Reawakening the intellectual life of the working classes

Posted on by bob

There are lots of people in the world with a whole variety of needs. Some are reasonable some are exotic some are crazy some are just stupid. How should anybody judge the opinions and actions of others? What causes people to do things that are abhorrent to others for the good of themselves? What is it some people need so badly that they will do almost anything to get it. These are the big mysteries that take up much, of many peoples time and lives. They ask. Why is the world so fucked-up for me when I haven’t done anything? Continue reading →

CityStrolls-REPLAY: Militarising the police

Posted on by bob

CityStrolls-REPLAY: How many ambulances and paramedics are available during a pandemic, masks, ventilators, beds, psychiatrists, workers? Compared with. How many policemen can turn up instantly. How many cops does it take to kettle some peaceful protesters, while allowing other drunk nutters to run riot. The “emergency services” have become the “police services”. If the efficiency of military tactics shown in West George Street where applied to human rights, the health services, mental health, social housing there would be no reasons to see militarised swat teams on our streets. If we don’t become part of the solution – Get used to it. As the UK is using the same US approach to militarising the police and have been, at least over the last ten or fifteen years.

CityStrolls-REPLAY: Glasgows finest

Posted on by bob

CityStrolls-REPLAY: Glasgows finest turn out to protect the merchants of death, mounted cops the lot. Our council present an “arms fair” in a building that is part of the cities Common Good Fund. While those who suffer (the fall out of the weapons and bombs they deal in) who make it to this country – suffer even more through the ignorance and indifference of our administrators who would think this was ok and what happens and they are not be responsible for any of it.

 

PREGNANT PAUSE

Posted on by bob

— Remarks on the Corona Crisis —

 

We were already living in a general global crisis, but most people were only vaguely aware of it since it was manifested in a confusing array of particular crises — social, political, economic, environmental. Climate change is the most momentous of these crises, but it is so complicated and so gradual that it has been easy for most people to ignore it.

The corona crisis has been sudden, undeniable, and inescapable. It is also taking place in an unprecedented context.

If this crisis had taken place fifty or sixty years ago, we would have been totally at the mercy of the mass media, reading about it in newspapers or magazines or sitting in front of a radio or television passively absorbing whatever instructions and reassurances were broadcast by politicians or newscasters, with scarcely any opportunity to respond except perhaps to write a letter to the editor and hope that it got printed. Back then, governments could get away with things like the Gulf of Tonkin incident because it was months or years before the truth eventually got out. Continue reading →