A couple of nights ago I went along to a local election hustings. This was a mistake.
The candidates from the mainstream parties seemed to be straight out of tranzi central casting – one of them, Vince Cable, is even a Cabinet Minister. To a man, woman, being of indeterminate sex they thought the EU and the UN were a good thing, that climate change was real and that Israel was to blame for the conflict in the Middle East. That last one brought the loudest cheer of the evening. One even claimed that Israel wasn’t a democracy. Two of them still managed to find merit in the Greenham Common protests.
I had been hoping for better from the UKIP guy. But no. Other than getting the UK out of the EU he was just the same even accepting climate change which he thought was due to overpopulation. This was especially disappointing given that his predecessor once stood on a manifesto calling for Britain to leave the EU and UN, and abolish the NHS and state education.
Just in case you were wondering, this nonsensical consensus (Mark Steyn uses the wonderful term “lunatic mainstream”) was not on display in a down-trodden, poverty-stricken part of the world where you might expect idiotic ideas to reign. It was in a prosperous, peaceful London suburb with a highly-educated population. Hey, it even has a phantom framer.
The economic collapse that at some point will engulf us all scares the living daylights out of me. But at the same time it seems to be the only way these delusional ideas are ever going to get swept away.
Agreed Patrick.
At least some of the candidates round here are not the crazy types you describe where you live – you have my sympathy.
As for collapse being the only way of flushing away the “lunatic mainstream” – in Britain I think you are correct.
Although I fear that even collapse would not flush them away.
They would just blame the collapse on “the rich” (the “capitalists”) and “big business”.
After all that is what the education system and the media have taught them to think.
As a kid in the late 70s and coming of age in the 80s I have had the opportunity to watch the decline of western civilization, and no I am not talking about the documentary on the punk rock movement in the U.S.
As a child my family used to have lunch on the beach and as part of the journey we had to walk past a homeless encampment where I would often overhear the strangest conversations. They were nothing more than sound bites as we never stopped or engaged these people. I learned much of the problem was these people had used drugs excessively and as a result they were on a permanent vacation from reality. I bring this up because if I had taken those people and had them fitted for suits they would look and sound much like today’s politicians. I am not saying all of today’s politicians are people how have cooked off too many brain cells due to excessive recreational drug use, though I wish I were as it would make far more sense. What I am saying is most politicians have little more sense that someone who has cooked off far too many brain cells due to excessive drug use.
Comedian Denis Miller identified the problem almost 20 years ago.
http://youtu.be/uhHiPaJB1_0
On the contrary, that is *exactly* where I would expect such idiotic ideas to prevail. In the poverty-stricken areas they’re too busy trying to survive.
>it seems to be the only way these delusional ideas are ever going to get swept away.
Even then they won’t get swept away, they’ll just go into temporary abeyance.
The only way to keep other people’s hands off your money is eventually going to have to involve physically preventing them (in some way) from doing so.
The main source of most of western crap lies in the well educated suburbs, wait a minute, is there a well educated suburb anywhere.
From this safe distance it seems England (as part of UK) suffers from political flatulence, induced by adhering to its media (BBC, Guardian, Economist, etc.) diet without available Beano.
We here should lend some bottles, but we are going to need all we have here at home.
A sidebar question: Karl, how did you manage to insert that Youtube clip into the comments box?
@ Barry Sheridan yes there are well educated people in the suburbs, I do not know about The UK but here in Texas we have numerous homeschooled children. Many communities form groups and meet weekly. Some of our homeschool groups even have athletic teams and compete with the regular government run indoctrination centers.
@Laird you select the link button and insert the hyperlink. However in this case it was more of a mistake as I tried to remove the embedded link and just post a link but somehow it posted.
On the contrary, it sounds like it was the right thing to do. The mistake would have been to stick your head in the sand.
Following up on Tim Newman above, there is some supporting evidence for his claim.
The ADL global survey of antisemitism shows that the UK is one of the least antisemitic countries in the world: 97th out of 102. (USA is joint 95th.)
So where does this animus against Israel come from? could it be because it is a “prosperous, peaceful London suburb with a highly-educated [sic] population”?
I agree with R Richard Schweitzer, the educated classes in this country have a regrettable lack of skepticism when it comes to what they see/hear/read in the media.
Indeed Patrick, it can be a very lonely experience being libertarian in these parts (I live very near in St. Margarets).
The UKIP guy I have known for a good few years and it is worse than you think. He told me once that he thought the world will run out of oxygen (I wish he would); that you could still go to the BofE and exchange a £10 note for 10lbs of gold! and that he would stand for any party that would give him a platform – unfortunately most did until they wised up.
More recently on https://twickerati.wordpress.com/ he has reported to the police another commentator for accusing him of being a landscape gardener – which has since reached the pages of ‘Private Eye’.
Thinking of going to the next hustings on the 22nd at the United Reform Church. If you could stand going to another one – I will look out for you.
It is the educated classes that do Revolutions. The educated classes birthed Communism. Educated classes voted Hitler.
Education is overrated.
@nemesis, your UKIP guy was even more wrong than you thought, since the BoE should’ve exchanged his tenner for ten Tower pounds of sterling silver (hence “Pound Sterling”). The gold sovereign was originally minted so it would have enough gold to be worth a pound troy of sterling silver (Tower pounds being obsolete by then). Bimetallism in action 🙂
Barry:
You can resolve the issue by making a distinction between “well educated” and “well credentialed.”
I’m not a subscriber to the imminent economic collapse idea. I think the parasite (tranzi-ism) will always evolve to not quite kill the host (quasi free-market civil society). In that way it’s more dangerous than other, more overtly totalitarian philosophies.