The Political Thread

[Theblazeuk]

That made me laugh.

Until I read the reporter is someone who testifies in senate committees about terrorism.


The tweets of FoxNewsFacts were great though

[TordelBack]

The latter always seems more of a financial pressure than anything else.

Financial pressure, or source of a sense of self-worth?  (Which I'm sure many of us have painfully discovered can be the same thing). I think we're talking about both push- and pull-factors here.  Having what you perceive as a useful even important role, cash in your pocket, respect of your peers, making a difference to the things you hold dear - things it's very hard to come by when you're on the margins, but which a military career (regular or underground) offers. 

In defence of those joining conventional national armies, at least the work you sign up to do is notionally approved by the democratic will of your fellows, and bound by international treaty and rules of conduct.  You are in theory at least serving and protecting those who have surrounded you from the cradle, with their blessing and thanks - something reinforced by national holidays, formal education and government rhetoric.

It must require an additional degree of faith, or possibly a lower threshold of doubt, to soldier for a minority cause, whose mandate is far less transparent and in the hands of the charismatic or the divinely inspired. However, I suspect those distinctions look pretty shaky when you're the person making the decision - it all comes down to what you see your community as, and how its interests can best be served.  The key to stemming the flow of recruits must be to minimise the differences between the core interests of all our communities, rather than setting them at odds, which every piece of anti-Muslim sloganeering does. 

[ZenArcade]

Theblazeuk,does point out that armies (western) are subject to military jurisprudence and indeed the controlling body (us through parliament) are subject to parameters set by law eg the Geneva Convention. Now I had many experiences of a constituted Army (British) and an unconstituted army (PIRA) in my youth and had some shitty, degrading, pointless, futile, fucked up experiences from both. There are as ever shades of grey in these situations, irrespective of the legal status of the organisation you are dealing with. Didn't I am happy to state make me hate people, but the mailed fist isn't the way to sort this stuff out. Z

[The Legendary Shark]

The craft of age has long held the secret of bending the fire of youth to its will. Cultures may change and pressures may vary but the promise is always the same: Fortune and glory. Money and medals. Security and respect.
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I watched the Brad Pitt war film 'Fury' the other day and, even though the climax should have been thrilling and inspiring all I could think was, is this it? Am I still getting pleasure from watching stories about people massacring each other? One of my favourite films of all time was Zulu - how brave were those handful of stout British soldiers! How inspiring! But how much braver were the Zulu warriors who threw themselves in waves at certain death? It's only a film, I know, but these things shape our minds in subtle ways.
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Youth will always want to fight and age will always know of something worth fighting for. I've heard it said that the only way to stop war is to raise the minimum recruitment age for the armed forces to 35. I think that would probably do the trick.

[ZenArcade]

We were sold an even more pernicious load of crap: if you don't do this we will at best be second class citizens in a land in which we have as a culture have lived for thousands of years or at worst be slaughtered in a 'krystal nacht' by a bunch of 'interlopers'. We wern't even given the option of death or glory; instead it was us and them and in order to protect our own it was die in the last ditch....cynicsm and manipulate wanking scumbags, I could give lectures on it. Z

[The Legendary Shark]

I think you just did ;-)

[TordelBack]

Replying to Hawk's comment on the RIP thread here, so as not to derail that one:

2000 Nigerian civilians massacred by Boko Haram. Sad, sad day for the world in general.

The world in general is always pretty sanguine about poor black people killing poor black people, possibly viewing it as a labour-saving device.  Every dead Nigerian is one less potential immigrant, pip pip.

[Hawkmumbler]

Our media is pretty shit though aren't they? I'n contrast to Je Suis Charlie i've heard virtually nothing on this anywhere.

[Zenith 666]

Probably because no reporter wants to go near it.from the few reports it's been an indiscriminate massacre with haram killing anyone who stands in the way.There also been no reports of the al-Qaeda bomb in Yemen that killed 37 people and injured 66 more.

[The Legendary Shark]

I heard some stuffed suit on the BBC (I think) saying how this Paris thing was the worst terrorist attack since London's 7/7. What about that thing on that Scandewegian island not long back, with 70 odd people gunned down? Oh right, but that guy was white so it was a massacre rather than terrorism.
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[Hawkmumbler]

Nail. On Head.

Black man kills a person. The culture is stigmatised.
White man kills a person. He's a lone wolf with mental issues.

Fuck this society, seriously.

[Zenith 666]

Massacre,terrorisim lunatics it all come down to the same thing innocent people lose their lives.Sky's lack of coverage could be down to Murdoch.His views after Paris were disgraceful pointing the blame at all Muslims.

[TordelBack]

White man kills a person. He's a lone wolf with mental issues.

Or he's just Standing His Ground.

But yeah, nail on head there.

[The Legendary Shark]

Another thing that barely gets a mention are anti-austerity demonstrations all over the world - unless they turn violent, that is.
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Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries in the world, is projecting a $39 billion dollar deficit for 2015, which shortfall it intends to cover by cutting wages. Around two thirds of Saudi Arabia's population work for the government and many are already struggling to make ends meet. Their politicians are quick to dismiss the idea as 'relative austerity'. As far as I can tell, there have been no 'relatively anti-relative austerity' rallies in that country. Not yet, anyway, but the population is about to be squeezed, relatively or not, just like the rest of us.
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If even Saudi Arabia is having money problems that might lead to a popular uprising, why isn't our media piecing it all together? Every government in the world is in debt and scrabbling to make money to pay these debts off through taxes, cunning or wars.
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But to whom are all these debts owed and where did they get the unimaginable amounts of money they lent us in the first place?
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At this point, somebody usually yells "conspiracy theory!" as if I think the whole situation has been meticulously planned by some shadowy cabal with the secret compliance of every politician, scientist, journalist and civil servant in the world from the present day back to the time of the First Kings of Babylon. Well, let's imagine that there is a grain of truth in this and that it is my old target of a few powerful banking families who discovered and applied the secrets of money creation for their own ends. I mean, if you were born into a family that has possessed the power to print its own money and lend it to emperors at interest for generations, would you want to give that up? To anybody? Whom could you trust with that power and how would you explain how your family has used and abused that power?
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The current banking scam started, as near as I can figure it, in the late 1500s or early 1600s when certain families of goldsmiths hit on the idea of the deposit bank, where they stored clients' gold, for a small fee, and issued 'bank notes' as surety. As it became more and more convenient to store gold and pay with bank notes more and more gold was stored and more and more bank notes issued.
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Eventually the bank branched out into offering loans, at first using only 1:1 bank notes. That is to say, for every ounce of gold in the safes there was a corresponding bank note, not a note more and not a note less. The loans were repayable in gold, silver or bank notes or your property if you cocked up. That last bit is important.
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The temptation proved too great and eventually the bankers began writing more bank notes than they held in gold to be lent out as interest-bearing loans. Needless to say, business soared and soon these family banks found themselves in the position to lend to emperors, kings, presidents and prime ministers, as well as industries, businesses and ordinary people. They had started on the road to owning everything - or if not owning it, at least wanting to own it.
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Let's return to Saudi Arabia. An oil-rich country nevertheless in debt to the modern incarnation of that old system of imaginary money. Until now the country's been on-side, they sell us oil, take our loans, buy our weapons and keep their neighbours, and subjects, in-line. But now, because the current global monetary system is unsustainable and collapsing, ordinary Saudi Arabian people are going to start going without and maybe even losing their jobs.
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Given that country's ruling class's human rights record and no-nonsense approach to dissent, the situation might rapidly deteriorate.
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The bankers sit back and watch (what do they care? The interest's still ticking up) to see what happens. They'll fund anyone willing to maintain the status quo and their other clients will rush to agree. Governments and corporations will throw their weight at the problem, sending in troops and administrators and MacDonald's waitresses. So long as whoever takes over, or retains power, makes sure taxes continue to be paid to cover the debt, everybody's happy. Except for the people who have to pay it, though - ordinary, increasingly grumpy people like you and me.
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But the media narrative is terrorism, always terrorism. We are at war with fundamentalists and never allowed to forget it. Our enemies are each other, not the handful of people we all owe so much imaginary money to.
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Watch the blood, watch the death, watch the terror and the tragedy, watch the beautiful idiots and the posturing windbags, watch each other and watch yourself. Watch the gladiators, buy the peanuts and enjoy the circus - and under absolutely no account must you pay any attention whatsoever to the man behind the curtain.

[ZenArcade]

In spite of our rage we're still just rats in a cage, to paraphrase the Smashing Pumpkins.