe places to live, existing in an era of fair trade.
But oh no. What the West did was take advantage, exploit, undermine, interfere, ferment chaos, take sides instead of promoting democracy.
But now it is even worse. I’ve grown up watching Africans starving on T.V. Now its black Caucasians starving in Gaza and there are people of all ethnicities in my country going hungry even now.
That is not victory; it is failure. All our governments have been doing is pissing in the wind and we know what happens when we do that, don’t we? These immigrants, these refugees – are showing us our own future.
So very much to agree with.
Amazingly effective and affecting, thanks.
Much of the failure to understand the disfunction in modern human societies resides in the failure to make the effort to examine the historical development of money. The historical story goes as follows:-
Once human beings developed a money culture initially to improve efficiency in managing the public good it was only a short step to recognising that the public good could also be served efficiently with a money based market capitalism. This efficiency, however, was measured by profit not by what politicians declared. Profit, however, as we now know is often gained by neglecting the common good for all. This is the contradiction human societies are now facing albeit only a few recognise the existence of the contradiction not least that it has led to Soft-Fascism with the ever-present danger of Hard-Fascism. The obvious solution lies before us that of using democracy to regulate profit seeking where it’s identified as being destructive. Easier said, however, than done but done it must be!
https://mronline.org/2021/01/01/money-as-a-constitutional-project-with-christine-desan/
Schofield
All capitalism is these days, is moving money around from one group of people to another.
The receiving group call it ‘making money’. And they call it this because having acquired it – as if from nowhere, at no consequence to anyone – they can ignore the debit side completely.
To me, the ignored debit side is all about people or the planet:
1. People who are being ripped off with high prices.
2. People (labour) losing jobs, wages, pensions so that returns are higher short term, go to shareholders and the management/owner class.
3. People (labour) losing rights and perks in their workplace.
4. People (business owners) having their businesses bought out through the back door of the stock market by monopolists/mergers and acquisitions.
5. The planet and the environment whose resources are taken and only take on a value once they are have been taken.
6. What is left is left behind and changed when after any of the above (people and the environment) once ‘money has been made’.
Capitalism is better called ‘taken for granted-ism’. It’s just there and they take it. Another way to call it, is ‘theft’.
This is why I find Richard’s work on Resource Accounting so interesting and critical to our future. In that world, the debit side is acknowledged in the accounts and not ignored. And if acknowledged there have to be polices to deal with it.
Capitalism has been blind siding us for years – and now all the chickens are coming home to roost – from global warning to the latest algae bloom recorded in the UK’s biggest lake in Ireland reported in today’s Guardian.
Much to agree with, in many ways.
And thanks.
Brian Bilston frequently tours the UK, I can highly recommend his shows https://brianbilston.com/
What sort of people are Reforming?
https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatBritishMemes/comments/1mwon8f/the_greatest_video_of_the_year_lmao_shows_reform/
Obviously great scope for spoofing the British public on Reform policies given the appalling level of political literacy in the UK!
Wonderful link.
Perhaps this starts to point in the direction that could be taken by other parties (obvs not LINO and toryies). Interview Deform voters and get them to agree to Deform policies whilst gettting them to recognise it would be bad………for them. Then – all on YouTube – 15 min videos, every week. Maybe focus on one policy – NHS, tax & billionaires, cheaper energy etc
🙂
Indeed “Dog-Whistle” politics could be turned into something vastly entertaining! Even a TV show along the lines of the old show “Candid Camera” but re-named perhaps “Caught-Out Camera”!
Check out his collaboration LP with the Catenary Wires…
https://brianbilstonandthecatenarywires.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-made-by-humans-2
I penned this quite a few years ago, I don’t follow a particular ‘religion’ but have my own beliefs and I’m willing to learn and grow from others. Feel free to ask ‘your God’…..
Ask of Your God
Please permit your people to see what will be when all wars cease.
Please permit your people to see your vision of lasting peace.
Permit your people to understand that peace brings inner calm.
Permit your people to offer their love to those who wish them harm.
To those who wish to shed their blood to defend a piece of land…
Show them your wish is that they share what was crafted by your hand.
To those who wish to rule by fear, who have no inner soul…
Let them be seen for what they are – opponents of your goal.
Allow mankind to understand the futility of it’s’ ways.
Allow mankind to understand it can have better days.
Allow mankind to understand the meaning of your voice.
Allow mankind to understand – mankind may then rejoice.
Thank you.
That feels like a psalm, or certainly capable of being set in the way John Rutter does.
I don’t mind it being shared or used wherever Richard, if it strikes a chord (sorry about the musical pun) with even one person then that’s enough for me.
🙂
You must have bugged my prayer-room!
Beautiful
Hi Richard,
I would like to thank you for sharing a very clever poem. It hit the spot. I actually wanted to apologise for the last comment I tried to make but it didn’t get there quite. It is because I have had a head injury, brain haemorrhage and now have grand mal epilepsy. I have a lot of opportunities for falling over and I clearly am going for a clean sweep. So my thoughts can go astray and though it is improving Im finding that some days, it is probably not a good day to try.
Take care.
Go well.
Good luck.
Whenever I read a poem about refugees, I think straight away of the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour:
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
America needed people to come and create the country it became, so they welcomed immigrants from everywhere.
How different attitudes are today.
The country is still ‘the land of the free’, but the wrong people are in charge.
It’s history and multiracial composition will ensure that Trump’s brief tenure will soon be a bad memory and they can rebuild something they lost a long time ago.
Thank you, and agreed.
“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” Antonio Gramsci.
This evocative line captures Gramsci’s concept of the interregnum—a period of crisis when the existing order is collapsing but the new one hasn’t yet taken shape. In this vacuum, “monsters” emerge—forces or phenomena that are disruptive, regressive, or grotesque, often filling the void left by the faltering system.
This is surely happening before our very eyes, and we see the monsters before us on our TV screens and hear them on our radios, and we know who is faltering as a so-called government.