Yes Freddie, the darkest secrets , the deepest chasms of woe and cynicism.
Damp Freddie, my alter ego, a made up persona with whom I can play Devil's Advocate, or express the most cynical opinions , or the most visionary ideologies without fear of personal ridicule. Furthermore being able to blame innaccuracies, falsehoods, respun spin, outright mistakes, hasty conculsions and broad, sweeping statements on a nut called Damp Freddie.
Is he not then more my Ego on the Alter? A scarifice of philosophical and political ambitions and ideals on the cold alter of an increasingly powerful capitalism which will inevitably consume the world's resources and enslave much of its workforce.
There I go again, or rather King Frederick the Last rants again.
Why do we blogg using an avatar, a facsimilie? Many of us do it, so we can be contentious and radical and as I state, avoid ridicule, and personal attack on line .....or even off line, in the real world where violence and vandalism begin to plague Little England as it seeks to oust Europeanness from Blighty.
There, you see , I can't help it. Having a dig at the oposition, making it clear I am a radical internationalist. Workers of the World unite, you have only your anonymous blogs to loose.
Since the Luddites and then the anti Fordians, who said the production line would destroy labour, then the emergence of the concept at least of the Robot in the 50s and 60s, neigh sayers have always been saying that we will either be befreed from menial tasks, quiote Jimmy Reid acceptance speech as he became rector of Univ of Glasgow, or it will render people who do not own capital assets, into homeless, penniless vagrants living by scavanging.
The truth is quickly becoming nearer the second than the first in the new world, and those machines need materials which are increasingly (or more transparently) being produced by slave labour in countries like Angola, or India, or in fact China, the great red hope for business growth in the west, which is a poisoned chalice of never ending negative balance of trade for the old west.
In the other vision Will we all be bloggers, informing each other and sharing knowledge? All philosophers trying to find a solution to the human condition whcih can be rolled out across the world as robots and algortyms do all the stuff of manufacturing and services ?
The Neo Liberal call for more freedom for business and capital is driving us towards a partially anarchic oligicarchy, it is taking us back to the past, not the future. A time when national governments were the extension of corporate power, or in the hands of dictators who accumulated wealth and power with the support of the elite rich. Laisez faire has its history, with the crash of 1927 being echoed in 2008. Too much freedom, leading to enslavement and empoverishment of many people who were on the breadline already back then, and many who came to join it. The bail outs came, but rather than a New Deal for the people in terms of employment, it was an Old Deal, that capital assets retained their value and were fed by peopleæs basic needs for shelter, food and water.
What hope any alternative, when Capital will cheat and lie and go for the basal use of nationalism and racism in order to cling to democratic power and justify their onbsession with trickle up, that capitalism is the accumulation of wealth by the entitled few by the exploitation of the many, and the collaboration of the better salaried, educated classes. Alternatives there are though, We already see virtual communism in some supply chains, where some medicines and metallic raw materials are subject to a virtual Chinese monopoly . The internet and cloud computing enables in fact supply chains which are bereft of human input, and here lies a hope for all those old communist and Star Trek futurists amongst you,
The furture will be different. The greedy baby boomers and their super wealthy masters are going to dies soon, but even before that there may be a senility set into their entires system because of the way it neglects the distribution of wealth through work for those who are young, or not on the gravy train already by virtue of age, family or exceedingly good education and luck.
Supply and demand will be catered for differently in future because of the way capital works. It is based on linear economics and simple principles of adding value from raw materials, increasingly in slavery conditions. things will be run differently in the future once the computers take over and solve supply chain issues so we all get a unisex, beige blandness like so many sci fi utopias of the 60s and 70s.
Will human nature, change at all? Are we based on competition or cooperation?
Freddie Retires from his sabre rattling for a good night's sleep.
