I know it's a cliche to quote Gramsci saying:
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.
The line is from his Prison Notebooks. They were written while he was imprisoned by the Fascist regime in Italy in the 1930s, and we are, of course, suffering fascism now. But that is not why it came to mind this morning. Instead, it did so because, despite waking early, as my body clock is still working on last week's time, I could find nothing in my overnight mails to inspire a blog post.
The news is of the old dying. All over the place, that is obvious. Systems are decaying. Ideas are failing. And yes, people are dying as a result of the callousness old economics has to offer.
The latest evidence comes from the appeals for more funds for the NHS to manage likely demand this winter. This is seen as a sign of management failure by those in the Treasury. Actually, it is the result of the failure of neoliberalism as it feeds us ever more toxic food in pursuit of profit in a world already poisoned by doctrines of indifference to the condition of most people, who live lives of despair as a result. The idea of management failure is being discussed. The possibility that we are suffering the failure of neoliberalism is not. The result is that the new is struggling to be born.
And the same is true across the desultory offerings from the media this morning. It is as if they are as confused as everyone else today and are unable to find what to write about. The deals, the machinations, the humdrum of life continue, but is it that they too sense it is all rather meaningless when there are so many issues to write about, but about which the paradigm in which they publish has nothing to say?
Is there a discussion of new thinking? No.
Is there any mention that the world is in an existential crisis because of climate change? No.
Is there a discussion of what is required to revive politics? Not really. There is just a retelling of the inanity of those now in power.
And do I find that depressing? Yes, I do. It really is time we got on with the process of change. We have no time to waste, but those who think they are in charge, or who presume they serve those who do, will use every opportunity they have to distract from what is really required. And that feels like a fair summary of the media this morning.
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Thanks. Feel much the same. I found this articulation of the emotional impact of state oppression on generations past particularly pertinent:
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/sunday-pages-ode-to-the-west-wind?r=i28j5&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true
Agree, the media output today was pretty uninspiring. Glimmer of hope that some of your messaging is getting through to the Guardian though: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/26/the-guardian-view-on-the-budget-what-a-labour-chancellor-should-really-say?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Just tweeted out.
Thank you
I was doing some decorating this weekend and had the radio on more than usual. The amount of time and prominence given to stories about assylum seekers on the news was both depressing and sickening – true in the Guardian as well! As you say one would think there was nothing else of note going on!!!
Agreed
The 8.10 feature on Radio 4 this morning – for absolutely no reason.
Why isn’t this headline news across the BBC ?
State corruption in plain sight
‘Contracts for donors’:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/26/companies-that-donated-to-labour-awarded-138m-in-contracts-study-finds?CMP=share_btn_url
I am wondering the same, if local screenings of Monbiot film which explains it’s an ideology followed by community conversations, one of the limitations today is the cost to assemble.
I’ve been rereading some of my older books on getting to a better world. Factor4 has technical, engineering, innovations, doing more for less energy. 1998. Less is More, Jason Hickel, 2021. The Switch. Active Hope. Naomi Klein. Bill Gates, even. All these people, and local discussion groups, could envisage a better world, with more community, more sharing, more happiness. It hasn’t happened. We have the ultra-rich becoming ultra-ultra rich, inequality growing, many people becoming really poorer. Less community, less happiness, more competing for scraps. Almost like 18-19th century enclosures. Where is anger? proposals to change? resistance? why aren’t these things way up the agenda? Because we’ve been convinced that we, the majority, are powerless? We need the modern equivalent of a Peasant’s Revolt, preferably without a plague like the Black Death to drive change.
Yet, take a longer view and there is progress. Past left wins tend to stick – ending slavery, organising in trade unions, extending the franchise, entrenching human rights, introducing free state education, state-funded health care, gay marriage, minimum wages, etc, etc… What seemed like extreme left ideas in times past come to be accepted as common sense consensus.
The political right wins a lot of little victories, even reverses progress in some places for a time – maybe here, now – of course it does, it has wealth and privilege on its side – but in the end, the right messes up – and the left forces progress again.
But many of those are now being challenged
Dangers are still lurking, though.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei has led his party to a landslide victory in Sunday’s midterm elections, after defining the first two years of his presidency with radical spending cuts and free-market reforms.
Took office in 2023, pledging to shrink state spending by taking a metaphorical “chainsaw” to it. He brandished a real one during his campaign rallies.
He cut budgets for education, pensions, health, infrastructure, and subsidies, and laid off tens of thousands of public sector workers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gw8qpyvqdo
He just got a landslide.
I am not sure that was a landslide but it was big – and weirdly against expectations.