Tag: hypocrisy

The People Destroyer

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There is a civil war at present in the Labour Party. If we’re honest there has been one ever since Corbyn tried to reclaim control from the right-wing elements of the party. Tony Blairs New Labour strikes back then. What comes next? Certainly the strengthening of the Tory Parties position when half of Labours voters go and support whatever new party is born out of this. even if it’s a third it’ll still destroy Labour. I get the feeling though that Corbyn wouldn’t want to create a new party as he knows the repercussions of splitting the vote. I wonder whether Starmer and his allies would do the same. Regardless of all that Corbyn has been suspended, likely expelled at one point and yes the whole thing is entirely political, it has little to do with actual anti-semitism.

The EHRC said in the report Labour members would be allowed to criticise the extremity of the findings. Corbyn said the accusations were overstated for political purposes. He did what was allowed of him yet he was suspended anyway. Starmer is picking and choosing what he wants to take out of the report. There are fair criticism but it’s not all as bad as it is being portrayed. This reaction will simply entrench the divisions further. Yet again nobody wins, well not anyone who should.

As I mentioned yesterday it’s the blatant manner in which all of this is unfolding. Or is being perpetrated more like. It all just seems so obvious yet it’s happening and seems unstoppable. Just like America, when did politics in the UK become a soap opera. It’s worrying. It’s also a sign of modern times with twenty-four hour news coverage and politicians using social media for their own personal agendas. While knives were once thrust in backs in dark little corners in Whitehall now it’s done with a tweet. Micheal Gove tweeting today and referencing how little Starmer seemed to give a shit when he was on Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet. That’s a fair point actually. The obvious one is Trump and the reality television show he has created, he’s completely normalised politicians interacting and attacking each other on Twitter. The world has gone mad. And while this seems extreme it isn’t showing any signs of abating yet.

In the meantime the anti-Corbyn narrative is going strong. Even once he’s resigned they’re still not content. It’s like Assange, don’t just beat him, destroy him so he never even thinks about getting back up again. It does show the danger of him, them. That’s when you know people are really challenging power, or at least a part of power. It’s worth remember that when you see people who talk of making change yet don’t get destroyed by a powerful media narrative. Shall we learn from the past, well we haven’t yet, at least not in the good ways.

Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay

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If there’s one thing I’m good at it’s being distracted from the current book I’m reading with another. I envy these fast readers who can sit down and complete a book in a few days. I’m more of a few weeks to a few months depending on the distractions around me type of person. There’s one book I’ve been reading for nearly a year now, I really enjoy reading it too so it’s not as simple as it may seem at first. I wonder if I’m a victim of how we process entertainment these days. I’m not sure I like calling myself a victim but more I’ve allowed myself to get caught up in the culture of short bitesize moments of pleasure.

I love a website called Aeon – which I’ve written a piece on here about before – that has some incredibly interesting articles. They’re not always a light read, not difficult but sometimes they require more effort than something on a website devoted to football. The articles on there are usually about three to four thousand words and despite knowing they’re interesting and that I can learn from them; a combination of the effort involved in the length and with the mental effort required slightly above minimum, I’ll not always bother. I prefer fiction books to non-fiction even if the topic in the non-fiction is potentially really interesting. Partly this is because I genuinely enjoy stories and the way meaning and message can evolve in this style.

The more I write about this I suspect I’m just lazy and ill disciplined. Aeon requires a bit more effort than football news and non-fiction potentially more than a story to follow and get into. I am leaping from one extreme to the other though, this is never a black and white argument unless I generalise which I seem to have been doing. This piece today was going to be another review and as seems to be a bit of a trend it was going to be a play. Dario Fo‘s Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay to be precise. I’ve mentioned Dario Fo in a previous review of one of his plays, Accidental Death Of An Anarchist. He wrote political and social plays on the whole and this is a large part of what has drawn me to him. Take into consideration everything I have mentioned and you can see what leads me to a play. Something that’ll take me one to two hours to read followed by that rosy sense of accomplishment.

Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay is the story of two couples caught up in different situations in which people push the boundaries of stealing. The prices in the supermarket increase once more so the women riot and take what they want, only paying a minimum compensation to the shop. “I paid half price for half my goods”. While the husbands get caught up in similar as the canteen at work increases the prices and the workers simply serve themselves. Unlike the wives though the husbands take a stance against this seeing it as stealing. What ensues is a comedy involving fake pregnancies, avoiding the law and hypocrisy, all as Fo dissects the moral arguments behind whether there can be such a thing as justifiable theft.

The varying levels of hidden meaning in stories is what draws me to fiction. We can analyse what the playwright or the author intended with certain bits. I may not have appreciated it much at school but it is something I certainly enjoy now. For example, despite not having the most flamboyant of styles, I enjoy Sartre’s fiction far more than his non-fiction, even though they’re both variants of his philosophical discourse. Maybe lazy and ill disciplined is in itself a lazy understanding of something which as I’ve already mentioned is not a black and white issue. Interpretation for me is everything, and can’t pay won’t pay, I suspect I know what I would do.

The Gutter Of Moral Superiority

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There are times in life in which we must criticise our own side. For those who really see themselves as having a side this is a rare occasion but for those who cringe at the idea of picking a side to immortalise over others then this is probably just another day. I’m always somewhere in the middle and I don’t see why this would be any different. I call it the curse of seeing, although not necessarily agreeing with, both sides of the argument while others would suggest it is more about being indecisive when the opposite is required. In this instance I’ll just suggest I’ve seen something I find hypocritical.

I am referring to this article and this one too. In one the Independent newspaper talks about an advert from The Lincoln Project, a Republican group who have dedicated themselves to preventing the reelection of Donald Trump, which suggests he is ill and falling to pieces. The other article suggests similar and uses some quotes by a neurologist to suggest Trump has neurological problems. While both articles reference a few different things they both mainly use the example of his struggling to walk down some ramp at a military parade the other day. Now fair enough he did look like he was struggling a little, the man is seventy-four years old so it’s not impossible to imagine he’s not fit and healthy anymore but both articles are in my opinion lazy. I remember a few years ago when Donald Trump and Theresa May met for the first time, there were photos of them holding hands as they walked down some steps and it was explained that he had some disorder which made going down things difficult, that it was a balance thing hence the hand holding, and that this is something he had had for years. It was supposedly not serious but was explained non-the-less. I can’t help but feel his inability to walk down a ramp is related to this. If I know this of course then there’s no excuse for a political correspondent for a national newspaper not knowing it.

The reason I take issue with this is not because he is a defensible man in any way but because we on the anti-Trump and his ilk spectrum of society and politics scream foul of immoral, corrupt and lying elements on the other side of the fence. We behave outraged at the lies and the deceit, and justifiably so, see politics and society as being in the gutter. The right wing are in many ways hugely responsible for that but it’s very easy to look through our partisan eyes and not see the hypocrisy of our own actions and spokespeople. The reality in this situation is that with stories like this we are being played just as much as the supporters of Trump or Brexit that we decry as manipulated idiots. I want my people to be in the right to such an extent that they don’t need to lie or blur the facts of a story. If my people need to manipulate me to believe an argument then they’re not my people and it’s not my argument. I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I believe it’s okay to be human and fallible, but to manipulate people is different. I expect nothing less of those idiots I feel I’m fighting against but I’ll always come down harder on those professing moral superiority and failing to deliver. At that point we find ourselves in the very same gutter and we must always be better.

The Fall Of The Puppet Master

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If it feels like the word hypocrisy should originate with a character from Greek antiquity, I wonder what word will be born out of Dominic Cummings and used freely two thousand years from now. Traveling two hundred and sixty miles from London to Durham while the country was in Lockdown. Traveling during Lockdown when suspected of having the actual virus. Ignoring the guidelines he himself helped draw up. Shining a light on people not following the very rules they are so content for fining others for. A fine for sitting alone in the park while not displaying any symptoms, but according to Tory HQ his actions were ‘in line’ with the guidelines. Apparently his trip was ‘essential’ as he needed to be nearer family for the purposes of childcare were he to get ill. The dates given for the trip and statements from the Tory party at the time suggest he already had it when he traveled. Official guidelines state that if you display any symptoms you should self-isolate for seven days and not even leave the house for essential supplies. Well he left the house alright. According to the official party statement too he was at no point spoken to by police as is being reported. It’s just unfortunate that the reports are from official statements made by the Durham police Commissioner.

The party spin machine will be going into full overdrive with this. Under no circumstances can Dominic Cummings be forced to quit. This isn’t just some dispensible advisor, this is the man seen by many to be pulling the strings. Let’s be honest right now and agree Boris Johnson is no leader, he is running diddly squat. For Cummings to quit would bring down this government ultimately. Not immediately in the next month but very possibly by the end of the year. He is that important. That is why the likelihood of him falling on his sword is so slim. That is in comparison the former Scottish Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood who fell on hers after twice visiting her family home in Fife just over the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh. That is also in comparison to leading scientist and government advisor Professor Neil Ferguson who also fell on his after a woman he was having an affair with came around to his house for a visit. There is clearly precedent. Precedent the Tory Party gleefully called for when it suited them but one they seem determined to ignore this time around. If there’s anything we’ve seen so far from this lot is their usual tactic is to try and ride anything and everything out. I suspect this may be the same, the consequences being just too large. It’ll at least be nice to watch them squirm for a bit. and if anything it will make a great Greek tragedy a few years down the line.

A Heroes Welcome

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As I drove through the small village near my home at about five minutes past eight this evening I noticed people had lined the street and started clapping as I approached. It’s good to have my existence celebrated finally. The strange thing is that having stopped their 8pm clap for carers session, some actually clapped in my direction as I drove by. I was in a delivery van so I wonder if they saw me as some kind of hero putting my life on the line to deliver them their bread. Still, I just drove on. I did contemplate hooting the horn as I drove through but I didn’t want to play along with whatever it is they’re doing. To be completely honest, I think the whole things a charade and it’s stupid. Don’t get me wrong I’m sure there are some exhausted and not to mention ill nurses out there and I appreciate and respect them for doing what their doing, there’s just something empty about this whole clapping show. Each Thursday at 8pm people line the streets, clap and bang pots. It’s a lovely gesture but I suspect for many it’s hollow.

It’s worth pointing out that were I live in both Northumberland and the Scottish Borders, Tory MPs were voted in to power recently. Perhaps these people banging pots could instead just not vote for them next time. Who gives a shit about what you think if you clap your hands and then vote for the very people who actively weaken those you’re clapping for. The mind numbing hypocrisy just seems lost and maybe that’s the worst part. I want to hang a banner from my window highlighting this but I’m concerned the attention it might draw to the bakery below me may not be ideal. I just want to slap everyone and point out that they’re idiots. There’s too many idiots.

People talk about ten years of Tory government and their ideological attacks on the NHS as being the reason for it’s current struggles but that’s not accurate. Either people have short memories or they’re just playing party politics. While I would trust Jeremy Corbyn with the NHS, I would be curious to know people’s opinions on Tony Blair’s version of a Labour Government. But really we can go back as far as Thatcher and the first real inroads of a neoliberal movement to destroy something that has helped so many. In truth actually we could go all the way back to Nye Bevan and the Tory government he had to fight against to establish the NHS we all love and cherish now. You see, it’s not just ten years of Tory austerity. Or forty years of neoliberalism. These bastards have had it in for free health care since the very beginning. Don’t believe their lies. And if you vote for them, save your breath, and save your effort each Thursday night. If you truly cared for the carers you wouldn’t be voting for that self-serving mob. It’s not bloody hard to understand.

How To Be Human In The Zombie Apocalypse

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Coronavirus panic seems to have ramped up to zombie apocalypse levels. I have not been able to resist keeping an eye on the latest news updates online and we seem to just be seeing photo’s of empty shelves and pandemonium everywhere. Apparently everyone is being selfish and one Tweet from some politician told of some guy buying the last of the pasta and refusing to share even one with some old lady. This would seem to prove the existence of widespread selfish behaviour, or at least prove examples of it exist and therefore the selfish narrative if you’re attempting to push one. I of course wasn’t there and haven’t been to a big supermarket in about ten days when I went to buy some goats milk butter, I’m so middle class, because they don’t have it in my local shop. Unsurprisingly there had not been a rush on it although I can confirm there wasn’t a great deal of toilet paper left, it does appear people think they can eat it. Seriously though of all the things to rush to buy, the one thing people think they can’t survive without is loo roll? In times of emergency I reckon you’ll get used to Indian style pretty quickly.

But back to this arsehole hoarding the pasta. If true I would love to know the bigger picture. Did he finally give her some? Did someone step in and persuade him to share? Or even force him to share? There are videos online of people fighting over toilet roll, imagine how it’ll be when it’s over the last tin of baked beans. I wonder what I would do in that situation, would I be a coward or would I stand up for the old lady, and would I give up or persevere. I doubt people really know beyond the fantasy of their imagination but I’m sure we all hope we would one way or another have managed to get the old lady her pasta.

Other updates in the ensuing apocalypse are that a raft of rather disagreeable world leaders seem to be getting tested. It’s a tricky one and I wonder how our public sentiments on these issues vary from our inner thoughts. Scumbags like Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton have tested positive, do we respond joyfully, neutrally or compassionately for him as a human being (supposedly). The Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tested negative, do we admit to a little disappointment? And then there’s the big one, The Donald has taken his test and will find out in a day or two. We are only human, are we at sainthood levels when we can react equally to everyone in the public eye getting tested? At what point do we just admit our response to hearing Tom Hanks and his wife tested positive was not the same as when we heard Donald Trump is being tested. Does that make us bad? They are still humans, they are still someones mother or father despite how disconnected from any concept of an emotional bond we imagine they have. But we’re also human so we’re fallible. That also means if we want to be excused for our own fallibility we may just have to try understand and excuse theirs. Or just continue being fallible, and proving how human we are.

Saying all of this, it won’t matter anyway soon. We’re all going to be deep in a zombie apocalypse as people prove the fragility of society. Proving they have no sense at all of the so called community they think they’re fighting for with guns or the ballot box. It’s depressing when you realise just how shit people not are but can be. I really hope that old lady got her pasta and whoever reported the moment didn’t just stand there and take a video of it on their phone. To miss the point of ones very own judgemental reporting. Ah to be human.

End of Year Hypocrisy

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Tomorrow is another year and like many people I will also be rather self-indulgently posting my New Years resolutions somewhere online hoping that they’ll somehow be so interesting and important that people will read them and take notice. It surely is a symptom of modern day society, social media and upbringings that tell us we’re somehow great and worthy in every way that creates phenomena like this. Why the hell would people be interested in what I have planned for next year, how much cake and pies I’ll be cutting out and how definitely I’ll be going straight to the gym in the morning and not leaving until this time next year. Throw in all the positive affirmations and you’ve got the recipe for self-indulged vomit. Naturally then as I said I will be doing these very things too.

Why is it then that when we know something is not good for us we still continue to do it anyway. That of course includes the pies and cakes, or the sitting on the sofa when we know we should be outside listening to power music and running, but it also includes forcing others to endure our attempts to revolve the earth and all it has created around ourselves. People don’t have to go on social media and read or watch what we have to say that is granted but we do, our lives now are so intertwined it is hard to escape it, so unconsciously we endure it.

Saying that I did fleetingly discuss New Years resolutions with one of my cousins over Christmas and they raised the important point that they are ways to focus the mind on our intentions for the year ahead. I probably paraphrase her badly but that is roughly what she had to say. I suspect also that she doesn’t feel the need to tell the world about her intentions for next year which in a way makes it a far more personal and in my eyes acceptable approach. I can’t wait to be a hypocrite tomorrow, I almost feel like apologising in advance. I won’t though.

I don’t know whats up with me today. My plan had been to dissect how I thought this writing experiment had gone so far, and highlight the intimidating fact that I’ve got over three hundred pieces still to write. Instead a hypocritical rant about New Years resolutions ensued. Perhaps it’s because I’ve never bothered with them before and my first time is going to be in such a public setting that I felt uncomfortable enough about it to preemptively express my disdain for my own future actions. But then maybe it’s important for some people to see others resolutions as it strengthens their own resolve that they’re too on the right track. God damn it why can’t the world ever be black and white just this once. Why must life be that beautiful shade of empathetic grey we have to compassionately endure on a daily basis. And yes you spell it with an e.