Posts by Rich Lock
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Hard News: This Anzac Day, in reply to Sacha,
Not into military history but it seems the first war wasn't finished properly (Germany not properly defeated) so after a couple of decades the second one started.
The period 1914-1945 is sometimes referred to (somewhat contentiously) as 'the second thirty years war'.
French/German antipathy, and the roots of the French mindset that saw the post-WW1 settlement as justifiable, go back far further - to the battles of Austerlitz (1805) and Jena/Auerstedt (1806), and the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806.
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Hard News: This Anzac Day, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
That may have been the case when you were a lad, but on our recent stay in the UK we were shocked and pretty horrified at how obsessed with WW2 the UK appeared to be.
As far as I could tell, this suited the ends of the State very well. First, there were all the attempts to recreate the sense of “all in it together"-ness of WW2, as some sort of “isn’t this GFC jolly” thing. Thus all the "Make Do and Mend", "Dig for Britain", and all the "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters.The language was hideous. All of it was “… for Heroes”. So there was “Help for Heroes”, “Hounds for Heroes” (I thought this was some charity that arranged for returned soldiers to get retired greyhounds, but now I come to look it up, I find it’s slightly better, in that it provides assistance dogs to returned soldiers with disabilities), and, more locally (we were living on the edge of an Air Force village in Buckinghamshire, so doubtless got more exposure than most) the Horses, Hounds and Heroes Family Fun Day. Yes, really.
I suspect the UK's WW2 obsession has more to do with national myth and a yearning for a simpler time of national solidarity than it does anything else. The 70 years since the end of WW2 have mostly been marked by loss of global power and influence, internal civil division, and extended periods of economic gloom.
It's not coincidence that the popularity of 'keep calm and carry on' exploded around the time The City imploded and took the economy with it, and all the politicians stood around the hole, lost for words and looking like the exposed powerless incompetent idiots they mostly are. I don't think 'the state' really drove it at all.
I saw Paul Mason talk in 2012, after the riots, and just before the jubilee celebrations and the start of the olympics. He mused that he considered that things might 'get interesting' around those times, implying that there might be some sort of renewed flare-up of civil disorder. As it turns out, he was 180 degrees wrong, and both events actually worked more to 'solidarity' the country than otherwise. However, it will be interesting to see how things work out this year with the election and all: The Kippers are on the rise, and Scotland is looking somewhat unsettled.
As for “… for Heroes”. These charities were set up when it became clear that the standard of care provided for badly-wounded and disabled returning servicemen and women was absolutely inadequate. It never quite became a front-page national disgrace, mainly because the right-wing press were never inclined to join the necessary dots, but they're basically filling a hole the the state can't/won't.
There were sustained attempts by politicians here in the UK to hijack the WW1 centenary last year and turn it in a more jingoistic direction, but fortunately they mostly failed.
You're right that there are troubling signs: the military toys in the shops seem to be aimed at younger children than I remember from my youth, and are more 'real', than they are fantasy/historical (it ain't robots and aliens who are the villains...). But I don't really see how an air base open day is different to the Navy base open day I went to in Devonport a few years back.
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Hard News: This Anzac Day, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I’m surprised Aldi didn’t jump on that bandwagon as well.
Also, the use of war to sell stuff has gone on as long as we've had wars:
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Envirologue: What has Neoliberalism Done…, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Air New Zealand. NZ Rail. Both run down and badly needing investment.
Which nudges up the other point: Too big to fail. And the associated sub-point about privatising the profit and socialising the risk.
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Envirologue: What has Neoliberalism Done…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Yes, that clarifies my very badly made point. Although as you note: "[it] had been neglected for decades – chiefly because successive tory councils deferred maintenance and improvement so they could promise lower rates."
And it's troubling that sell-off recommaendations are being made. They don't tend to die off quietly on the first knock-back, driven as they are by neolib ideological zealots. I'd not be surprised if this recommendation mutates and resurrects at some point in the next few years.
Which feeds into my broader point that there is never any reversal. The pattern is a cut here, a sell-off there, with the gradual accumulation of publicly built and funded infrastructure in private hands. Occasionally there's an over-reach, and one or two attempts may get refused the first time round, but often not on the second or third try, and often not if it's done stealthily enough (the UK NHS, for example).
Genuine question: has anything that was ever privatised ever ended back up publicly owned? The East Coast rail franchise int he UK was taken back into public control a few years ago, and then as soon as it started turning profit, was re-privatised.
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Envirologue: What has Neoliberalism Done…, in reply to Steve Curtis,
Well there was the Auckland rail double tracking and electrification and the new electric trains that finally are coming into service.
The Auckland Hospital was totally rebuilt to replace 3 smaller ones
At the moment there are 100s of millions spent by Watercare on new sewer and freshwater mains- largely out of sight, but still happening.
There was the $700 mill 700KV main powerline from Auckland to just norh of Taupo, and big upgrade of the Cook St cables and substations.I appreciate that you're not writing an essay and that this is just a webforum, but four projects over 30 years is not a particularly impressive hit rate. Plus which, they're all more-or-less Auckland-specific, rather than national projects. The hospital example is also only applicable to south of the bridge, North Shore having it's own hospital.
If I recall correctly, there was a fairly big stink over the way the water/sewage issue was handled around the tme of the super-city, Rodney having his fingers in the till or something similar (I may be mistaken). Plus which, I also recall the main water pipe runing north into the city bursting a few years back, so I wouldn't be suprised if a lot of the money spent on the pipes is basically 'sticking plasters' to keep a cranky old system running the best they can.
And your use of the word 'finally' in relation to the trains? That's kinda indicative, don't you think?
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Envirologue: What has Neoliberalism Done…, in reply to Steve Curtis,
Guys wake up, its been 30 years since the mid 1980s, but some seem to blame every change or undesirable feature on neo- liberalism
Well, if it was so long ago that it's no longer an issue, perhaps you won't mind pointing to a period or periods between now and then where it hasn't been an embedded and on-going feature of almost every facet of daily life. Not 'slowed down', or 'mitigated in some small way', but 'actively reversed'.
In the last 30 years, what companies have been taken back into public ownership? What large civic infrastructure programmes have been carried out - publicly funded and publicly worked, and publicly owned when completed? What legislation has been enacted to ensure that critical public services and infrastructure remain in public hands? What legislation has been enacted to protect the rights of workers and citizens, as groups rather than as individuals?
The reason people still bang on about it, is because neo-liberal ascendancy may have started in the mid-'80's, but it hasn't stopped since. Left-ish governments may occasionally tap the brakes (with conservative ones smashing the accelerator pedal through the floor), but no-one's actually attempting to put the car in reverse.
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Up Front: Mind Your Language, in reply to Miche Campbell,
"Quim" is an ancient and venerable word.
Yes. I said 'creative', but I did already know it was an exisiting word and what it meant, and that they hadn't created it from thin air. I'm quite comfortable having the Norse Pantheon re-imagined as a bunch of quasi-Victorian English poshos. I don't think "Gamla vis hruga uskit'r, sugandi toti tik madr" would have had the same impact, no matter how it was delivered.
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Up Front: Mind Your Language, in reply to Ray Gilbert,
Anyone else remember the TV censored version of Repo Man where they had great fun sanitising by replacing with ridiculous words in their place.
Flip you melon farmer is still one of my favourite movie lines.
Apparently, 'melon farmer' was the invention of Alex Cox (the director), who was responsible for the editing/cutting necessary to get this on TV.
My recollection is that this was so popular, it was used in a number of other films that migrated onto TV around the same time (mid-late '80's). 'Midnight Run', and '48 Hours' spring to mind, but my memory is not entirely reliable. There's even a website (NSFW): www.melonfarmer.co.uk
'Forget' was so common, it even got satirised in 'The Simpsons' at one point:
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Up Front: Mind Your Language, in reply to Emma Hart,
That's like the way they were allowed to say "wanker" on Buffy because it was America and nobody knew what it meant.
That does appear to be changing. I've seen it used a lot in written US pop culture recently. Next step: get them saying 'arse' correctly.