Fascinated and enthralled with the 18th century. An era where passion and creativity thrived. More wealth equalled grander designs, amazing inventions, beautiful designs in nature, in buildings, on stone, in silk, cotton and lace. Social values that warrant respect and allegiance. Beauty in every aspect of life, such beauty.......
Such beauty and indulgence and wantonness, gluttony, debauchery, greed and scheming fraud to the highest degree. Murder and the obliteration of whole cultures and societies. for me one word sums it up, Evil, pure unadulterated evil!
I think my feelings for this age reflect so strongly my own struggle with who I am. I love the things this world has to offer, the money, the beautiful things, art, theatre, nice places, luscious clothing, big houses, big gardens. I want them all. I always have. I have always wanted more than my working class routes could afford.
However, as I peel away the historic truth of the people I admire from an era I love. what I uncover bares no resemblance to the image of my fantasies. Instead I find a real emptiness, lies, deceit and corruption.
I want to love purer things, YES to beauty, creativity and innovation but not through exploitation. I read yesterday that Apple had overtaken Microsoft in it's profits and equity, possibly one of the the richest company's in the world with a market value of $222 Billion. Today the "I pad" was released in the UK and today I read about the string of suicides that have been taking place at a Chinese manufacturing plant where they are made. poor pay and poor working conditions are considered to be the main contributing factors. £94 a month they are paid, granted this is above the minimum wage in China but hardly enough to survive and seriously do I want to be part of a culture that buys one of their products for either hundreds or thousands of pounds.
This is not a dig at Apple most large corporations are the same. I am just saddened that we sit down and watch "Amazing Grace" as if Wilberforce really did manage to change the world (he did manage to change the world for one group of people, and I am eternally grateful). But some things have not changed. The prospering of one group of people through the exploitation of others still remains. Like those who said no to sugar we have found ourselves saying No to Nike and Reebok, even tea and coffee, insisting on fair trade products in much the same way.
A world in which some earn a wage of 6 million per year or more and can make Billions in Bonuses or capital gains. But others can not find work to earn themselves a pound. where some spend tens of thousands per day on fuel for their boats whilst they leisurely hop from one Island to another and others starve to death.
I know its been said a million times but there is clearly enough food and money in this world for everyone to live a comfortable life. Am I a communist? or a socialist?. NO I don't believe in the control of communism or the nanny state of socialism where the undeserving poor share the same quality of life as those who try and work and give. I do however believe in a cap on greed. I'm so NOT an out and out capitalist either. Yes tax the truly rich but then what? Should it be given to the government who will find a way to put that money into their own pockets. This enquiry, that enquiry costing millions in wages. ridiculous expenses but that is not my real issue. My issue is the pretence. What pretence?The fact that the government has no intention of beating poverty or closing the gap between the rich and the poor and I mean government in its widest sense. I am not speaking of a party, in this they are all much the same as we have seen.
Evil pure evil, very little has changed, the rich are still getting richer, largely still through exploitation of the poor.
So capitalist, communist, socialist, none I think. just a human being who dreams of a fairer society.
written in May 2010
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