A people's manifesto
Here's news, I don't know everything (shocker). In an ideal world, this will be conducted at a rally or in a lecture theatre that will be all about interaction. Delving into people's thoughts and learning from their lives to build a comprehensive picture of what Britain looks like. Then using this to shape our society and politics.
In an ideal world, this will be published and sit alongside Noam Chomsky in your local Waterstones. But that would mean cutting down trees, using chemicals and polluting our planet for the production and distribution of paper, ink and printing. This will ultimately feed the corporate machine designed to screw you over for profits. And I don't want that.
In an ideal world, this will become a series of podcasts that will invite subject matter experts and influencers to discuss revolution. And a website to become an exchange of ideas and debate. But the only tool I have available is this blog. The only influence I have is over what I'm having for dinner and the only real knowledge I have is rudimentary. What I do know though is that it feels like the world is on the brink of a meltdown. Staring into a third world war abyss.
There is civil unrest across most of Asia, the Mediterranean, Middle East, South America... I was going to list it all, but it would be easier to list the countries that didn't have civil unrest like the Cook Islands and the Tuvalu. Even (albeit passively) in our little Blighty. In the words of Scorpion, the winds of change are blowing and I want to outline my manifesto for what I think needs to happen.
Just like Thomas Paine, I'm picking up a metaphorical pen to write to masses in plain English in the hope that someone is listening. This is my battle cry.
Over the counter culture
1. Intellectual revolution
Please don't judge me on using an Ordinary Boys album title. Basically, it illustrates what I want to say so eloquently. Our culture is so disposable, dumbed down and off the shelf, that there's no longer a counter-culture. Another title I toyed with was the title of one of my favourite documentaries, Century of Self by Adam Curtis. This documentary talks about how the Freud's, particularly Sigmund and his nephew Edward Bernays. All these people tie into a revolution that I'm hoping for but in no way qualified to start.
Jean Paul Sartre was all about being a public intellectual. He pretty much the rock star philosopher and he was catalyst for movements like the Red Army Faction (RAF) and other Marxist revolutionaries like Che Guevara. Together with his band of intellectuals the likes of Simone de Beauvoir. Michel Foucault and Albert Camus, he helped change the world through thought, courage and most importantly, publicity. And the Freud's are also public intellectuals from the 19th Century. Sigmund drank in the same Viennese cafe as Lenin (and I hope Schiele). As well as having an impressive list of clients and a colourful life (seriously read up on him, I have no idea why a cameo filled movie hasn't been made about it), he also invented psychoanalysis that changed everything. Then there's Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Carl Jung, etc. all came from the same era.
Then there was the Beat Generation, where William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Karouac just used to hang out, listen to jazz and protest about the consumerism, centralisation and standardisation of the mainstream. A group of intellectuals with bohemian and Dionysian values that Epicurus himself would be proud of. I've not even mentioned the Bloomsbury Set or Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. A group of intellectuals who influenced the world through art and cerebral pursuits, by simply changing the way we think and fundamentally, our culture.
Now, we only have Noam Chomsky and Richard Dawkins to do our thinking. And let's face it, the former isn't the most charismatic of speakers and the latter has a bad case of 'foot in mouth' disease. We need a group of rock star thinkers to be our role models to inspire us into changing the world. And to make it cool to be clever.
We now live in an era where intelligent people like David Cameron and Boris Johnson dumb themselves down in order to be one of us and celebrities pretend to be intelligent because sycophants and the media give them an inflated sense of self. I'm not saying this is bad. There are many super intelligent celebrities, but most of them don't put this to good use. Celebrities are the new politicians So we know that politics is showbiz for ugly people. However, I believe celebrities are the new politicians. And we need them to be our representatives and use their fame to gain awareness and drive change.
In my humble opinion, there a few key players who are intellectual and proud. Arise Stewart Lee, Chris Morris, Adam Curtis, David Mitchell, Stephen Fry, Charlie Brooker, Will Self, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Russell Brand, Dr James Fox, Alastair Sooke, Simon Reeve, Mary Beard and Germaine Greer. However, there are others who are clearly extremely intelligent, but you wouldn't know it by their body of work or public appearances, step forward Tom Hiddleston and Kate Beckinsale. While others fain intellectualism like James Franco and Keira Knightly who talk in nothing but hyperbolic nonsense. I guess what I'm really getting at is that we need to curb all this attention seeking via flesh flashing, 'sources say' rumours, clever publicists, gratuitous exhibitionism of wealth and turning yourself into a commodity. We need a new breed of celebrity that are just happy being themselves, being grounded and being proud about it.
A lot is said about the Oxbridge set and people that go to public schools. How these institutions are elitist. Well, you know what, read up on social Darwinism. There's a reason why people for my school and uni won't ever run the country or head up a conglomerate. We're the working classes because that's how our genes made us. That's why there are acting dynasties, political dynasties, royal dynasties, military families, scientific families. Just look at the Moseley's or the Kennedy's. Your talent and ability to achieve is down to your family. All this talk of republic and abolition of the House of Lords flies in the face of what Charles Darwin said. Yes the Queen was born into privilege, but this is nothing to be ashamed of. Her family has been directly responsible for building an empire that ruled the whole world for 600 years and shaped the modern world, for the industrial revolution, for arts and architecture and for giving GB a bit of prestige. She's the best person to rule, it's in her genes.
We not only need people who are actually intellectual to use their art as a vehicle to drive philosophical theory, political agenda and cultural change. It's up to the chosen few who are up to the job to take the bull by the horns and make a real difference to the world, instead of just Instagraming pictures of their arses, organising paparazzi to follow them and shameless self-publicity at every opportunity. Sorry Leo and George (Clooney), but protests and speeches at conferences just doesn't cut it.
My heroes are Mohammed Ali for his tenacity and principles, Francis Bacon for his ability to see the dark and make it beautiful, Rosa Parks for her courage, Thom Yorke for doing it his way, Tony Benn for his fairness and fight, Jack Kerouac for his spirituality, Joe Strummer for telling it how it is, Aung San Suu Kyi for her inspiration. What do all these people have in common? They're all principled and true to themselves. And they use their art or presence for cerebral and revolutionary purposes. They tore up the rule book and did it their way. Basically, what I'm trying to say is articulated by another cerebral famous person, Jarvis Cocker.
A new democracy
2. Reclaiming the media
Media rules. No seriously, it literally rules. It’s more powerful than Obama. No, really! Obama is media’s bitch. I bet you can name every single Kardashian, yet have no clue who is in charge of throwing taxpayer funded bombs on innocent people in the Middle-East. You can probably recite every nuance of an EastEnders’ storyline, yet don’t really understand what the Maastricht Treaty is. The press has a unique way of manipulating us. We look upon propaganda with a tear of nostalgia, but it's still happening.
We're constantly bombarded by words and images that are designed to make you think a certain way. It's how we're controlled. Read The Prince by Machiavelli and you'll see that we're not free. Not by any stretch of the imagination. And the thing that keeps this smokescreen going is the media. Through clever marketing and journalism, you're led to believe that you're free to choose and live by your own rules.
The reality is that your social mobility is controlled by the government ability to dumb down education in comprehensive schools and to create as many barriers to a university education and personal prosperity. All they have to do is introduce a dog tax and just like the Sheriff of Nottingham, they'll be bleeding you dry until all you have is the mud that's ultimately owned by them.
Thinkers throughout the ages (and genius 60s show The Prisoner) have placed importance on individualism. It's the most precious gift that's bestowed on every single one of us. However, we're not treated as individuals; consumerism, corporations, economics and politics, all driven by the media has turned us into a homogenised society. As mentioned above, every culture has a counter-culture - this is a good thing. However, the press and media in general will counter act any counter culture that threatens to disrupt the status quo.
TfL led by union hero Bob Crow went on strike because of job losses and pay, the press had a field day about how these selfish, greedy people disrupted the lives of London's bourgeois and oligarchs from buying their quinoa or attending a socialite party in their cars by pushing hoi polloi commuters out of the underground and into the daylight. A strike is supposed to be disruptive. How do you get what you want? By showing your power. Don't pay us, we don't work, you don't make money. See, it's simple.
I've become so suspicious of everything the media does, that I rarely believe a word of it. There are rumours that Beyonce has never been pregnant. This comes from the fact that there are very few photos of her with a bump. She made an entire documentary over the period of her pregnancy without showing us her actual pregnancy. She addressed these rumours by producing very posed, yet grainy and soft focussed photos. So, pictures of her in a yacht are 40 megapixels sharp, yet photos of her holding her new baby looks like it was taken through an old plastic bag. I can't tell you how many celebrity relationships have 'yeah, right' smacked all over it. And every interview is clearly contrived to change or affirm your opinion and perception of that 'brand'. Spin is the thing.
Apart from there's so much noise that we see through it. It's transparent. Just read what the morons of society write on the Daily Mail website. Even they see through and mistrust spin. However, it's powerful and ubiquitous; it's the most powerful weapon we have to affect change. So if we decide that we're not interested in Rihanna any more, the media will stop publishing stuff about her. If we decide that we don't like Kate Middleton any more, the media will launch a witch hunt and publicly lambaste her. If Emma Watson was to appear in a critically acclaimed Oscar winning movie about Karaman's House in Serbia, the media will unwittingly create awareness that will bring about justice for the forgotten women of war. If Adele Exarchopoulos was to star in a movie about the Cyprus 1974 invasion that was to bring the conspiracies of Western foreign policy and how it uses and divides countries for its own political gain, this might educate an apathetic public into demanding that our lives are not ruled by a handful of white, power hungry, bourgeois men but by a system that's representative of us and our lives. And this is how we make change happen. Without knowing it, we control the media as they only publish what we demand. It's the new democracy. They ultimately want the most sales or hits. To do this, they must run stories that people want to read. And since celebrities are the new politicians, it's up to them to not only use their art and fame to drive progressive thinking, but also to make sure that it get the most amount of publicity. For this we need the media. The more we demand it, the more they'll print it. The more they print it, the more pressure is put upon key figures to change.
Traditional terrorism (like the one that brought down apartheid in South Africa and independence to India) is dead. Islamic State aren't going to get what they, firstly because religious government is ludicrous and their version of Islam is an insult to Mohammed, but killing people and blowing things up just incites more violence and anger. This then becomes a vicious circle of bloodshed and misery. Nobody wins. I propose a new type of terrorism, one that doesn't have a human cost and one that will actually affect change. Through the media.
The angry mob
3. People power
Remember the 70s? No, me either. I was a mere twinkle in my father’s eye (eww). This was the decade, since WWII, of true change and social reform. Germaine Greer told women to burn their bras and embraces their sexuality. Baader Meinhof fought against foreign aggression in Vietnam. Carlos the Jackyll reign of terror for injustices in the Middle East was in full force. And let’s not forget the UK’s winter of discontent. Students took to the streets. Workers went on strike. And intellectuals set up factions to fight against tyranny.
These truly were the glory days of revolution. Since then, we’ve all got greedy and selfish. We’re too busy consuming to care about the fact that we, as a people, are being constantly raped by corporations and the government. We don’t care about the injustices we inflict on others. And we sure as hell couldn’t give two hoots about what’s going on in other countries. If you put down your iPhone long enough, you’ll see a world full of misery and injustice – inflicted onto you too! I believe in freedom, justice and fairness.
I fight against tyranny, both domestic and international, clandestine and overt, political, environmental, religious, corporate and cultural oppression of the innocent, defenceless and the different. We should be angry, we're modern day slaves. We're slaves to the system.
I can't begin to tell you how against the New World Order I am. A few white, wealthy, greedy men ruling over the majority that they do not represent or care about. Who would rule over them to ensure they were acting ethically? They would be raping the planet and its people for money and power. It's happening right now on a smaller scale in your own country and on a larger scale by NATO and globalism. Can you imagine what would happen to us if all this was in the hands of a couple of men with delusions of grandeur? We need people to be more active in politics. This isn't going to happen with using D:Ream as a soundtrack. It's done thought education about what actually makes this country tick. And to do that you must watch this.
You'll find out about Smedley Butler who started wars just to boost profits for the corporations. These corporations are killing our planet, killing our culture and killing our brain-cells. They put profits before people and have a stranglehold over every single government. The fact that this is allowed is disgraceful. It means that it doesn't matter who we vote in, they will still be told what to do and led by corporations.
Organisations like Occupy and Anonymous are brilliant for raising these issues, but the angry mob needs to do more. Only by highlighting how the system is screwing us will this incite action.
Bless me father
4. Abolition of organised religion
I’ll let into a little secret. Nowhere in the Bible does it say anything about ornate decoration, incense or candles. Yet we still dutifully go to church, light candles, make the sign of the cross and clasp our hands in prayer while being surrounded by chanting, dress-wearing priests and hating ourselves for masturbating. Guess what? Jesus doesn’t like all this stuff. He was the humble son of a carpenter. He lived in poverty and oppression. He was the liberator of the Jews. I don’t think he’d like the fact that the church has been so steeped in ritual and superstition. And I know he’d be furious about the amount of money that is made and spent for ‘worship’.
So called ‘believers’, like those of the Westboro Baptist Church, base their beliefs on scripture that was cherry-picked, translated and basterdised by the central powers of the time. They interpreted it in a way so they can control you. Don’t enjoy sex, don’t be gay, don’t use contraception, don’t have fun. Do you know what? There’s no mention of contraception in Bible because it hadn’t been invented yet. So how can God be upset about it. Also, if He didn’t approve of contraception, he wouldn’t have given the ability to many people to invent it. If life without vaccines and contraception is God’s will. Then surely inventing the things are God’s will, so you’re going against what he wants by rejecting it. Just saying.
Government should ALWAYS be secular. As government needs to be inclusive of a growing cosmopolitan and free world. ISIS wanting a caliphate is detrimental to the evolution and progression of their country and people. This is essentially what religion has become. It used to be (in a non-scientific or technological world) a way of answering existential questions and a way of controlling us.
Now we have doctors to frighten us into submission. We shouldn't be looking to religious house to forgive us for perceived sins; we don't need all the ritual. What we need is spiritual enlightenment and guidance. We need to learn from the wisdom and teachings of Jesus and Mohammed, just as we do with Trotsky or Stephen Hawkings. Religion has no place in a church or a temple, it should be in schools.
Ballot b(oll)ox
6. A representative and fair government
Our system is corrupt. Our system is dated and our system doesn't work for you. It's ruled by huge multi-national companies. In Politics by Aristotle, he said that the few should work for the interest of the many. That's how the polis works. This doesn't happen anymore. The few are working for the few to line their pockets.
Our government isn't representative of the people. It works for corporates to pass legislation and get money to benefit the party. There are 8 million people who are working poor. There are 1.4 million people living in poverty. We are a product of Thatcher's Britain, the poor are always paying for the rich. The system rips them off via taxes, banking fees, etc. Poor people pay penalties for not having any money, which makes them poorer. The poor people are the massive majority, not just in the UK but in the world and yet it is them that always lose. The few are not working for the many.
I recently watched The Hunger Games expecting to hate it. What I saw a dystopian representation of what's happening right now. We're dumbed down and distracted by reality TV so we don't rebel against a system that makes us work like dogs for the system and get less than nothing in return. How this oppression turns us into a rebellion hell bent on bringing down and system, but the system makes us lose hope so the poor will never ultimately win.
This is the system we have in place today. Wars are waged to line the pockets of the few, but it's paid for by us, the taxpayer. This has to change. We need reform. Leaders, subject matter experts and representatives from every section of society should be headhunted to be in government. The Bank of England needs to be answerable to the government. And corporations, fund and money should be stripped out of politics. And we needed Tony Benn to rule us, but history teaches us that the establishment won't let this happen. Which is why we need change.
Published on 27/09/2014
In an ideal world, this will be published and sit alongside Noam Chomsky in your local Waterstones. But that would mean cutting down trees, using chemicals and polluting our planet for the production and distribution of paper, ink and printing. This will ultimately feed the corporate machine designed to screw you over for profits. And I don't want that.
In an ideal world, this will become a series of podcasts that will invite subject matter experts and influencers to discuss revolution. And a website to become an exchange of ideas and debate. But the only tool I have available is this blog. The only influence I have is over what I'm having for dinner and the only real knowledge I have is rudimentary. What I do know though is that it feels like the world is on the brink of a meltdown. Staring into a third world war abyss.
There is civil unrest across most of Asia, the Mediterranean, Middle East, South America... I was going to list it all, but it would be easier to list the countries that didn't have civil unrest like the Cook Islands and the Tuvalu. Even (albeit passively) in our little Blighty. In the words of Scorpion, the winds of change are blowing and I want to outline my manifesto for what I think needs to happen.
Just like Thomas Paine, I'm picking up a metaphorical pen to write to masses in plain English in the hope that someone is listening. This is my battle cry.
Over the counter culture
1. Intellectual revolution
Please don't judge me on using an Ordinary Boys album title. Basically, it illustrates what I want to say so eloquently. Our culture is so disposable, dumbed down and off the shelf, that there's no longer a counter-culture. Another title I toyed with was the title of one of my favourite documentaries, Century of Self by Adam Curtis. This documentary talks about how the Freud's, particularly Sigmund and his nephew Edward Bernays. All these people tie into a revolution that I'm hoping for but in no way qualified to start.
Jean Paul Sartre was all about being a public intellectual. He pretty much the rock star philosopher and he was catalyst for movements like the Red Army Faction (RAF) and other Marxist revolutionaries like Che Guevara. Together with his band of intellectuals the likes of Simone de Beauvoir. Michel Foucault and Albert Camus, he helped change the world through thought, courage and most importantly, publicity. And the Freud's are also public intellectuals from the 19th Century. Sigmund drank in the same Viennese cafe as Lenin (and I hope Schiele). As well as having an impressive list of clients and a colourful life (seriously read up on him, I have no idea why a cameo filled movie hasn't been made about it), he also invented psychoanalysis that changed everything. Then there's Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Carl Jung, etc. all came from the same era.
Then there was the Beat Generation, where William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Karouac just used to hang out, listen to jazz and protest about the consumerism, centralisation and standardisation of the mainstream. A group of intellectuals with bohemian and Dionysian values that Epicurus himself would be proud of. I've not even mentioned the Bloomsbury Set or Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. A group of intellectuals who influenced the world through art and cerebral pursuits, by simply changing the way we think and fundamentally, our culture.
Now, we only have Noam Chomsky and Richard Dawkins to do our thinking. And let's face it, the former isn't the most charismatic of speakers and the latter has a bad case of 'foot in mouth' disease. We need a group of rock star thinkers to be our role models to inspire us into changing the world. And to make it cool to be clever.
We now live in an era where intelligent people like David Cameron and Boris Johnson dumb themselves down in order to be one of us and celebrities pretend to be intelligent because sycophants and the media give them an inflated sense of self. I'm not saying this is bad. There are many super intelligent celebrities, but most of them don't put this to good use. Celebrities are the new politicians So we know that politics is showbiz for ugly people. However, I believe celebrities are the new politicians. And we need them to be our representatives and use their fame to gain awareness and drive change.
In my humble opinion, there a few key players who are intellectual and proud. Arise Stewart Lee, Chris Morris, Adam Curtis, David Mitchell, Stephen Fry, Charlie Brooker, Will Self, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Russell Brand, Dr James Fox, Alastair Sooke, Simon Reeve, Mary Beard and Germaine Greer. However, there are others who are clearly extremely intelligent, but you wouldn't know it by their body of work or public appearances, step forward Tom Hiddleston and Kate Beckinsale. While others fain intellectualism like James Franco and Keira Knightly who talk in nothing but hyperbolic nonsense. I guess what I'm really getting at is that we need to curb all this attention seeking via flesh flashing, 'sources say' rumours, clever publicists, gratuitous exhibitionism of wealth and turning yourself into a commodity. We need a new breed of celebrity that are just happy being themselves, being grounded and being proud about it.
A lot is said about the Oxbridge set and people that go to public schools. How these institutions are elitist. Well, you know what, read up on social Darwinism. There's a reason why people for my school and uni won't ever run the country or head up a conglomerate. We're the working classes because that's how our genes made us. That's why there are acting dynasties, political dynasties, royal dynasties, military families, scientific families. Just look at the Moseley's or the Kennedy's. Your talent and ability to achieve is down to your family. All this talk of republic and abolition of the House of Lords flies in the face of what Charles Darwin said. Yes the Queen was born into privilege, but this is nothing to be ashamed of. Her family has been directly responsible for building an empire that ruled the whole world for 600 years and shaped the modern world, for the industrial revolution, for arts and architecture and for giving GB a bit of prestige. She's the best person to rule, it's in her genes.
We not only need people who are actually intellectual to use their art as a vehicle to drive philosophical theory, political agenda and cultural change. It's up to the chosen few who are up to the job to take the bull by the horns and make a real difference to the world, instead of just Instagraming pictures of their arses, organising paparazzi to follow them and shameless self-publicity at every opportunity. Sorry Leo and George (Clooney), but protests and speeches at conferences just doesn't cut it.
My heroes are Mohammed Ali for his tenacity and principles, Francis Bacon for his ability to see the dark and make it beautiful, Rosa Parks for her courage, Thom Yorke for doing it his way, Tony Benn for his fairness and fight, Jack Kerouac for his spirituality, Joe Strummer for telling it how it is, Aung San Suu Kyi for her inspiration. What do all these people have in common? They're all principled and true to themselves. And they use their art or presence for cerebral and revolutionary purposes. They tore up the rule book and did it their way. Basically, what I'm trying to say is articulated by another cerebral famous person, Jarvis Cocker.
A new democracy
2. Reclaiming the media
Media rules. No seriously, it literally rules. It’s more powerful than Obama. No, really! Obama is media’s bitch. I bet you can name every single Kardashian, yet have no clue who is in charge of throwing taxpayer funded bombs on innocent people in the Middle-East. You can probably recite every nuance of an EastEnders’ storyline, yet don’t really understand what the Maastricht Treaty is. The press has a unique way of manipulating us. We look upon propaganda with a tear of nostalgia, but it's still happening.
We're constantly bombarded by words and images that are designed to make you think a certain way. It's how we're controlled. Read The Prince by Machiavelli and you'll see that we're not free. Not by any stretch of the imagination. And the thing that keeps this smokescreen going is the media. Through clever marketing and journalism, you're led to believe that you're free to choose and live by your own rules.
The reality is that your social mobility is controlled by the government ability to dumb down education in comprehensive schools and to create as many barriers to a university education and personal prosperity. All they have to do is introduce a dog tax and just like the Sheriff of Nottingham, they'll be bleeding you dry until all you have is the mud that's ultimately owned by them.
Thinkers throughout the ages (and genius 60s show The Prisoner) have placed importance on individualism. It's the most precious gift that's bestowed on every single one of us. However, we're not treated as individuals; consumerism, corporations, economics and politics, all driven by the media has turned us into a homogenised society. As mentioned above, every culture has a counter-culture - this is a good thing. However, the press and media in general will counter act any counter culture that threatens to disrupt the status quo.
TfL led by union hero Bob Crow went on strike because of job losses and pay, the press had a field day about how these selfish, greedy people disrupted the lives of London's bourgeois and oligarchs from buying their quinoa or attending a socialite party in their cars by pushing hoi polloi commuters out of the underground and into the daylight. A strike is supposed to be disruptive. How do you get what you want? By showing your power. Don't pay us, we don't work, you don't make money. See, it's simple.
I've become so suspicious of everything the media does, that I rarely believe a word of it. There are rumours that Beyonce has never been pregnant. This comes from the fact that there are very few photos of her with a bump. She made an entire documentary over the period of her pregnancy without showing us her actual pregnancy. She addressed these rumours by producing very posed, yet grainy and soft focussed photos. So, pictures of her in a yacht are 40 megapixels sharp, yet photos of her holding her new baby looks like it was taken through an old plastic bag. I can't tell you how many celebrity relationships have 'yeah, right' smacked all over it. And every interview is clearly contrived to change or affirm your opinion and perception of that 'brand'. Spin is the thing.
Apart from there's so much noise that we see through it. It's transparent. Just read what the morons of society write on the Daily Mail website. Even they see through and mistrust spin. However, it's powerful and ubiquitous; it's the most powerful weapon we have to affect change. So if we decide that we're not interested in Rihanna any more, the media will stop publishing stuff about her. If we decide that we don't like Kate Middleton any more, the media will launch a witch hunt and publicly lambaste her. If Emma Watson was to appear in a critically acclaimed Oscar winning movie about Karaman's House in Serbia, the media will unwittingly create awareness that will bring about justice for the forgotten women of war. If Adele Exarchopoulos was to star in a movie about the Cyprus 1974 invasion that was to bring the conspiracies of Western foreign policy and how it uses and divides countries for its own political gain, this might educate an apathetic public into demanding that our lives are not ruled by a handful of white, power hungry, bourgeois men but by a system that's representative of us and our lives. And this is how we make change happen. Without knowing it, we control the media as they only publish what we demand. It's the new democracy. They ultimately want the most sales or hits. To do this, they must run stories that people want to read. And since celebrities are the new politicians, it's up to them to not only use their art and fame to drive progressive thinking, but also to make sure that it get the most amount of publicity. For this we need the media. The more we demand it, the more they'll print it. The more they print it, the more pressure is put upon key figures to change.
Traditional terrorism (like the one that brought down apartheid in South Africa and independence to India) is dead. Islamic State aren't going to get what they, firstly because religious government is ludicrous and their version of Islam is an insult to Mohammed, but killing people and blowing things up just incites more violence and anger. This then becomes a vicious circle of bloodshed and misery. Nobody wins. I propose a new type of terrorism, one that doesn't have a human cost and one that will actually affect change. Through the media.
The angry mob
3. People power
Remember the 70s? No, me either. I was a mere twinkle in my father’s eye (eww). This was the decade, since WWII, of true change and social reform. Germaine Greer told women to burn their bras and embraces their sexuality. Baader Meinhof fought against foreign aggression in Vietnam. Carlos the Jackyll reign of terror for injustices in the Middle East was in full force. And let’s not forget the UK’s winter of discontent. Students took to the streets. Workers went on strike. And intellectuals set up factions to fight against tyranny.
"Sense of being robbed from political justice leads men to fury and violence"
William E Gladstone
These truly were the glory days of revolution. Since then, we’ve all got greedy and selfish. We’re too busy consuming to care about the fact that we, as a people, are being constantly raped by corporations and the government. We don’t care about the injustices we inflict on others. And we sure as hell couldn’t give two hoots about what’s going on in other countries. If you put down your iPhone long enough, you’ll see a world full of misery and injustice – inflicted onto you too! I believe in freedom, justice and fairness.
I fight against tyranny, both domestic and international, clandestine and overt, political, environmental, religious, corporate and cultural oppression of the innocent, defenceless and the different. We should be angry, we're modern day slaves. We're slaves to the system.
"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out the most extreme liberty."
Plato
I can't begin to tell you how against the New World Order I am. A few white, wealthy, greedy men ruling over the majority that they do not represent or care about. Who would rule over them to ensure they were acting ethically? They would be raping the planet and its people for money and power. It's happening right now on a smaller scale in your own country and on a larger scale by NATO and globalism. Can you imagine what would happen to us if all this was in the hands of a couple of men with delusions of grandeur? We need people to be more active in politics. This isn't going to happen with using D:Ream as a soundtrack. It's done thought education about what actually makes this country tick. And to do that you must watch this.
You'll find out about Smedley Butler who started wars just to boost profits for the corporations. These corporations are killing our planet, killing our culture and killing our brain-cells. They put profits before people and have a stranglehold over every single government. The fact that this is allowed is disgraceful. It means that it doesn't matter who we vote in, they will still be told what to do and led by corporations.
Organisations like Occupy and Anonymous are brilliant for raising these issues, but the angry mob needs to do more. Only by highlighting how the system is screwing us will this incite action.
Bless me father
4. Abolition of organised religion
I’ll let into a little secret. Nowhere in the Bible does it say anything about ornate decoration, incense or candles. Yet we still dutifully go to church, light candles, make the sign of the cross and clasp our hands in prayer while being surrounded by chanting, dress-wearing priests and hating ourselves for masturbating. Guess what? Jesus doesn’t like all this stuff. He was the humble son of a carpenter. He lived in poverty and oppression. He was the liberator of the Jews. I don’t think he’d like the fact that the church has been so steeped in ritual and superstition. And I know he’d be furious about the amount of money that is made and spent for ‘worship’.
So called ‘believers’, like those of the Westboro Baptist Church, base their beliefs on scripture that was cherry-picked, translated and basterdised by the central powers of the time. They interpreted it in a way so they can control you. Don’t enjoy sex, don’t be gay, don’t use contraception, don’t have fun. Do you know what? There’s no mention of contraception in Bible because it hadn’t been invented yet. So how can God be upset about it. Also, if He didn’t approve of contraception, he wouldn’t have given the ability to many people to invent it. If life without vaccines and contraception is God’s will. Then surely inventing the things are God’s will, so you’re going against what he wants by rejecting it. Just saying.
"All things are subject to interpretation; whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth."
Friedrich Nietzsche
Government should ALWAYS be secular. As government needs to be inclusive of a growing cosmopolitan and free world. ISIS wanting a caliphate is detrimental to the evolution and progression of their country and people. This is essentially what religion has become. It used to be (in a non-scientific or technological world) a way of answering existential questions and a way of controlling us.
Now we have doctors to frighten us into submission. We shouldn't be looking to religious house to forgive us for perceived sins; we don't need all the ritual. What we need is spiritual enlightenment and guidance. We need to learn from the wisdom and teachings of Jesus and Mohammed, just as we do with Trotsky or Stephen Hawkings. Religion has no place in a church or a temple, it should be in schools.
Ballot b(oll)ox
6. A representative and fair government
Our system is corrupt. Our system is dated and our system doesn't work for you. It's ruled by huge multi-national companies. In Politics by Aristotle, he said that the few should work for the interest of the many. That's how the polis works. This doesn't happen anymore. The few are working for the few to line their pockets.
Our government isn't representative of the people. It works for corporates to pass legislation and get money to benefit the party. There are 8 million people who are working poor. There are 1.4 million people living in poverty. We are a product of Thatcher's Britain, the poor are always paying for the rich. The system rips them off via taxes, banking fees, etc. Poor people pay penalties for not having any money, which makes them poorer. The poor people are the massive majority, not just in the UK but in the world and yet it is them that always lose. The few are not working for the many.
I recently watched The Hunger Games expecting to hate it. What I saw a dystopian representation of what's happening right now. We're dumbed down and distracted by reality TV so we don't rebel against a system that makes us work like dogs for the system and get less than nothing in return. How this oppression turns us into a rebellion hell bent on bringing down and system, but the system makes us lose hope so the poor will never ultimately win.
This is the system we have in place today. Wars are waged to line the pockets of the few, but it's paid for by us, the taxpayer. This has to change. We need reform. Leaders, subject matter experts and representatives from every section of society should be headhunted to be in government. The Bank of England needs to be answerable to the government. And corporations, fund and money should be stripped out of politics. And we needed Tony Benn to rule us, but history teaches us that the establishment won't let this happen. Which is why we need change.
Published on 27/09/2014
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