No significant numbers of people will vote for it at the moment but they would if the media put even half the effort into it as they do to promoting the status quo.
I think people will vote for an alternative vision if it is compelling and backed up by debate and publicity. Once it reached a critical mass it would sweep the self interested incumbents away.
The trouble is since the intellectual collapse of the socialist ideal there has been no debate on anything fundamental about how we live and interact with others. The media as a whole are simply a mouth piece for which ever press baron or government party owns them.
That is why the BBC’s response to this is so disappointing. Since Alaistair Campbell pulled out the BBC’s teeth following the weapons of mass destruction affair it appears as if there is an unspoken ‘gentlemans club’ complicity between politics, finance and media to promote the status quo, which is, funily enough, in their own interests.
Even our education system is geared that way, people are not taught the art of free thinking, they are spoon fed facts and figures and measured by a string of multiple choise ‘tick box’ exams throughout their schooling. They are, in fact, trained to be compliant and be rewarded by being compliant without free thinking getting in the way. Big brother by stealth in effect, dressed as efficiency, ‘a good education, crime prevention and health and safety.
Nobody will vote for it because any alternative views are portrayed as being held by some unconvincing ’swampy’ type character in a baggy jumper and a cheeky smile by the mass media’.
We are in a democracy at the moment that only gives the illusion of choice.
People will vote for an alternative alright, embrace it in fact if it is worked out, debated and given a tangible credible voice that breaths some passion back into the population.
There is no deliberate conspiracy going on by free masons or anyone else, I think it is just the natural end product of the darker side of human nature and the system the world is currently run by has been taken over by it without anyone really noticing or putting up a fight.
I agree, and I think the media’s role in the current apathy goes far beyond the way news and current affairs are reported and the facts manipulated. The priorities and values that the mass entertainment media are providing are poison, promoting a culture of acquisition and ‘attitude’ that is, to me at least, totally sickening.
How do we break the cycle though?
How can it be done?
Or do we just have to wait until it destroys itself and try to leave something behind so that people can pick up the pieces.
The expenses scandal – though I think it is quite trivial in the grand scheme of things – may actually turn out to be the tipping point. “Get rid of the lot of them” should maybe be our new slogan. Chance for a clean slate?
“How do we break the cycle though? How can it be done?”
Christ, if I knew how to break through people’s apathy I probably wouldn’t detest huge swathes of the population as much as I do now. If I had no family commitments in the UK I’d say that society got the government it deserved and sod it- my laptop and my mobile are my office and I’m off, I can conduct business from anywhere in the world. As it is society got the government it deserved with the results we see now. So we need to do something about it.
So what can we do? In the short term we (and that is me and you meaning you, reading this) need to make our representatives explain their actions and let them know that we are looking over their shoulder. Write to your MP. A lot. Question every governmental action and decision. Make a nuisance of yourself hounding them for explanations. Everyone should be doing this all the time. Watch the news. Become knowledgeable. Just encourage friends and family to wake up.
In the long term? Politicise the youth. Need a lot of patience on this one probably…
This post seems just as relevant today as it was eight months ago.
“We keep hearing contributions in this place that sound as though we are now in charge of our affairs and our future, but we are mere pawns on the chessboard of the credit agencies and the bond market.” (Frank Field, earlier this month).
Plenty of contributors noticed this some time ago. No-one paid attention back then and so now no-one has the answer.