What can we do about it?

Everyday we are bombarded with instruction and information.
Governments and Media tell us how to behave.
We are spoon fed information about what product we must buy to be happy, how to look to find love, how hard we must work to 'succeed', and how we should accept the way things are.
We now have access to a seemingly limitless amount of information, and we have the opportunity to find out what is really happening in our world.
When we do, the scenario can seem hopeless. We come to realise that there are a small percentage of people in this world who seem to have everything.
This is, of course, at the expense of the many.

The question nags in your mind.
Would you rather be one of the privileged few, or one of the many?
Perhaps if we work harder, we can enjoy the riches of the elite?

Perhaps you can.
But that doesn't change the fact that you will enjoy these privileges at the expense of the many.

Apathy binds us.

Every day I hear people say, 'but there's nothing we can do about it'.
We?
Who?
There are rarely news stories about co-operative ownership of factories in Argentina, or the upraise of the Zapatistas.
Instead we see, war, terrorism, famine, scandal, crime and corruption.

If we believe that corporate media is the only looking glass through which we can view the world, then we are deluding ourselves.

Would we feel apathetic if we were told stories of hope and change?
Of justice, community and solidarity?
Of revolution and radical reform.
Of valuable innovation and creativity?

People HAVE, changed the status quo.
People will continue to improve their lives for the better, in solidarity with one and other.

Ask yourself how differently you would think and feel about the world if this was the stuff of the mass media.

This would be my typical response to the original question.
This is generally followed with, 'yeah but what can I do about it?'.

I hear this everyday.
So, as a response, here are a few ideas:

Campaign on issues that you feel passionate about
Get involved in local media
Raise awareness
Resist I.D
Create community links e.g. social centres
Work towards self sufficiency. e.g. Allotments
Get involved with local environment trading schemes
Become a membership of a co-operative
Co-operative ownership of power generation
Change to a renewable energy supplier
Demand Fair trade (for the time being) encourage suppliers to stock fair trade. Challenge 'unfair trade'
Recycle EVERYTHING you can. Check your local council's recycling policy. Find out where you can recycle old mobile phone
RE -USE as many things as possible.
Try not to use credit or higher finance, as these are usually gained from major corporations.
Choose a bank with an ethical investment policy.
If you have savings/stocks/shares. Make sure they are not being invested into unethical markets.
Try to consume locally sourced food.
Get a bike
exercise more
Be honest
Raise your own awareness of the world by doing your OWN research. Take inspiration from others, check the source.
Debate!
Encourage others.
Question the worth/value of all non essential products.
Consume only what you feel is necessary.
Learn to laugh at ridiculous, competitive advertising. The 'new and improved' product wont improve the quality of your life.
TURN OFF THE T.V!
Denounce tabloids and celebrity culture.
Look into elements of psychology and methods. (e.g. hypnosis, Neuro Linguistic Programming).Understand, in principle how the mind works.
Be aware of subliminal advertising and propaganda. i.e. that which seeks to manipulate your consumer habits, or manufacture your consent.
Highlight vacuous statements and slogans for how ill intended they really are.
Try to buy/wear locally and ethically sourced clothing. Even if it is 'fair trade', ask yourself , how much carbon has been burned to get that product to you?
Find out what the 'ALL SEEING EYE' on the top of the pyramid symbol on the U.S dollar represents! (seriously)
Read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!!
Don't concern yourself with triviality and banality.
Understand the clear distinction between FASHION and STYLE!
Challenge other peoples ideologies.
Try to understand the peaceful concepts of religions.
Draw debate around principle religious ideologies and contradictions of ones own belief systems. e.g. 'god told me to invade Iraq', 'thou shall not kill'.
Complement others on things that are truly worthy and appreciated. Encourage worthwhile sentiment not banal minutia.
Question authority.
Question the concept of property.
Be true to your principles as best you can. Don't feel bad about contradicting yourself every once in a while. ANY ACTION is BETTER then APATHY!
STOP FLYING! W simply DON'T HAVE THE OIL!
Research PEAK OIL and CLIMATE CHANGE.
Use humour and smile in the face of adversity.
Fear NO ONE and NOTHING. Fear is a control system and it is NOT your most resourceful state.
Be aware of misinformation.
Try to understand political/social and economic theories and ideologies.
Study PEOPLES history.
Understand the nature of international finance systems.
When researching, 'JUST FOLLOW THE MONEY!'.
Demand to know where your TAX is going. (pressure your local council for an adequate assessment of council tax spending.). WHERE IS YOUR INCOME TAX GOING? (Ask your M.P).
Try not to give too many personal details about yourself away unless you are totally secure. If your are questioning the validity of your government, assume you are being monitored. This is not the stuff of science fiction.
Write to political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in solidarity. Campaign for Amnesty.
Create something positive.
Keep positive. Tyranny is not acceptable. Empires fall.
Remember above all that with any great advance in communication technology comes revolutionary social change.
Only take pharmaceutical products when absolutely necessary, REMEMBER other forms of medicine are used all over the world and these therapies/practises have been common place for good reason. Doubt about the validity of holistic therapies/medicines are usually propagated by pharmaceutical corporations.
Don't allow yourself to be corrupted.
Is it EVER necessary for the state or any individual to TORTURE of EXECUTE anyone?!
Remember, no one is a lost cause. Think how much your ideology and outlook has changed over the years.
Use peaceful direct action and civil disobedience as methods
Above all, embrace community. Solidarity, co-operation and community are the foundations for a peaceful society.

Democracy in the UK?

Please read the previous blog before reading this.
This blog is intended to get you thinking about whether UK citizens live in a democracy or not.
I have used the '14 defining characteristics of Fascism' by Lawrence Britt as a template to construct my opinions.
If we were to use these characteristics to determine whether or not a country was
a fascist state, I believe it could be said that the United Kingdom shares many of the same characteristics.

Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

To start off with a sweeping statement, I would say that the people of the United Kingdom aren't incredibly nationalistic. To go further, I would suggest that the only time people tend to get 'nationalistic', to any kind of degree when major sporting events are on.
Britain is truly diverse.
The United Kingdom only became such a successful economy based on the labour of non UK residents. Economic migrants, skilled workers.
Before this, I suppose you could say that the improvement in living standards of most 'British' people, was down to the exploitation of slaves.
I have no time for nationalism.
How does a small island, with pitiful natural resources become so successful?
Britain was built on empire and colonialism.
So I think its pretty hard to get all people waving the same flag knowing the history.
Ah! Unless of course, you try to 'redefine' the Union Jack, win it back from the far right.
Begin the brainchild of Gordon Brown.
He gave a speech to the Fabian Society on the 14th Jan this year.
He declared the need for a national British Day.
He said that Britain lacked a unifying day like the US’s Independence Day or July 14 in France .He called for a “strong modern sense of patriotism”. He urged Labour supporters to “embrace the Union flag” as the banner of British values of “tolerance and inclusion”.
Cool! Maybe we could have 'Tea and empire day' too!
Ok, perhaps this just wont work with those 'cynical citizens', but we can make damn sure anyone else attempting to become a citizen takes The British Citizenship test!
That right, the new test requires people, hoping to become U.K citizens, to 'understand life in the U.K' and swear an oath to the Queen and country.
Hmm, I don't remember having to swear an oath?
Ok, but if your French you don't have to take an oath right?
I mean if your thinking about moving to the UK, cos France is one of those important European countries.
O.k.

Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

Before reading this, I suggest, if you haven't already, you familiarise yourself with the
Universal Declaration Of Human rights.
I mean, just so you can really see how many are being violated.
Yeah, its that thing that all nations are supposed to observe, especially those 'democracies' that are supposed to be setting a great example while imposing 'democracy' on other nations.
Section 44 terrorism act now pretty much over rides ALL human rights legislation.
The new anti-terrorism laws in the U.K are the epitome of totalitarianism.
Human rights are now pretty much seen as a 'problem' in fighting the war on terror.
Our government is prepared to send 'suspected terrorists' to counties that use torture and mutilation, execution of family members, rape and humiliation as 'interrogation' methods. This practice is knows as extraordinary rendition.
ID cards have been introduced, as have bio-metric passports.
Basically, within a few years they will be totally compulsory.
Now, although your tax money will PAY for the I.D card recognition infrastructure, by that I mean, the D.N.A database, the retinal and fingerprint recognition systems, you will still have to buy one.
The UK already has the largest DNA database in the world. The UK is the world leader in video surveillance. Britain is monitored by 4 million CCTV cameras, making us the most watched nation in the world. There is one CCTV camera for every 14 people in the UK. If you live in London you are likely to be on cameras 300 times a day.
WHY?
I could go on at length.

Supremecy of the Military

Although you wont often see soldiers in full camoflage gear in the streets, I'm pretty sure you will have all seen more gun toting police around.
They do have guns, they can use them.
Remember the guy who was shot on the London underground? Hmm.

Police forces are already starting to combine across the UK, with the goal of an overall merge.
Council Taxes will rise to pay for this.



Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

It was the Irish that were the 'terrorists' in the 60's. Bad luck if you were a young Irish man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Anyone remember the Birmingham six or the Guildford four?
Today, we are supposed to be looking over our shoulders for the new evil in society, the 'JIHADIST!', roughly translated, this means....... Muslim.Supremacy of the Military
Well, you can consider this one as militarizations.
Council taxes set to rise across the U.K
All Police forces are to be combined.
This is no joke. I urge you to check this out for yourself.
The United Kingdom is becoming a Police State.

Rampant Sexism

Advertising, celebrity culture, 'what not to wear'.
Pressure on young women to conform to social stereotypes.
Where I live there are more then three surgical clinics.
From Botox to boob jobs, all you need is an appointment.
Oh, and of course the money, but hey! That what credit cards are for right?

Controlled Mass Media

Moguls like Rupert Murdoch and Conrad Black (though Conrad aint doing so well these days) own and control the majority of 'media' broadcast and print in the UK.
Remember the Hutton Inquiry? Remember Andrew Gilligan, claimed the British Government had 'sexed up' what became the infamous 'dodgy dossier', about Iraq's WMD capability?
Remember he was fired? (although it turned out that Gilligan was quite right, the dossier was a farce, no WMD's have been found in Iraq. Not even the ones that 'could be launched at European targets in 45 mins' ...odd).
Remember his departing speech to the BBC? Where he urged his former colleagues to 'remain independent', and to 'use discretion'.
Apparently, you can criticise the government, but your not allowed to go that far.
Remember, the BBC is controlled by the government.
Let us not forget WHY Gilligan was fired.
In a wartime situation, state media is allowed to criticise the government but only to an extent. It is not permitted to be 'anti-war'.
There are also clauses for national security, which is understandable.
All you really need is a constant wartime situation in order to control the media then I guess. Something theoretical.....like a war on 'terror'?

Obsession with National Security
See:
Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

Religion and Government are Intertwined

Anyone see the Parkinson interview with Blair the other day where he was harping on about 'judgement from god'?
Seriously folks, I know its been said as a joke before, but do we really want people who believe the book of revelations is the word of god, people who believe in Armageddon with their finger on the nuclear button.
Remember the Bush interview where he said 'God told me to', in reference to the invasion of Iraq?
O.k, so this is a man, apparently able to deploy the largest nuclear arsenal in the world at any time, listening to voices in his head.
What if God tells him to destroy China?!
Eek! Ok, back on track; money is greatest western religion. Consumerism is the practise and the shop is the church.
I don't think UK citizens would largely accept the conservative Christian spin like in the US. The UK is too small and the population too diverse.

Corporate Power is Protected

This is so obvious, I'm not even going into it.
I wouldn't really say 'protected' so much as 'dominates'.
Senior politicians generally sit on the boards of large corporations.
David Blunkett was forced to resign recently after it was revealed he had significant shares in the DNA Bioscience company.
Mr Blunkett had a two-week directorship of DNA Bioscience
Ok, David Blunkett was the HOME SECRETARY!
COME ON!
After the attacks on the World Trade centre on 11 September 2001 the nature of Mr Blunkett's brief was changed, with heightened concern for security and immigration dominating his period in office.
He was the first to put forward plans for identity cards.
You know, the I.D cards that have now been brought in. Remember the U.K has the largest DNA data base in the world?
Does it surprise you to hear that he broke the Ministerial code by his shares and involvement in DNA Bioscience?
I don't want to patronise you .

Labour Power is Suppressed

Labour carried on the Thatcherite tradition of Union smashing.
At the 1993 Labour Party Conference, the then Labour Party Leader, John Smith successfully changed the party rules so that trade unions had less say in the selection of candidates to stand for Parliament, by introducing a one member, one vote system.
The party was renamed New labour in 1994. Further alienating themselves from the workers unions.
As in, 'diet Labour' or 'I can't believe its not Labour', or something.
Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson and Allister Cambell are most commonly cited as the creators and architects of the New Labour ethos.
They were among the most prominent advocates of the right-wing shift in European during the 1990s, known as the "Third Way” (Also 'Triangulation', which became known as a policy of the Clinton era Democrats).
By 1997, The government also promoted wider use of and the Private Finance which were opposed particularly by trade unions as a form of privitization.
In practice, the New Labour government were far closer to large corporations and rich businessmen than any other Labour government which preceded it. New Labour attracted donations from companies and rich individuals on a large scale, and often the largest benefactors have received peerages and ministerial positions.
Lets face it, Unions are seen as 'trouble makers' by the government.
Either way, Britain isn't a production/industrial economy any more, its a service economy.
Britain has just been overtaken by China as the forth strongest economy in the world, and according to most sources, the economy will keep slipping down the ladder. Within 50 years, the UK will be around 12th.
Not too many call centre workers here are encouraged to join unions now are they?

Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Glorifying terrorism is now an criminal act.
Sounds logical enough, but what counts as "condoning" terrorism? Attempts to explain its causes?
To quote Mr Blair in his statement on anti-terror measures “We have already powers to strip citizenship from those individuals with British or dual nationality who act in a way that is contrary to the interests of this country. “
Um.... O.k, well I don't think illegally firing UN condemned weapons like the immoral and illegal depleted uranium shells, from Challenger tanks at 'non combatants', in an illegally occupied country, knowing they will cause both immediate and prolonged death by exposure to the radiation (Depleted Uranium has a half life of more then 3 billion years) is a very nice thing to do.
I certainly think it will cause more people to want to cause acts of terror at western targets.
I deplore terrorism, in all its forms, and I will never justify it, but I do understand its causes.
It's quite clear that this is a strategy to silence any and all criticism of Britain's foreign policy.
Perhaps you could look at it another way.
Remember that joke?
What do you say to a psychology graduate? ......?...hmm? Big Mac and Fries please!
Are universities really centres for 'higher education'?
I see them more as corporate infrastructure.
Would you consider the proposed 'top up fees' anti-academia?

Obsession with Crime and Punishment

Anti social behaviour orders?(ASBOS).
Why is so much spent on surveillance, prison systems and police forces and so little on community projects to give 'anti social' kids something to do?
Does that seem a little too obvious?
I mean, why are so many people getting involved in crime in the first place?
Is that a ridiculous question?
Perhaps that's over simplistic, but if you think about it logically, cctv cameras can't physically stop crime, they can only record it.
They aren't going to stop someone being mugged, they just might make it easier to identify the criminal, along with the DNA data base etc.
So basically, the more cameras that go up, and the better the I.D data base, the more people are going to be identified, the more people are going to be caught, the more people are going to have to go to our already over crowded prisons.
I really doubt that a desperate heroin addict will suddenly think ' oh dear! There are so many cameras around these days, I better stop using heroin because I still have to steal to pay for it, and if I'm seen stealing, the police might get me!'.
But a better infrastructure means more people can be 'caught'. Hmmm... I'm not sure issuing on the spot fines to people for poverty related crimes is really such a good idea.
Prisoners are good for business though I guess, so long as your business is a private run prison with forced labour.
Yup!
More and more prisons in the UK are being sold to private investors.
You see, you don't have to pay a prisoner as much as a 'decent law abiding citizen'.
Forced labour = slavery its that simple.
But surely, there isn't enough room in the existing prisons for all the new 'caught on camera' criminals?
The government is really committed to detention too.
Over 2,600 people, nearly all of them asylum seekers, are locked up in detention camps and prisons in Britain, without trial and without time limit and with no automatic right to bail.
The government is building new detention centres with a target capacity of 4000. The asylum seeking process is arbitrary and punishes innocent refugees not for anything they have done, but in the hope of deterring others from exercising their right under the Geneva Convention to claim asylum in Britain.
Perhaps we need to follow the U.S once again on this one and create more huge privately funded detention centres (concentration camps)?

Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

I have already mentioned the Daviv Blunkett scandal, but this isn't a rare occurance.
Fascist regimes are almost always governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
When talking about the UK, you need to talk about Freemasonry.
Wait! Wait! don't go! Keep reading!
This isn't the place to go into what Freemasonry actually is, but Masonic practice in positions of power has become such a concern that even the Home Secretary Jack Straw commissioned a Home Affairs Committee report into "Freemasons in the Police and the Judiciary" (1997)
To quote “Membership of secret societies such as freemasonry can raise suspicions of a lack of impartiality or objectivity. It is therefore important the public know the facts. I think it is the case that the Freemasons said they are not a secret society but a society with secrets. I think it is widely accepted that one secret they should not be keeping is who their members are in the criminal justice system.”
He then threatened to pass an act to ensure that all Judges and police must declare if they are Masons.
Unfortunately, the masons refused and little more was said.
Senior mason Lord Farnham branded the move ''offensive, arbitrary, oppressive and without justification''.
In a curt letter to the Home Secretary, Lord Farnham, Pro Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge, said the masons would only hand over the names if forced by law.
Then an investigation by BBC (Southern Eye) found that Freemasons in local government do not always declare their interests. The programme discovered that there were at least 14 councillors with masonic connections in Dorset (where the investigation took place). Twelve of those were involved in the local planning process.
If you take that investigation as a microcosm of the larger picture, you would find it difficult to describe it as anything else then cronyism.
I encourage you to look into it.
Of course there are more 'over the table' and blatant back scratchings going on.

Fraudulent Elections

Elections don't mean anything when all parties are funded by similar corporations.
Elections don't mean anything if the majority of the population have no trust in any of the political parties.
Elections don't mean anything without truth.
If media is controlled by only a few people with similar political ideologies, exists to serve their share holders, promote consumerism and celebrity culture, then how are the general population going to have enough information to make a real informed choice in the voting booth?
Without knowledge, all elections are fraudulent.
Elections don't mean ANYTHING if all parties have 'triangulation' polices.
This basically means using political rhetoric in a election campaign with right and left manifesto policies in order to create a sort of 'pincer movement' around the majority voter.
Basically, a candidate spouting left wing rhetoric on some policies and right wing rhetoric on others. The idea is to draw out your votes in a sort of political vacuum.
Of course, the candidate wont generally BELIVE their own rhetoric.
This leads to alienation of the party activists (the back benchers) so the candidate doesn't necessarily represent the party.
Think about this.
All those people that thought they were voting in a 'socialist' Labour party instead got the 'Third Way'.
The idea of 'Third Way' centricism means our voting choice in the UK is basically like choosing a different flavour of the same product.
Would you like like prawn cocktail, cheese and onion or ready salted crisps?
Third way is sometimes described as an idea of former social-democrats which replaces socialism with capitalism, with a minimum of socialism, and a strategy to bring the social-democratic parties back to power where they have lost elections. Basically this means politicians are in favour of ideas and policies that ultimately serve the interests of corporate power and the wealthy at the expense of the working class and the poor.
Of course, by now you are thinking, 'well that doesn't sound like fascism',
Of course it doesn't.
The BNP don't really get that many votes do they?
Would you vote for a party that was overtly fascist? Probably not if you have read this far.
The whole point of this blog was to look at the 14 defining characteristics of Fascism and see it they were true of the UK.
If you can understand that the the British government now fits the criterion of a fascist order, then that is a great concern.
We are so used to understanding fascism personified as 'Hitler', or Gestapo agents in war films slapping good British officers in the face with a slim leather glove. . . .'you vill talk!! you vill talk!!. .. .very well.. .ve have vays of making you talk!'.

It's far bigger then this, it is global.
Globalization, globalization fascism.
How can it be said that we have NATIONAL political systems when economic systems are INTERNATIONAL?
Welcome to the corporate globalization world.
The political ideology of fascism dictates that all aspect of national life are subjected to the national interest, sometimes to a totalitarian degree.
Though this is now the world of the globalist.

Fascist leaders used to refer to their economic system as a "third way," noting it to be distinct from both socialism and capitalism. Mussolini, for instance, said that "fascism has taken up an attitude of complete opposition to the doctrines of Liberalism, both in the political field and in the field of economics."
If you check all the links I have provided, you can't deny what is becoming reality.

you're awake, what are you going to do about it?

more blogs to follow on 'what you can do about it' and something about the concept of private property.