Interesting Times - Why a Socialist can be excited by a ConLib government
Posted by: Matt in My Life, PoliticsThose of you who know me will be aware that I have, for a long time, been a bit of a socialist. It started many years ago outside a local HE college when I first met a group of socialists, who proclaimed to have all the answers. I started to get angry and harboured desires to “smash the state”. Back then I made a lot of noise and argued relentlessly, seeking to awaken my sleeping comrades, whom I believed, once awake would join me and the hammer and sickle brigade in a socialist revolution!
Then I grew up. I realised that revolutions only happen when a state is all but collapsed in the first place, and thus wishing for a revolution was in effect, to wish for the society in which I grew up to completely crumble. I am still a socialist, however, I have no desire to see this country collapse just to get the revolution I had often dreamt of. I reasoned instead that if socialism were to come about at all, it would happen “organically” through the inevitable problems and contradictions of capitalism.
The idea that capitalism is a self destructive system, is one socialist assertion that I still champion. Years ago, many of my peers would have scoffed at this, though you hardly have to be a Prof. of Economics these days to understand that the global capitalist world is on shaky ground. The capitalist system has yet to collapse, however, based on events of recent years it would appear that it is indeed the problems within, and not hard talking revolutionaries that will be the catalyst for radical change in the coming decades.
The evaporation of easy credit and mortgages along with the multitude of revelations and the subsequent shitstorms, which have followed in the wake of the financial crisis, have gotten the people’s attention. All of a sudden, people cannot afford the lifestyles they aspire to, they cannot get access to public facilities, they are losing their jobs and even their homes. So people are angry, people are calling for change, people are no longer happy to just ignore the politicians and the ballot box. The politicians meanwhile have understood what this means for them and we have seen great change in their attitudes too.
Some of the proposals made by the main party leaders would have been unheard of 10 or even just 5 years ago. It is easy to dismiss these as simple tools of spin of course, but the fact is they reflect what people are calling for. Also, the big parties are more united then they’d ever like to admit. The debates showed that they are widely agreed on what problems should be addressed, they argue merely on how best to do it. This is far removed from the idealised politics of the previous century and I think it is safe to declare the age of clashing ideals in mainstream politics as dead and buried.
So if the age of idealised politics are over, then where are we now? The unknown is the honest answer, this is uncharted territory. Not because we have a coalition, but because of the potential outcome of the effort and attitude of the party leaders. I like to believe that we could be on the edge of an age of progress, where the politicians prove wrong all the die-hard revolutionaries who proclaim that no real change can happen this way. I certainly hope so, as the alternative is dire.
The tumultuous events of the past few years has hardly been the socialist revolution I once wished for, but it has already caused more change [in mood and endeavour] than I ever expected to see in British politics. I am not without concerns or criticism for this new coalition government of course, but what I have learned is that there is hope. Socialism remains a far away dream, but we have shifted in the right (I mean left!) direction. If PM Cameron and Deputy PM Clegg have truly put aside party bickering in favour of the national interest, then this could well mark a turning point in British politics.
Entries (RSS)