I've been accused of being a "fascist!" so much
lately, for example see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/trystan-swale-and-my-perceived-racism.html.
However I'm a great believer in universal free speech and I'm willing to engage
with any political idea and any of the people who promote them. In fact last
night I attended a leftist meeting. In May 2015 I was very impressed by the
Oxford Communist Corresponding Society because they were the only organization
in the city willing to discuss the notorious Roswell Slides, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/oxford-communists-and-aliens.html.
This time the event took place in the function room of The Mitre, an ancient hotel in the heart of Oxford .
The discussion was about the collapse of the political centre left across the
world in the last few years. The centre left is what the group called "the
kinder face of capitalism"; the idea that the capitalist system, to use
their terminology, can be run in a watered down and more humane way. It has
recently declined enormously in almost every country. This can be seen in the
collapse of parties like the PvdA in the Netherlands ,
the failure of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats in the USA ,
and Francois Hollande in France ;
and the fall of the Greek monopoly of the PASOK party. In Britain 's
case the Labour Party has not collapsed, but it has shifted abruptly and radically
to the left with the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, see background articles
below. The right has rushed into the vacuum left behind, such as Geert Wilders'
Freedom Party in the Netherlands, UKIP; and Donald Trump of course. I pointed
out a very perceptive observation made by the palaeo-conservative journalist
Peter Hitchens, that the New Labour project has been adopted so incredibly seamlessly
by Cameron's Conservative Party that there is no longer any need to associate
it with Labour. The last few New Labour die-hards like Tony Blair will probably
eventually split and form their own party, or simply become liberal Tories. I
also mentioned something that I've brought up on HPANWO many times, that I understand
the emotional appeal of politicians like Corbyn, Trump and Bernie Sanders.
They're just so much more exciting!
Mainstream politics is inherently dull. As I've said before, it is geared
towards maintaining a status quo which means it riles against revolutionary change;
this is essentially a very monotonous position to hold. "It's just another
day at the office" said one of the other people when he described what it
would have been like if Hillary had won the US
presidency. Trump, Corbyn and Sanders are clearly in politics for idealistic
reasons and to have people like that in such a prominent position is thrilling.
Supporting them is an adventure. It was a good meeting and the members are genial
people who were very welcoming and respectful to me. I had a good conversation
with Edmund Griffiths who spoke at the Roswell Slides event. We discussed the
outcome of the Slides fiasco, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/my-last-word-on-roswell-slides.html.
Also he said something interesting about Michael Shermer, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/michael-shermer-update.html.
It was wrong of Shermer to regard his personal paranormal experience as more
valid than others. His was a fairly minor encounter compared to those reported
by many other people which he has rejected. Unlike Ed, I do think there is some
objective reality to the supernatural, but I totally agree with his analysis of
Shermer. Either explain away the evidence for these experiences, your own and
others; or accept the evidence as real. You can't have it both ways. I see Ed
has written a book. I'll have to get a copy; regular readers will know how much
I love analyzing skeptic literature, see: http://www.edmundgriffiths.com/index.html.
See here for
background: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/jeremy-corbyns-seat-to-be-abolished.html.
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