Two splendid snippets facing each other in today’s print edition of the Times. First Chris Ayres’s Los Angeles notebook:
California’s decision not to ban black cars should by no means reassure anyone that the Golden State is now run by sane people.
And more substantially, Daniel Finkelstein on anti-capitalists:
I think that they have looked back at 5,000 years of human history – at pestilence and famine and disease and degradation, at genocide and civil war, at fear and loathing, at bigotry and ignorance, chauvinism and dictatorship – and concluded that our biggest problem is… shopping.
[…] I have struggled to get to grips with the idea – and maybe I am doing them a disservice – but I really think the notion that they are advancing, once stripped of all their posh words, is this. I go to the shop and buy a new television. The archbishops think that this impoverishes my soul, the G20 protesters think I am destroying the planet and exploiting the workers, and Oliver James thinks that I am making myself mentally ill.
He is really not doing them a disservice. The common motivation is a sort of snobbish distain about vulgar ways of enjoying the material world; and the same thing finds its head in the circles of power, too, as a sort of neo-puritan obsession with work, regulation and oversight of individuals to make sure that no-one is getting away with the sin of unapproved lifestyle.
I was down in Canary Wharf on business and nary a protester in sight. There has been a lot of publicity leading up to this; but although there has been some nastiness in the Square Mile, it appears a bit tame.
It is instructive that in the US, they have Tea Party protests gainst bailouts and Big Government. Here, we have protests against, er, what exactly? The lack of any coherent positive agenda is pathetic.
That will be because the protestors are the standard anarchist/other lefties rentamob that rock up to every protest going. Have a shufty at the various websites and you’ll see that this is basically what they do instead of having a job or a hobby.
Just got back from work in The City. I work near the Gherkin, and it was very quite on St Mary Axe. The “climate camp” people were confined to a small section of Bishopsgate. A bit of trouble outside the Bank of England, but much exagerated by the press. I went for a wander about after work, and the climate camp was very relaxed. The atmosphere round the Bank seemed a bit more tense, but still protesters, policemen, and city workers were mingling quite peacefully.
Snap shop of the day for me was in a Tesco Express with protesters, city workers, and riot policemen all patiently queuing at the checkout. Isn’t Britain great?
I liked the protesters’ tank, as featured on the BBC website.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45622000/jpg/_45622715_riottank.jpg
There is certainly something to be said for a country in which the protestors are allowed to bring tanks to a protest as long as they behave nicely. (Though I think if it were my tank I’d have gone for an Austin Powers swinging London theme, rather than faux police colours.)
However, a friend of mine who is a reliable witness, and who owns a chocolate shop in the City which he was keeping a close eye on today, writes after 8pm:
Please excuse me, while I have a little bit of a brain-fritz. I can’t see how California would ever even contemplate banning black cars.
I drive a black car. I see absolutely nothing wrong with this, especially as I’m British and proud to be, and the car in question is an Aston Martin built by craftsmen in Bloxham, Oxfordshire.
Barack Obama’s “Beast” is also black. He’s American and proud to be, and the Beast was, I gather, made in Detroit. Good on him.
Way back when, Henry Ford dictated that Fords (specifically, Model Ts) had to be black. The thing is, they looked good in it.
Cars no longer *have* to be black. However, some look their best, in such a colour scheme (FWIW, my Aston is also finished with a full black interior). Unfortunately, I’d never be able to drive it in California, as it’s right hand drive.
Still, I’m very glad I don’t have to go into the City, yesterday, today, or for the next few days.
Even if I wasn’t to come into contact with protesters, I suspect the Police would take a dim view of me travelling while armed…
I seem to remember that this was a minus ten points answer on QI, but I can’t remember the truth of the matter.
>> Even if I wasn’t to come into contact with protesters,
>> I suspect the Police would take a dim view of me
>> travelling while armed…
That is so sad.
Since I’ve moved to New Hampshire, as part of the Free State Project, I’ve carried a .357 Magnum with me, openly, nearly everywhere I’ve gone, including into the state Legislature to watch deliberations.
Of course, even most states in America are not that free. But I feel for those who cannot even carry concealed.
Just so you know, America has pretty relaxed immigration requirements, and the Free State Project would love to have those who love freedom, regardless of their point of origin. It is possible to experience (relative) Liberty in your Lifetime, and even more importantly to me, to live in a jurisdiction where Liberty is expanding and Government is giving way. Provided, of course, that we can keep the Feds at bay.
“Our biggest problem is … shopping”. On the other hand, some say our biggest problem is, we’re not shopping enough (and saving too much, bad).
Two giant pillars of philosophy. I can hardly wrap my meagre plebeian intelligence around both of these. Which is right? Which to choose? Decisions, decisions… Oh, I give up. Let that nice Mr. Brown and the clever chaps in the City decide. They know best.
LOL! You nailed the ultimate dilemma, Marc.
I would say that a better characterisation would be-
“The archbishops, the G20 protesters, and Oliver James think that this impoverishes my soul.”
Ian B,
That’s not what they think they think, however. Danny Finkelstein does get it right (as so often) – as well as providing a balanced 3-part list.
Dave Walker,
Reuters explains (Link).
Guy, I think that’s what they think and that they think they think what they think because that’s what they think. The G20 protestors oppose wealth for moralist reasons. They’d oppose it even if they couldn’t drum up a planetary catastrophe as justification. They are simply morally disgusted by wealth and comfort. Likewise Oliver James. They search around for plausible reasons for what they demand, but all these people all ultimately are motivated by a belief in spiritual pollution.
Actually, the Vatican recently contended publicly that washing machines and other labor-saving devices were responsible almost solely for the liberation of women. (As opposed to birth control, which was rather a latecomer.) So we’re in favor of laundry automation in the home, and presumably refrigerators as well.
There’s no inherent problem with saying that prudence in spending is a virtue, and that greed and crazy envy of the Joneses are vices. The problem is that a good many archbishops are afraid to come out and talk about virtue and vice, because it inevitably leads to being snubbed at parties by people offended at the very idea that they might have done anything naughty (because everyone knows religion is supposed to mean validation and warm fuzzies).
But unless you have a good idea what virtue and vice really are, you are prone to confuse genuine greed (which manifests outside shopping malls, too) with “this week’s things my progressive friends don’t like”. It’s not wrong to wonder whether you need an SUV; it’s tyranny and folly to decree that nobody needs an SUV. Carbon credits had a lot of sins attached to them, both in buying and selling (fraud is a sin!).
And the more you default to taking today’s political fad as a guide instead of eternal principles, the further you head down the road toward tyranny or self-slavery. It’s inevitable.
See what happens when you don’t pay attention for a week or so – I just bought a new, black SUV! Surely the Wrath of the Al-Goracle will descend on me! As if.
Victorian gentleman preferred to dress in black as it promoted an authoritarian aspect to their lives.