…you don’t read many books.

The book that grew out of this article is gathering great acclaim.

https://newleftreview.org/II/87/wolfgang-streeck-how-will-capitalism-end

It deals a devastating blow to the mainstream view of a system that is ‘essentially sound’. My favourite chapter is on the profoundly anti-democratic nature of EU institutions and the reaction of states’ electorates to this; essentially becoming more insular and nationalistic in the process. I’m reminded of a quote by Skinner:

“Punitive measures whether administered by police, teachers, spouses or parents have well known standard effects: (1) escape-education has its own name for that: truancy, (2) counterattack-vandalism on schools and attacks on teachers, (3) apathy-a sullen do-nothing withdrawal. The more violent the punishment, the more serious the by-products.”

Well; the results are in. I have learnt from my DNA sample sample sent to ’23 & Me’ that I am 100 percent European. Effectively over 60 percent ‘British and Irish’ with below average Neanderthal (this is good as I’ve always thought of them as hippies).

I’ll need to consult my health guru to see my risk factors, but a quick glance seems to suggest I’ll live for ever.

So today I’ll declare myself apart from European and it’s diseased masses! Hurrah to sail off to the West in search of new genetic links!

To what extent do we change in relation to society? Surely this is the fundamental question in Sociology and Psychology?

I’m aware of the shift (I presume due to my reaction to the change in economics around me) in my idea of self based on consumption. As an (admittedly late) Baby Boomer I used to delight in the concept of utilitarianism. To have a pair of DMs was to take a basic model and simply to have it as mine (‘the creases are mine; the model is ours’). That was 1981.

Now I desire a limited edition DM. You may have similar, but I need to be different. The socio-economic markings must make mine ‘better’ and enable me to feel I am making a statement about myself: essentially putting you down. That is 2017.

My hope is that my favourite pair is a standard 8-hole boot. This may enable me to argue with Saint Peter when the time comes.

The concept of the European Union as a ‘super-state’ seems to leave many people muddled. I can see the positive view of those allowed to travel abroad to work, but the actions of the central bodies; unelected and yet superseding the individual states, are often simply ignored. The expanded role of the European Central Bank (acting independently of state controls) is to impose the demands of lenders on states. ‘The market’ will decide is is a good or a bad risk to be lent to again, via the medium of the ECB. States who bailed out their banks with public money must be forced to hold their tax-payers captive to the demands of the banks that failed in the first place; causing a spike in debt. In this way capital holds all states in its grip and ultimately,  via austerity, whole electorates as indentured slaves.

What shall we do when all our lives are not governed by work? Shall a central body create it for our own good, or will we exist in a William Morris ‘nowhere’. The shift is coming massively and there is a real danger that our now dead economic system decides it needs fewer bodies.

It seems fitting to begin with love: there is both an abundance and not enough at the same time.

The most natural of human emotions needs to be seen in close quarters and applied as a universal above that.

To hold and cherish is what we do as mammals: there is a joy in seeing the terrors of the night recede in the arms of another warm body.

Cats agree with me on this…

Hmm. Be off with you 2016. The future…

“Remember when we said there was no future? Well… this is it!”

Reg: Max Headroom pilot.