Numerous journalists, myself included, have done enough realtime anthropology with the smalltown racist pensioner to understand: it is modernity they dislike, and the freedom that comes with it. And we cannot let it go.The arrogance of these old farts, daring to refuse your kind offer to flood their towns with new 'Europeans' and send yet more money to Brussels to tell them how racist and out of touch they are!
What do you suggest, Paul?
At the centre of the fightback has to be a break with neoliberal economics. Raise wages, end job insecurity, build homes and, before you do any of it, promise all of it loudly. You’d think it would be a no-brainer – until you remember how much energy Labour politicians and commentators poured into opposing such policies over the summer. But there’s more. Fromm explained the failure of the German centre-left to resist Hitler in terms of “a state of inner tiredness and resignation”. They no longer believed in their own leaders, their own ideology: “deep within themselves many had given up any hope in the effectiveness of political action”.Yup, keep banging that drum. It'll have to work sometime, right, Paul?
Right..?
'...the smalltown racist pensioner'
ReplyDeleteSo much nastiness in one short phrase!
Mason a journalist? Who knew?
ReplyDeleteRaise wages, end job insecurity, build homes and, before you do any of it, promise all of it loudly.
ReplyDeleteHe might get on well with President-elect Trump
It is strange how words like liberal can be used to mean something other than that defined in a dictionary. Add neo to it and you can use it like an insult. Paul Mason no doubt views himself as a liberal. I view him as a progressive of the fascist(contrary to popular believe an extreme left wing ideology) type. Liberal(the new modern day) in his parlance. A label that the left find agreeable and nearly all embrace when they should accept it as being an insult of the highest magnitude. For them liberal and progressive are interchangeable. There is nothing further from the truth.
ReplyDeleteI am O.A.P and I am nothing like what he describes. I am a progressive of the libertarian kind. To be found on the right of the political spectrum, although a few of the opposite type do dwell there as well. So by my dictionary that makes me a classical liberal. I therefore reserve the right to question, reserve doubts and express them so as to arrive at the truth and thereby design balanced practical and ethical methods that are appropriate to deal with a constantly changing world.
When it comes to changing demographics which especially on the scale it is currently happening then I seek answers as to the best way to deal with it that is in everyone's best interests. If that means that legitimate concerns and non partisan enquiry is seen as being racist then so be it. However the untruth of that description can be ascertained by observing the Paul Masons of this world's rhetoric and actions all designed to silence and suppress. Which can only lead to the conclusion that the true bigots and the intolerant are not us but them.
'Fromm explained the failure of the German centre-left to resist Hitler in terms of “a state of inner tiredness and resignation”.'
ReplyDeleteThe failure of the German left to resist Hitler had a lot to do with their failure to use their militas (Freikorps) to resist Bolshevik attempts to take German territory in the east. They left that job to the right wing Freikorps and wrecked their own credibility with the majority of patriotic Germans.
In that context, it wasn't difficult for the Nazis to associate themselves with right wing groups such as the Sturm Abteilung and sweep the lefties from the streets by means of violence. A violence which most Germans were willing to go along with.
Yeah, solve freedom hating oldies by denying them freedom. That will work, eh? Mason is a nasty piece of work. The only bigots I see are the creatures lurking in the pages of the Grauniad.
ReplyDeleteFOrget Mason's ranting about funding old people's services; it's more funding for mental health institutions we need to cope with people like Paul Mason.
ReplyDelete"So much nastiness in one short phrase!"
ReplyDeleteThe man certainly leaves readers in no doubt of his true character...
"...the untruth of that description can be ascertained by observing the Paul Masons of this world's rhetoric and actions all designed to silence and suppress."
Spot on!
"The only bigots I see are the creatures lurking in the pages of the Grauniad."
They've not had it all their own way in the comments - probably why so few columns now allow them.