And who can we refer to in order to get back on track? is there anybody who has that particular and necessary mixture of sanity and courage? But then there is this other question: how did we get into these dire straits? And if we are inclined to get off this ramshackle train of war against the spirit of ’45 – how do we do it. Questions. Questions. Questions. Time for outrage indeed (I only recently discovered the little pamphlet of this title by Stéphan Hessel – in the announcement of his death a few weeks ago – he must be one such hero) but it seems the toxic mixture of the Daily Mail and the weird and desperately alien Oscamgove machine have sufficiently muddied the waters in which we, the precariat, are trying to breathe, that it would appear that there are enough of us to cheer along the fascistic strategy of blaming the poor. So why don’t we all embrace gangsta capitalism? Surely it makes sense! Hide the the billions stolen legally from the poor, away out of sight, anonymously on treasure islands. The return of Long John Silver; that’s what these places were always about: hiding the stolen treasure.
Okay, maybe we did, for a while – a few brief years – believe that we could (and should) all climb aboard the gravy train. When was that, you ask, well, the late sixties, early seventies. But then again some might think of the eighties was the time when turbo capitalism was taking off. Only this had to lead to us discovering all over again that capitalism makes a few of us very rich and impoverishes the rest of us.
It is not easy to believe that this is happening. Or should that be impossible to believe? Centuries of repression have wilted our spirits. Surely it can’t be this bad. And we would like to believe that ‘they’ have our best interests as heart.
I suppose I have to accept that we are all flawed by anxieties, fears, unaccountable rages; riven by blind spots, dark shadows where hide the demons, scuttling out and sinking their claws and teeth into our flesh; maddening us with the latest propaganda that will have us roaring out to lynch those who look as though they fit the Daily Mail’s description.
Create unemployment and low wages that nobody can live on so that a government invents tax credits to lift their minimal wages and then blame those caught in the trap they have set, take one or two extreme cases – Philpott for example – as though it is a general truth . . .
How do they get away with it?
How far will it go before we cry, enough! Basta!
The Daily Mail and Oscam claim that the probably psychopathic chancer Mick Philpott is the result of the welfare state. Let’s try turning it round: it seems much more likely that Philpott is Oscamgove with the masks off.