No More E-Book

Margaret Clarke

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

ESSAY ON POLITICAL SCIENCE.

Political and social issues, both past and present.

Dedicated to those who can see beyond an elitist, dystopian future and fight for a society that lives on less to save the planet.

Leseprobe

Margaret Clarke

No More

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

Contents

NO MORE 

The case for the abolition of money 

CONTENTS  

Preface..................................... 1  

Introduction.................................. “ 

Prelude................................. “ 

More people................................... 2 

More economic growth..................... 3 

More health on demand....................... 4 

More waste...................... 5 

More fragmentation......................... 6 

More blind alleys......................... 7 

No more......................... 8 

PREFACE 

I wrote this over thirty years ago and after numerous fruitless attempts to get it published eventually gave up.  Some things in it will therefore, inevitably, sound dated and there are a few things I would have approached differently given current events such as the elitist war against Brexit but overall, I believe that the essence of the book is just as relevant now as it was then.  More so, in fact, because the fact that nothing was done to alter the status quo to save the planet from devastation has led to the present situation in which we are in grave danger of sleepwalking into corporate , feudal dictatorship as the only means of avoiding the ultimate destruction not only of the environment and all that it supports but of humanity itself.   I lived in hope, at one time, that human beings would have the sense to see the lunacy of what they were doing and attempt to take a radically different course from that of endless growth and vacuous, destructive  consumerism but it seems that was a pie-in-the sky delusion.   I hope I’m wrong and that there will be an eleventh hour epiphany but I cannot do otherwise than fear the worst when I listen to the widespread sheer ignorance of what we are facing and the ways that those with the power to do so are manipulating public opinion and behaviour in an effort to take supreme control for the benefit of a small, elite minority.   They are building bunkers so they know what’s coming.  

As I have lived in England most of my life I found it, quite naturally, easiest to write from an English perspective on the effects of the economic system, but the parochial examples I cite can, almost without exception, be translated into national parallels throughout the whole of the industrialised world. Secondly, the emphasis on responsibility is, quite deliberately, placed on affluent nations since I believe it to be not only crucial that we put our own house in order to enable poor nations to regain their autonomy and put their ravaged lands back together again but, of equal significance, we have more of a realistic opportunity to fight the status quo in democratic nations than do the dispossessed and oppressed peoples of many of the despotic dictatorships throughout the third world. This is not to say, however, that it is not equally necessary for ‘developing’ countries to ensure that their redevelopment is geared to autonomy and self-sufficiency in the same ways that I have proposed for currently affluent nations, or that it is not equally paramount for all nations, rich or poor, to extricate themselves from the destructive tentacles of the global, economic market and the multi-national industrial complex. In this endeavour I believe it would be beneficial to establish an international network of communication and support in the common cause of creating a new ( or reinstating the old) world comprised of independent and self-supporting territories. I consider the prospect of this kind of ‘hands-across-the-oceans’ movement, with everybody working toward the same goals and similar kinds of localised, resource-based management instead, as now, of having one agenda for the rich and another for the poor, to be not only extremely exciting but to have the potential to be a powerful and effective instrument of change.  

With regard to publication, the primary criticism I encountered time and again as a reason for rejection was that it was merely an expression of my opinions and, in effect, why should anybody be interested? Why should anybody bother to waste their time on the opinions of a Ms nobody? Who did I think I was, that I should presume to have opinions that anybody might find worth listening to ? I found this an extraordinary attitude, frankly, especially coming from people who purported to be concerned with furthering the concept of freedom and equality. To dismiss, with what can only be described as snobbery, the views of any member of the public who has not attained some societally-ordained and accepted qualification to express an opinion is to disqualify a large proportion of the population from participating in what is supposed to represent a democratic process in which, according to the propaganda, everybody has an equal voice. If I had happened to pander to the demands of ‘the system’ for sufficient periods of time to acquire the expertise of inculcated, academic procedures in order to express my thoughts with the obligatory array of quotes, references and footnotes so beloved by the cultural elite to give assumed authority to their personal beliefs then I imagine I would have been taken more seriously as a candidate worthy of respectful consideration. Alternatively, had I reached , or been endowed with, celebrity status and accumulated wealth and notoriety in any area, by whatever nefarious and unsavoury means, I don’t doubt I would have been accorded the privilege of expressing any half-baked and ill-considered opinions with the backing of the whole gamut of media hype and the gleeful approbation of a publishing network eager to exploit the potential of a profit-making opportunity. As it is, it is a case of ‘who are you?', and there endeth the story. If you happen to have been born a Prince or a Lord you can have an opinion. Wealthy, academic, famous or notorious, you can have a opinion. Poor, unknown and outside the boundaries of the cultural elite and it is you who are written about, not you who are deemed either worthy or capable of expressing your own thoughts. Angry? Damned right I’m angry, because I’m sick of being a powerless pawn in the eternal chess game in which it is assumed that the pawns should content themselves with being pushed around, with pomposity and condescension, in the hands of those who believe that such small and insignificant pieces are expendable, and which only exist as a convenience to achieve the loftier purposes of the more powerful and important participants in the game. I would, therefore, like to introduce myself as one pawn that has a mind of its own as to the positions to which it would like to move and its own views on the validity of the ultimate goals to which it is expected to dedicate its existence. 

The other recurring, and not infrequently sneering, objection to my effort was that it was not informative and lacked a basis in research. No I suppose it’s not, in any startling or earth-moving sense, informative. I don’t suppose it says anything very much, in terms of facts and figures, that everybody doesn’t already know. The world, particularly the industrialised world, is awash with information on every subject under the sun which is readily available, to anybody who is sufficiently motivated to seek it out, in a bewildering range of books, magazines, documentaries, videos and a host of other sources. Far from there being a dearth of information there is so much of it that you could quite easily spend your entire life trying to take it all in and would still be left with unexplored avenues of data-collection and would still be caught out by the question ‘yes but have you read, didn’t you hear, don’t you watch so-and-so?’ and would still find that what you thought was an incontrovertible fact yesterday is out of date and under question today. It was never my intention to try to convince anyone that the reason they should believe what I was saying was because a collection of statistics proved it, or because somebody else said something erudite in the eighteenth century, or because I was privy to some new and sensational piece of information that would put a whole new perspective on the state of the world. The whole point of the book, the reason I felt compelled to write it, was not to document yet more reasons for believing that the world is on the edge of collapse because the evidence is all around us and nobody needs any more than the information that comes in a daily assault on their senses to prove it. The starting point of my ‘unresearched’ and ‘uninformative’ opinion was not ‘Is the world in trouble and can I bend your ear, via convoluted historical research and learned quotes, to debate the possibility?’ but ‘why is the world in dire trouble, and what can we do about it?’. If this seems like undue presumption I would have to ask how much more evidence and research anybody needs beyond that of their own ability to observe what is going on and to believe what their observations tell them and I would have to conclude that anybody who is still unconvinced, in the face of all the existing evidence and documentation, is going to remain that way for ever more and nothing I could say would be likely to convince them otherwise. I assume, therefore, that anybody who is sufficiently interested to read what I have written will begin from the premise that what is being proposed is an agenda to pull back the earth and its inhabitants from the brink of disaster, not an attempt at further documentation of evidence for what is a palpable reality for anyone with ears to listen , eyes to see and enough common sense to draw their own conclusions.  

This, then, is an establishment warning. What follows is a personal opinion of why I believe the world I live in is in a horrendous mess and what I think should be done to save it, and nobody is having their arm twisted into agreeing with it. I would, however, be interested to hear the reactions of those who happen to read it, because if nothing else this might open up some kind of constructive dialogue outside that of the card-carrying, chattering elite who know exactly who is, and is not, qualified to voice an opinion. I should also, in advance, warn anybody who is considering reading it with a view to being entertained that it doesn’t fit that category, and those seeking to be entertained by soft options would be better served by listening to a party political broadcast. I would say that it is fairly easy to read but it does require the application of some thought, so anybody who is unprepared to think for themselves would be advised to give it a miss. It is not a good prospect for the bigoted and tunnel-visioned, or for anybody lacking a modicum of imagination. So who does that leave who might find in it something with which to empathise, something to kindle a flicker of hope in a seemingly hopeless situation? Only those who have kept alive the independent spirit that they were given at birth which, against all the odds, still allows them the free will to question, evaluate, confront and maybe - just maybe - to change. 

Dedicated to those who are prepared to say 

Enough is enough  

No more 

Human beings are prone to following well -worn paths in the belief that because they have been used so often in the past they must lead to a desirable place at their end. Sometimes, however, by making an additional effort and taking a step into the unknown a new path can lead to a much better place and the old one will be abandoned. It will then seem inconceivable that the new and definitely more rewarding route had not been tried before.  

INTRODUCTION. 

This book is unashamedly radical and destined to upset anybody hoping for reassurance that the problems we are faced with can be solved without the need for revolutionary upheaval, both in attitude and social organisation. It will not please anyone who is not prepared to approach it with an open mind, unencumbered by the baggage of political dogma. If its message is to be understood there has to be a willingness on the behalf of the reader to sit for a while and wonder...imagine...and hope. 

The world is a mess. It is overpopulated, polluted and unhealthy. Vast numbers of its people are starving, poverty-stricken and abused and atrocities are committed daily, on a huge and growing scale, against both people and animals and against the environment upon which all life depends. There is an urgent need for something to be done to deflect us from our present disastrous course, but what? 

One of the greatest obstacles to effecting any worthwhile change is lack of co-operation and the inability, or unwillingness, to view the problems of humanity in their entirety rather than from single-issue perspectives. This is not a green book any more than it is a socialist or feminist book, but it incorporates elements of all three. Those who are accustomed to approaching issues solely from the viewpoint of the currently fashionable doctrine of one or other of these categories are going to find themselves irritated by what they will see as deviation and inconsistency , because I will frequently drift into areas that they will consider irrelevant, and sometimes opposed, to their own perception of what constitutes not only the solution but also the fundamental nature of the problem. Inequality is a problem. Patriarchal attitudes are a problem. The devastation of the environment is a problem. But they cannot be approached in isolation, with complete disregard for the effects that each one has upon the rest, because they are all interconnected and there are no solutions to be found from any one perspective without reference to the influence of all the others. There are no purely feminist issues any more than there are exclusively socialist or environmental issues, they are all part of the same issue. It is the issue of how to organise the way we live to allow for harmonious interaction between men and women on an equal basis in a healthy and pleasant environment. If we want to find lasting solutions to our problems we have to do it together, because we will never achieve it in contention. 

The greater part of the responsibility for the destruction of the environment and the depletion and waste of the world’s resources lies with the populations of affluent nations. It is our life-styles, our attitudes and our refusal to look beyond our own narrow self-interests that is destroying not only our life support system but our health, our peace of mind and our future, and it is this that forms the central theme of the book. If we are to have any hope at all of providing decent lives for ourselves and subsequent generations there has to be a fundamental shift of emphasis in our priorities and aspirations and an acknowledgement of the unsustainable nature of our expectations. Ever increasing numbers of people wanting ever increasing amounts of goods and services in a world with finite resources is an equation that makes no sense and something, somewhere has got to give. How this is to be resolved to everybody’s satisfaction is the one question that needs to be addressed above all others, and to find a solution we have first to share both an understanding of the nature of the problem (monetary economics and male dominance) and a vision of the intended goal (co-operative, autonomous socialism detached from the moneyed economy). 

 This is an angry book, because so much of what is going on makes me angry. It is tinged with despair, because the light is fading and time is running out. But I still have a dream, and dreams can change the world. 

PRELUDE 

Develop, increase, produce, accelerate, proliferate, multiply, exceed, overflow, overburden, overdevelop. 

Excess, pile-up, overload, extravagance, greed, selfishness, gluttony, acquisitiveness, monopoly, wealth. 

Growth, development, increase, profit, gain, expedience , advantage. 

Profit, plunder, prey, suave qui peut, delude, beguile, hoodwink, mock, ensnare, steal, take advantage of, abuse. 

Ill-treat, maltreat, mishandle, abuse, tyrannise, tread on, trample on, oppress, aggrieve, be violent, crucify, torture, dispossess, crush, destroy. 

Restore, redevelop, repair, make amends, replace, rehabilitate, replant, reforest, reclaim, rescue, salvage, redeem, rebuild, reconstruct, replenish, give back. 

Material, anti Christian, impious, amoral, indifferent, money-grubbing, avaricious, selfish, non-altruistic, unsympathetic, cold-hearted, competitive, hoggish, monopolistic, greedy, concerned with number one, individualistic, unphilanthropic, mean-minded, gold-digging, money-making, follower of Mammon. 

Spiritual, non-materialistic, non-acquisitive, non-possessive, Christian, pious, benevolent, helpful, co-operative, kind-hearted, generous, good and merciful, brotherly, altruistic, caring, gentle, considerate, unselfish, sharing, understanding, humanitarian, treating others as one would wish to be treated oneself, ethical, just, follower of God. 

Gather round, children, I am going to tell you a lie. Not a small, white lie for this you might detect, but a lie so great and a truth so distorted that when I am finished you will question your own sanity if you should suspect that is all a monstrous deception. Listen up, children, for I am the Lord your God and you will follow in my footsteps all the days of your life. Come sit on my knee and I will coo my message. Come join me round the hearthside and I will read it to you. Come follow me through the classroom and I will teach it by rote. Come into the workplace and I will show you the wisdom of my ways. For I am the word and the light. I am the air you breathe and the water you drink and without me you are nothing. I am happiness and joy, love and friendship, fulfilment and success. Without me, the all-powerful, the all-encompassing, your paltry soul is worthless, your endeavours meaningless, your life an empty shell. You cannot exist without me for I am the essence of your being. I will lay waste your lands but have faith, children, it is of no consequence. Follow me and you will be saved, worship me and you will fear nothing. In my name the whales will die, the earth will be swallowed under concrete, the bodies will stretch as far as the eye can see, but fear not, my children, and think not to ask questions for I am with you, your staff and your guide, and I shall be with you forever for I am the light and the way. It is I, not the soil, that succours you, It is I, not the rain, that gives you water to drink. It is I, not the plant, that feeds you. What nonsense is this, what unholy brand of propaganda I hear, that preaches a need for virgin soil and unfelled trees, for purity of air and unspoiled lakes? Be gone, foul tongues, oh ye of little faith, that dare to speak of finite things. Have faith, children, and believe in me for I am here to promise glorious infinity and endless bounty. Abide with me and I will give you the earth, for in truth it is mine and mine alone. Ah, children, children, take up your swords and follow me and be not beset by dismal stories in a slough of despond. Come to me, my bidable children, and behold the bright, bright future of infinite joy in the land of loaves and fishes. Such miracles I will bequeath to you if you will only close your eyes and follow me. Ask yourselves, children, who needs the earth when I am here to provide for you? Come, give me your troth and the world is forever yours, this is my promise. Raise your voices and praise the Lord your God. The earth is dead, long live money. 

Who but the child, unsullied by the word and ignorant of the sharp stabs of derision, would dare to break the collaborative silence and whisper that the Emperor is naked? 

 All around are the hunger cries of children, the wailing of adults who cradle the pathetic bundles of long dead bones, unwilling to relinquish their first-born to the humble graves that will bear no headstone, and only they who could do nothing will remember where, and when, and how. 

 An appealing little face with limpid, blue eyes and flaxen hair stares back at the camera, tiny pink hands reach out toward the bowl that is life or death. A paternal figure leans toward the child, holding out the bowl with benevolent smile. The child totters forward on spindly legs, stomach bloated by hunger, open sores fly-blown and unattended. The child is too weary to flick away the flies, too weak to hold the bowl. She falls forward, knocking her life-blood to the ground, and without a word she closes her eyes on the world and silently dies. Today was her birthday. She was four years old. Her name was Linda, but only those who could do nothing will remember. The restless camera moves on. The story is over. 

 Across the divide there is a great deal of noise. There are bright lights and music and the smell of cooking. There are multitudes with masks and big, red noses, a carousel that goes round and round, up and down, candyfloss and kiss-me-quick, bulging mouths and plastic cups, cindy dolls and rubbish bins, bunting and beefburgers, boredom and boast. Across the divide, today is the day of the jamboree. 

Chapter two

NO MORE

A personal view of the world by an unknown whose

only qualification is to live in it.

TWO

MORE PEOPLE

If there is one issue above all others that the population of the industrialised world is not prepared to discuss it is the population of the industrialised world. Whilst it may be acceptable to question the wisdom of cadaverous Indians struggling to support a family of eight on a tired piece of earth incapable of sustaining a self-respecting insect, and while it may be considered an unfathomable form of lunacy for pot-bellied mothers of pot-bellied starving Africans to be adding ever more to the death toll, it is quite categorically not acceptable to make even the mildest reference to controlling the numbers of new arrivals to the maternity wards of rich nations. This constitutes sound common sense to those for whom it constitutes sound common sense.

On the face of it there seem to be scant grounds for an appraisal of the breeding habits of the rich. We are none of us scratching a living from a piece of dry dirt, we do not live with the constant threat of imminent starvation and we would consider it an infringement of our civil liberties to be told that we could not, or should not, have children. We have the right to have as many children as we might want and the State has a duty to care for them if we are not in a position to do so ourselves. So says liberal wisdom. So says the new feminist logic. Those members of the State who find themselves locked into a constant struggle to fend off debts as the tax burden increases in an effort to fulfil these lofty ideals may well feel a trifle irritated by the woman who ‘has three children and another one on the way, with no idea how to manage’ and may well feel sufficiently exasperated to suggest that she might, perhaps, consider cause and effect... but I couldn’t possibly comment. I couldn’t, in all integrity, be seen to nod about irresponsibility in those who have four children and no means of support all the while the First Family, the paradigm of exemplary conduct for the reverent and lowly-born, is comprised of four children living off the State in the lap of unimaginable excess. Herein lies the existing paradox at the heart of what amounts to a conspiracy of silence about the problem that must never speak its name.

Politicians of Right and Left in Western democracies know that the issue of population control is a minefield. Such perennial and recurring social concerns as homelessness and unemployment can quite safely be seen to occupy hours of television time, forests of paper and months of wrangling with no fear of breaking any new ground and thereby jeopardising political careers. When it comes to population, however, the silence is deafening. In order to avoid any line of argument that might lead to suggestions, however mild, that there might be a case for some form of control, politicians constantly perform an amazing variety of acrobatic semantics dedicated to sidestepping the fundamental question of proliferation. The opposition at any given time always knows exactly how to find homes with nice little gardens for the whole population, whatever its size, and the fact that people live in unsatisfactory conditions such as high-rise rabbit hutches, overcrowded family homes and cardboard boxes is, unfailingly, considered to be the result of some form of government incompetence which they, the opposition, would instantly rectify with their own brand of magical policies. They would, if given the opportunity, find well-paid employment for all lIn a free and democratic society with a healthy regard for human rights it is anathema to talk of control, however necessary or however much geared to a common sense appraisal of its universal benefits. In a free society numbers are an irrelevance, not least to politicians.