The news about public opinion and political debate in Britain is not good, I am afraid. My evidence is the recent brouhaha, possibly noticed by some American readers of this blog but probably not. It is, however, important in what it indicates. The fuss is about the Leader of the Opposition, Prime Minister in waiting (theoretically) and newly reborn firebrand socialist, Ed Miliband and his father, influential left-wing Marxist thinker and writer, Ralph Miliband. I put up a longish piece on Your Freedom and Ours and my unhappy conclusion is that, for the time being at least, the Ralph Milibands of this world have won the battle for the hearts and minds of the establishment, political and media.
14 thoughts on “The news from Britain is not good”
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Does this mean Cameron’s father is not a marxist?
Not so far as anyone knows and if he is then he has had no influence on anybody else’s thinking.
They may indeed have won the hearts and minds of the political and media establishment. However, the question whether that establishment can continue to dominate everyone else, particularly in the USA, remains open.
Helen – Thanks much for your post, which I will be linking to at the end of the post I just wrote on the same general subject, minutes ago.
(BTW, if I made any mistakes in my post, I would be grateful if you would tell me about them.)
Ken Rogoff, the Harvard Economist who co-authored “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly”, has an FT op-ed on Britain: “Britain Should Not Take Its Credit Status for Granted”
http://scholar.harvard.edu/rogoff/publications/britain-should-not-take-its-credit-status-granted
Jim,
Nothing there that is wrong. David Miliband is off the political scene so his views matter less. There is the extra point that Ed Miliband has been a very vociferous supporter of greater control of the media and that is one reason why he is milking this whole thing. Look at the nasty right-wing press, they are saying bad things about my daddy, they must be controlled.
Helen, I liked your pot on the other blog. I can only quote Robert Conquest:
Conquests’s Three Laws of Politics:
1. Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.
2. Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left wing.
3. The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies .
– Robert Conquest.
My “s”s and “t”s are getting old.
Ruling elites have a soft spot for any ideology that says it’s best if they have more power, and dangerous if the great unwashed get too uppity.
In a religious era, they embrace religious orthodoxy, venerate the divine or divinely chosen ruler, and burn heretics.
In an aristocratic era, they support the rights and privileges of the nobility, and are happy to hang any loudmouths who disagree.
In a collectivist era, as the last century plus has been, they adopt one of the many flavors of collectivist ideology, and find any number of reasons which justify the repression of dissenters and egotistical individualists.
Freedom is ultimately the greatest revolutionary concept in history, and is an existential threat to any and all forms of ruling elites.
The relentless and implacable hostility to all forms of individual liberty by members of the collectivist mentality, whether free expression, free commerce, or freedom of movement, is a recognition by the elites that their continued role as the unhindered masters of their fellow citizens is threatened at the most fundamental level by any assertion of human rights and liberties.
I never wonder that anyone who considers themselves a member of the ruling elite succumbs to the idea that they have the right to total freedom of action, while the common people should merely do as they’re told—but I do marvel at those few principled spirits who disdain such a belief, and can shrug off the mantle of power both during their period of authority, and especially when their time is supposed to end.
We are in the opening phases of a major social and political re-alignment, such as has occurred several times in our history.
As a great man once said, we will once again test the proposition that government by, of, and for the people can long endure. The American people, as always, will decide in their common wisdom which it will be, and will have to live with the consequences.
Does it Matter if Your Father Was an Unpatriotic Marxist?
http://reason.com/blog/2013/10/04/does-it-matter-if-your-father-was-an-unp
“Does it Matter if Your Father Was an Unpatriotic Marxist?”
It might for Obama. For some, like David Horowitz, it doesn’t seem to.
It would not matter if said father had not had a strong influence on his son and said son was not trying to be the next Prime Minister.
I agree with VeryRetired. These people are always here among us. There’s a new crop born every generation. They are opportunistic, self serving, amoral and unprincipled by nature, and will glom onto any ideology that advances their personal agendas.
The less structural power the society allows them aggregate, the better off that society will be in the long run. Leftists are inherently unable to comprehend this. Highly distributed power works best, is most resilient and is least amenable to tyranny. There’s a reason this idea is no longer taught in Government and Leftist schools. It’s an idea they want to quench because it threatens them.
Leftism offers power by status seeking holier than thou. As long as those who make their way in the world by denouncing others are given status instead of drummed out and flogged out of society like the miscreants they are leftism will be the easy path to power and wealth.
So of course the media, who are merely gossips are attracted to it, as is academe. Academe has a more poisonous atmosphere than a criminal organization waging internicene conflict.
As to our current dengenerate elites, they can’t run a bath. It’s ending and it won’t be pretty or graceful. They have no grace to call on, no inner reserves. No experience of danger to warn them to stop either which would spare them and us.