Political Thoughts: From the ALP to Transylvania and Beyond

[tcpip]

Capturing the attention of the public and media in Australia over the past week has been the challenge to the current Prime Minister by the former Prime Minister who was challenged by the current Prime Minister. Various opinion polls have shown that Rudd is considered far more popular among the general public, whereas Gillard is far more popular among Labor MPs. Despite some pretty grubby personal attacks, many of the MPs have taken the opportunity to herald the government's achievments over the past few years with positive results. Both are good leaders for different reasons; Rudd is the ideas man, a popularist, public figure, and the polls reflect that. Gillard is a manager, a negotiator and the results reflect that is well. If something is unpopular she waters it down in order to partially succeed; but it also means there is a loss of sense of leadership. The polls reflect that as well.

On other political matters was delighted by an address given by Rev. Jozsef Kaszoni on the contemporary development of Unitarianism in his native Transylvania, especially the difficulties under the former communist regime, accurately described as a police-state where personal mail was always opened, 'phone calls were routinely monitored and people lacked the basic freedom to express critical opinion (those that did found themselves in prisons fairly quickly). The regime also continued the racist "Romanianization" policy towards the numerous ethnic Hungarians and Germans who have lived in Transylvania for hundreds of years. Even in my days as a fairly orthodox (albeit Trotskyist) Marxist in my teenaged years, I throughly disliked such left-wing fascist states. Now that the public record is even clearer about the crimes against humanity perpetrated by such regimes. I can only hope that the direct and personal illustration will help those continue who have irrational idealistic attachments to such places. After all, it is never too late to learn.

With the experience of "actually existing socialism", as such dreadful regimes were known, and the inevitable collapse of eastern bloc, there were many apologists for who were crowing about the success of democratic capitalism. More considered arguments (such as Fukuyama's), are worthy of more serious consideration. For those who do not think that we have reached the highest political and economic level of social relations, the only realistic progessive opposition to democratic capitalism (democracy imposed on civil life, private corporations) is libertarian socialism (liberty in civil issues, worker's cooperatives), of which the Isocracy Network provides a nascent social theory that is in greater accord to our contemporary circumstances and the universal trajectory of the human story. On the latter point, next Sunday at the Philosophy Forum (12.30pm Unitarian Church hall), I'll be presenting on The Philosophy of History: Metanarratives and Hermeneutics.

Comments

Robocalls

[mellotron_breakfast]

Completely off-topic, but have you been following the Robocalls scandal in Canada at all? It involves the previous Canadian election, where a call centre phoned people in some ridings and falsely claimed that the polling stations had been moved.

Link to a recent development.

Re: Robocalls

[tcpip]

Wow, so they engaged in electoral deception and managed to engage in a Quebecois caricature at the same time?

[mellotron_breakfast]

And I'm not sure that article in particular shows how far this problem extended. For example, Kingston also reports deliberately rude callers at 2 AM claiming to be Liberal Party workers.

An Ottawa Citizen blog rightly poses the question of the depth of this scam. How many ridings were affected, and would it have made the difference between the Tory majority we have now and another minority government?

It's all very shameful. And yeah, that kind of caricature is like a bright flashing sign telling people in Quebec to support anybody but the Conservative Party of Canada.

[tcpip]

Well, even as an isolated incident this is bad enough. If it was a concerted effort across several ridings the question is whether the entire government was elected under false pretences.

I hope the legal system throws the book at the them, followed by the voters.

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

I was just on the point of advocating Libertarian Socialism - my branch of (A)narchism - when I noticed that you'd mentioned it . There's a Yahoo! group under that title but it's been infested by sexist morons . Any ideas on how to clear them out ? Good for the original Australians ! I too began as a Trotskyist before joining the CP and finally founded The Federation of Anarcho-Pacists in London , using Esperanto .

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I take it you mean this group?

I've just emailed the moderator to see if they'll take any action. One of the dangers of mailing lists is, of course, when the owner abandons them without passing on the role to others.

You could say that about political organisations too :)

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

Yes ! ^ ^
Your LJ has "Insert Photo" and "Insert Video" right here . Mine doesn't .

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

Dammit - it only shows before I write it !

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

It seems to be just an aid to markup.

You can always use img src html tags...

Start at W3 schools if you're unfamiliar with HTML.

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

Hahaha - too true !
:D

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

You could say that about political organisations too

Indeed! Perhaps especially political organisations.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Something I have noticed is that such organisations can be very poor at transitioning to new leadership. In many cases the "old guard" simply remain for apparently no other reason other than they can't conceive of a life where they don't play that role.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

True. Those inured to their routines, long familiar with their colleagues, and comfortable in their position may easily come to see any fresh blood, any change in policy, any new initiative as a disruption merely because they did not themselves originate it; and those who have so identified themselves with the established way of things as to be synonymous with it are liable to see such ideas as implicit criticism of their own persons.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

For the first time I'm hearing this neat oxymoron, left-win fascist :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

It becomes easier when you consider the terms independently and in a non-pejorative manner. Left-wing and right-wing really infer an approach towards modernity (e.g., secular vs religious, republican vs monarchial, internationalist verus nationalist etc). That can be quite independent of the degree of totalitarianism used (and these things must be studied by degrees). The more extreme expression of collectivism, where the state replaces the will of the people, is indeed fascist which, whilst always totalitarian, also tends towards authoritarianism as well. So... not really an oxymoron at all.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

I think you should share some thoughts about technocracy as well.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

In a nutshell? Liberal democratic totalitarianism - not usually authoritarian. Certainly not fascist, either. It is rather unique in that regard that it can be totalitarian without being fascist. It allows, and even encourages, private freedom.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

But can it be also democratic?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

In a very formal, regulated, managed expression of representative democracy, yes.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

And... arguably, mass democracy itself is 'difficult'.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

Why, I suddenly seem to be rather firm left-winger again!

I can never keep track.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've often thought that you belong to the liberal-left, with a fair dose of pragmaticism.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

I've often thought that you belong to the liberal-left

That's certainly one possible fair and reasonable characterisation, I would like to think.

with a fair dose of pragmaticism

Thank you!

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

This actually reminds me -- at some point I am probably going to have to jot down a post somewhere detailing my not inconsiderable problems with (what I've actually read of) Fukuyama. As you can probably imagine I do not especially mind anyone dancing on the shallow grave of realkommunismus, but there's a fair number of things in his views that strike me as immensely and glaringly problematic.

(I suppose I also should take the opportunity to flesh out some of my own philosophical tensions while I'm at it; no point just being a news outlet, I suppose.)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Of course Fukuyama is problematic but he does present a worthy argument with a historico-teleogical orientation from a liberal-democratic perspective. Such an orientation was almost entirely the domain of the Marxists for most of the twentieth century, to the point that liberal theorists actually started to argue against historical trajectories (e.g., Karl Popper's The Poverty of Historicism).

I think in order for historicism to be true there must be innate and universal in order for their to be telos and that it is possible to discern what those tendencies are, and that it is possible to test the hypothesis. Fukuyama, for example, would argue that there is an innate human desire towards liberalism and democracy - and a technical orientation that will result in transhumanism.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

I confess I have a fair bit of trouble attaching the word "worthy" to this sort of historico-teleological view-point -- and not merely due to Popper -- but I'll take your word for it. But, incidentally, I think that last item on your list should already by itself be counted as a powerful stab into the heart of Mr Fukuyama's thesis. It is fairly trivial to discover circumstantial evidence of human propensities towards whatever and whichever form of existence the theorist finds a fashionable topic of discussion in his circles at any particular time; it's an entirely different matter to sort out what such a notion as testing this particular kind of hypothesis should even mean in a historical framework. It's not as if the planet has a control group.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well, that third point is very much taken from Popper, who argued instead in favour of "piecemeal social engineering" as an alternative to grand history-changing experiments.