Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on May 12^th, 2012 at 12:55pm:


Where are the godwins?

SOB

longweekend58 wrote on May 10^th, 2012 at 8:05pm:

You think I am but reality is often different from what you believe, as we see with the fact that you believe in fairy tales which obviously are not part of reality.

Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on May 11^th, 2012 at 4:32pm:

Usually in response to 'because I said so' type ideas based on nothing but emotion like 'let the refugees drown' or something like that

bobbythefap1 wrote on May 12^th, 2012 at 1:46pm:


So do you think an open border policy is devoid of emotion?

Sorry, Bolshie. I take it back. I just read this thread, and I agree totally:

Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on May 11^th, 2012 at 3:01pm:

Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on May 12^th, 2012 at 6:34pm:


I'm not sure what you mean by taking sides. Everyone who works has direct experience with all sorts of people.

Leftists? They are actually quite rare these days. I'd count a few Socialist Alternative types and people who sell the Green Left Weekly at train stations.

Go back to the 70s. Campuses were full of them. Unions were full of them. The whole country was dripping with leftists.

It's a different story now. It's a post-cold war world. The economy is fundamentally different. Students compete for places and marks with people from different backgrounds; workers compete for jobs with people from Asia; businesses compete for contracts and sales with cheaper operators overseas.

Conservatives like Prince Charles advocate environmental conservation. Far-right crusaders like David Oldfield advocate socialism. Old boys on this site advocate Enlightenment humanist values in their critique of multiculturalism.

An all-encompassing narrative of the left does not exist anymore. You have to go to places like Nepal, West Bengal, Venusuela or Guatemala to find old style leftists, and even there you'll find them struggling with realpolitik.

For Marx and Lenin, this would always be the challenge of leftist parties - the issue of putting theory into practice.

In Australia, we've put them out of business with affluence. In places like Europe, where the GFC proved Lenin right about speculative capitalism, they seem to be making a bit of a comeback.

But not for long. It's hardly the end of ideology, but the right and left have shifted into the other's territory. While we sit around and squabble along ideological cold-war lines, the rest of the world is working out how to develop and catch up with the west.

As always, politics will follow economic growth. Much of the west is now in recession with dwindling economies. China, India and Brazil now have the highest economic growth. If their domestic consumption improves as predicted, their GDPs will surpass the US and Europe in less than 20 years.

Economic growth changes everything: population, living standards, employment and education. Look at the baby boom generation and how their politics and values transformed the west.

This is the real story of the world at this point in our history. It's not about right and left, it's about stagnation and growth.

Old boy moaners are a symptom of change. They don't occupy an ideological position; they just resist change, whether they lean towards left or right.

The world is turning, Bolshie. Same as it ever was.

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on May 12^th, 2012 at 5:06pm:

Damn
How about "Whenever legitimate concerns are raised about Israel or a Jew, in 90% of occasions someone will be called 'anti-Semitic' to divert/end the conversation and/or guilt trip people/s into forgiving/forgetting issues raised.