Will Britain become a fascist state?

So I've mentioned it before. Economic downturn typically means right wing politics. I'm really glad the US is on a sensible left wing politics. But I'm a little worried about the UK. 

Our extremist party (think KKK genetically bred with a right wing republican) is the BNP British National Party (formally the National Front). 

They've donned thier suits and they're talking to the deprived, under educated and hard done by. Planting the seed of hated and resentment. But why does it work? Well.. it offers a solution to people who feel there is no solution. 

Sure it's a really shite solution and doesn't actually work, but you'd be amazed how easily people fall for those types of solutions. 

Being an asperger people, I tend to analyse everything rather than go with the flock which is why I'm normally a Liberal Democrat voter. But I can kind of see why some people would see fascism as being 'cool'. In our hearts we all have the tibal instincts of them and us. Granted I would never apply this to skin colour, disability, sexual orientation, gender etc etc. 

But if your waiting to go into a nightclub and someone walks up and says... your special.. you should come right through. You'd probably like that person. I think that's why this type of polictics is so effective. It seperates people out as better and if you're in the 'special' group I would imagine it feels pretty good. Having never been in a special group I'm not really sure. But I often wanted to be in the cool gang at school. I guess this is just a really big 'cool' gang, that's dangerous and doesn't listen to what the teacher/morality tells them to do.

SO... canI see Britain dramatically turning to the right... probably not. (thank god!) I'd love to say this was because we're all very moral, or we've evolved beyond such petty interests. This may be true for some.. but for others it's just plain financial sense. We're in a global economy, we need to work with people who are in all groups if we are going to work and prosper. There's no point getting in a club infront of others if the clubs shite and you can't afford to buy any beer. 

It makes more sense to go wait in a queue for a better club that you can afford an that's packed with people having a great time.. together. 

So.. why today's rant? I've just had a flyer through from the BNP. They want no EU, no immigration, british jobs for british people and my favorite quote. "Because it's not racist to oppose mass immigration and polictical correctnesss - it's common sense!" 

First of all... their flier said NO immigration. Not limited and controlled immigration, whereby we attract the best talent from around the world to help support jobs here, but draw the limit at being a charity to all and sundry.

And apposing political correctness...wikipedia says Political correctness is 

"a term applied to language, ideas, policies, or behavior seen by some as seeking to minimize offense to gender, racial, cultural, disabled, aged or other identity groups."

So... if you oppose minimising offense.. you support maximising offense... in areas including race... making you a.... racist. 

Logic.. intelligence and a bit of integrity really doesn't go with the job description of a fascist I guess. 

Now.. if they'd of said "it's not racist to question why some councils spend many thousands of pounds defining policitcal correctness language guides for their staff, whilst common sense should be sufficient and the money could be better spent." Then ok. I'd be ok with that as a statement. But that's not what they're saying. That's just what they hope some people will read into it at the same time they know others will take it to it's other extreme.... "I want that job so I'll just go kill them." 

The odd thing is.. we have soo many people on benefits that just won't do some jobs. They'd rather stay on benefit. British people turning down British jobs. Maybe I'm mis reading the principle of british jobs for british people... maybe it should be. Fantastically well paid jobs for fuck heads..... yes.. I think that's what it's hidden meaning is. Little did they know there were lots of these jobs going in the banks. 

Ok ranting over for a while. Just got Supernatural Season 3 part one to cheer me up. 

What impact will the internet have on the world?

Hi

I had some spam.. hmm.. useful industry news letter. Through today. I was bored so I read it and unlike most of the c$%p I get through this, was one got my brain going. What happens next with the Internet?

"With talk even of Web 3.0 on the horizon, once enterprises and individuals have become more comfortable with the current Web 2.0 media, there's a raft of possibilities where digital content and communities are melding in a way unthinkable before broadband, before mobile and before content. Perhaps in years to come, historians will look back at this first decade of the new millennium and amongst other historical events, take note of the immense cultural changes engendered by mass access to content, and will see it as the first post-modern digital revolution which saw the death of distance and the birth of the real knowledge economy." - Paul Quigley - Enterprise Content Management 365

One culture - Internet culture

For decades the popularity of Western and particularly American culture has had an impact on societies around the world. But it's always been as something separate, different 'cool'. With the widespread use of the Internet then that boundary that kept the different cultures apart. We truly are moving beyond boarders. This past year has exposed the real extent of globalisation. The American elections swept the whole world up, with people having a view on the candidates regardless of what country they were from. This is the first election where the real cultural phenomenon that's been taking place within America was actually experienced in all countries. The first election that felt like a global election. Like it was an election of a world president. The political language in America is understood by many outside it's boarders through TV, music and the Internet. 

Equally evident is the economic crisis as a global phenomenon. The normal checks and balances aren't in place because all the banks had the same view around the world. It wasn't one group did one thing and the others did something else. Everyone acted together. The big safeguard that there used to be was cultural differance. The attitude towards lax regulation was common all over the place and the massive media switch from hope to fear. Fear of a global depression and anger at the banks is truly global. These events have really acted as a catalyst for people to realise just how closely so many countries and cultures are growing together. All the inter linkages. All the shared hopes, dreams and fears. Main society opened it's eyes and didn't see their world ending at a boarder but was universal. 

What does this change? Where does the technology go? 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5370688.stm

It's interesting to see the view points of others, the great fears the experts have. Knowledge is power and the Internet is the greatest source of knowledge yet. So I can see the logic behind their 'end of the world' predictions.  

In some senses we are setting a cultural reset button, the structures and concepts of a 'social contract' don't seem to apply to the Internet yet. There aren't be cultural boundaries online that we're built, rely on and often take for granted off-line. But unlike the dooms day predictions I don't think that this won't happen. We have the templates of social structure, democracy, anti competition regulation, law and fair justice. We will be forced to have to apply these on a global level. Better cooperation between police forces, better cooperation on regulation and political movements that spread beyond a single country. The closer we move towards a single culture the risk of war becomes greatly reduced. However the risk of terrorism becomes amplified. There will always be a minority in a culture that opposes authority. But over time we will overcome this as we have overcome civil war and violent protests in our own national cultures. 

How long these changes will take? No one knows.  Will we take a big step backwards if we are slow to build our social boundaries into a global online culture? What's really up to us. Will it be an easy transition? No, and it won't be a straight line from here to global peace and a true global culture. 

We've been lucky in the past, we've had the right leaders at the right times following civil wars that have driven us to a more socially just society. I hope we can make this relatively bloodlessly. We already have good templates we can use. 

I think that the Internet is much more likely to change how we do things, rather than what we do. After all, we are still human. The Internet won't change that. 

What do you think? 

What if you started a religion now?

Hello

I've bizarely been thinking about what if religion started nowadays what it would look like. 

1. It would start online with an interactive website and a youtube channel. 

2. You'd have to subscribe to their newsletter and instead of getting their holy book all at once it would be slowly fed out. 

3. You only get to confess things and ask advice on a 30 day trial period, after that you have to start paying.

4. You get to build your own profile on their website and rate how religious you think the other members are. The person getting the lowest score is kicked out.

5. A few months after the site's been running a group of members decide that the religion has things wrong with it and start a rival website based on the same principles. 

6. The bulletin board is filled with messages condeming other websites for not abiding by the tips from this weeks newsletter. 

7. Once the site's been running for a year one of the members launches a campaign to remove the founders and take over. This is very sucessful and the members start a relentles campaign against the members that origionally broke away from the site. 

8. The mangers of the site decide to build the largest and most advanced servers they can, to honor the religion and expand it's appeal to new joiners. They start a 'donate now' campaign and remind the members to contribute constantly.

9. The campaign hasn't brought enough money in, so the site starts merchandising the brand.

10. The campaign still doesn't get enough money in so they start organising FlashMobs to protest against individuals and companies that don't agree with thier principles. Clearly they are out to get them. 

Anyone got any other comparisons? 

What is the value of Christianity?

Hello

Well, the blogs for some big questions so this is a big question. I'm not religious, I consider myself agnostic (I have a personal level of faith and beliefs but they don't fit any known religion). So in this century called the post religion century, what is the value of Christianity. 

Historical Merits of Christianity. 

The Bible - Fact or Fiction?

I'm just watching a documentary on the TV about the truth behind religion. I'm shocked to learn that Jesus wasn't born in Bethlehem. According to the documentary Jesus was of Nazareth. In Jewish faith a great leader would come from Bethlehem. So the writers of the bible used creative licence to add in the idea that Mary would trek across the country to Bethlehem for a census to the Roman Empire. The problem is the Roman Empire didn't stretch that far. 

So, regardless of your personal beliefs, let's just explore the possibility that the Bible is less a historical fact, but more of a wikapedia. A document that is revised and altered to better suit the reader (and the writer). There are many and many examples of this happening it would take months to go through them all. Some of the most recent changes are documented here http://www.av1611.org/biblecom.html But the Bible has been altered right from the start. 

So, why was the Bible written? Jesus didn't write it. He didn't ask for it to be written, otherwise it wouldn't have taken 150 years to get around to it. I mean who procrastinates THAT much especially when the son of God asks you to do things. 

So, what was the basis of the Bible? Why was it created? Who was it for?

Oddly, I've just realised, I've never wondered WHY the Bible was created. I just accepted that of course it would be. Just like, if you go on Big Brother, of course you're going to release a Christmas song, exercise video and a biography, all within a few months. But why create it is key to understanding the document. It gives it context. Let's not forget, Jesus wasn't part of a reality TV show. No one knew who he was, so why would anyone want to read a book about him? Who bought it? Well, books back then had to be handwritten, they were very expensive and only the very rich could afford it. 

This website (although bias,) has some interesting perspectives on the issue.

http://www.thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/99932.qna/category/th/page/questions/site/iiim

It's important to remember that context is very important. The Bible was written in a time before the Internet (yes, such a time existed). Before the telephone, radio, television, train, newspaper and even the printed book. Villages did barter and currency was around, but very very little literature existed. Most village communities were probably getting pretty bored before then. There's only so many stories that can be told in a community. A book was a great opening into something wider, it was the source of knowledge and entertainment. A book like the Bible had to BE the whole of the Internet in one for people to invest soo much money in it. It had to teach people, it had to have history, drama, morals, fantasy, intrigue, news, politics, public opinion and much much more. I'm finding it difficult to find something in modern society I can relate it too, everything nowadays is so.. instant. Closest I can get is when the Wii first came out. If you had it then you had status (or you'd slept outside the shop). Friends, family and in some cases neighbours would come round to wonder at it. Or when the new Harry Potter books come out and there's a competition as to who's got to what page so far. 

There's much debate around the changes that happened to Christianity, the move away from Judaism which was boosted by the Roman attack on Jerusalem and shaped, largely by St. Paul. The message changed to suit the politics and power of the day as it has done ever since. 

Why is it SO popular?

We'd like to think that psychology and sociology have only been invented recently. Granted the terms and the depth of understanding has advanced significantly. But that's not to say that people haven't had an understanding of what motivates people, how people act both individually and as a group. Psychological issues didn't start because Freud invented them, he observed people. Propaganda wasn't invented by the Victorians, that's been going on since the dawn of man and understanding what makes a viable society is what has allowed our species to grow and thrive. 

There are a great deal of universal truths that shine out from the Bible. Have you ever read a book, seen a comedian, heard a great speech and thought, "Wow, I do that too." or "I agree they make a lot of sense, but I thought I was the only one that thought that way." The Bible helped people feel connected, allowed them to explore view points that they hadn't before. The Bible (like most religious text) provided the information people needed to succeed. Through greater education, moral guidance societies with a strong religious grounding have grown and thrived. 

The text at the time represented the latest thinking, ethics and ethos of the advanced Roman Empire.

Christianity - Aiding human evolution

Religions have been a glue that has brought people together. The Church introduced schools, hospitals, counselling and therapy and held out above all else the concept of sacrifice for society, for the greater good. The Church was for a long time quite left wing in it's thinking. Society held up Christianity as the right way to behave. It has been important for the good of society to entrench certain values more than others. That life is precious, so try not to kill too many people. That you shouldn't go around shagging everything in sight because society can't care for all the children, and once you've picked one person to shag, stay with them and raise the children. It helped pull ourselves away from our natural instinct, urges and caveman like attitudes to something more. To an appreciation of the greater society. 

Sacrifices had to be made

In order for Christianity sustain itself for so long, it needed the backing of the state, Kings, Lords, Barons all had to 'get it' and like it. They were the ones with the power and influence to keep the religion going. The context of the Bible's teachings adapted and manipulated by whoever was in charge at the time. Subjugation of women and fear towards other religions acted to support those in charge and defend the faith.  I'm sure these were seen at the time as necessary for the greater good.

 

Conclusion

So I think that the Bible and the religion based on it is really driven by this social and cultural need for guidance, structure and co-operation. Society needs role models in order to work out what they should do. A template of how you should act. If you base behaviour purely on the people you know, society would be extremely fractured. In a time where few people ever travelled to the next town. How do you create a coherent country. How do you create loyalty and get people to abide by the law? You need something that unites everyone. Something that everyone believes in. 

Religion has been essential in order to get us where we are today. It's been our training wheels as our society has evolved. We owe a lot to religion. But that doesn't mean that we can't evolve beyond it. We have reached a point in society that we are able to revise and refine our faith. Whilst the key values in Christianity are universal, they are in all religions and they will live beyond Christianity as they do for many people, including myself, in today's society. 

We are at a point now where the essence, the core right and wrong. that has inspired so many to be good people, has lived on. The sacrifices that were made to accommodate the times they were written are no longer needed. I appreciate that not many people agree on what aspects of the teachings fall under the necessary and the not necessary parts of the Bible, that debate will go on for a long time. But I think we are moving towards making better decisions about what we need and what we don't. We are able to build a better template for a society that doesn't have the constraints that most religions had in the past. We're still seeking enlightenment and social acceptance, they are key to our human psychology.

So, the value of Christianity? It has been huge. It should be respected as a very good idea. But it can't be seen as perfect. It can't prevent new and better ideas. It may be the foundation to our society, but now we want to build the walls, the roof. We want to use what we know now to create the social template that, I beleive, those who started religion truly wanted to, but couldn't achieve in their day.  

Are you religious or not? What do you think? I'm more than happy to receive other view points on this, for or against. 

Is this the start of a New Fascism?

Hey

It's become quite a social fact that after a war society tends to move towards the political left. We beleive we're fighting for something good and just and we want that to be reflected in the way we live our lives. 

Equally during times of economic hardship we tend to move to the political right. We feel insecure and defensive. We tend to revert to tribalism, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribalism) strengthening our bonds and social identity with specific groups of individuals we can relate to. This can take many differant paths but in recent history the most notable is the national darwinistic approach (or fascism). 

Technically speaking this is Neo-Tribalism "as the culture and institutions of modernism declined, societies would look to the organizational principles of the distant past for guidance"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Tribalism

And of course you also get an increase in religious tribalism

http://www.sociologyguide.com/types-of-society/Characteristics-of-Tribal-Society.php 

It's happened before

1920's Cabaret

Yes, you're probably wondering what on earth this has to do with anything. Well, you're probably familiar with the first and second world wars and you've probably seen loads of films about them. But have you ever really looked into what happened inbetween them in Germany? How did they really go from a defeated and financially ruined country to the biggest threat in Europe in a relatively short period of time? It certainly wasn't a straight line and like much of the world the 1920's was a golden era of liberalism and technological advancement. The cabaret became the blogosphere of it's time with a politics, satire and social debate at the heart of many events (and of course sex at the others, just like the blogosphere :-) ). 

http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/his452/Alcohol/germancabaret.html

Social acceptance of homosexuality

I think this message really captulates just how quickly a society can move to the right and truely catch people out with devistating consequences. 

http://www.qrd.org/qrd/culture/1995/gay.culture.flourished.prenazi.germany-10.95

Key factors

More than ever in my life time society as a whole seems to be reaching out for something. We seem confused about where we go from here. What will global warming mean? what does globalisation mean? What's happening with the economy? Who am I? Where do I fit into society. So more people than ever feel lonely. There are few families with a stable social status and people are much more likely to move to new areas for work. So social bonds aren't that strong right now. Combined with economic hardship and a lack of credible role models it's possible for a strong leader to come to power that will provide a structure and hope that we so desperately need.

Are there signs already?

You may have heard on the new 'British jobs for British workers' not to mention calls for a more'values' driven society over the 13 year old father controversy. 

It couldn't happen now

Yes, standard response, but I can't help thinking if you'd of asked all the financial experts in the world just 3-5 years ago whether we could see another depression I bet they would have said something along the lines of "No, it's not possible, lessons were learn't from the great depression, society and financial models have moved on." Ask them now and they'll tell you there were lots of warning signs that were ignored. The news makes it sound like we were 'obviously' heading for trouble, why did no one realise? 

So my question to you is really, what happens after a financial collapse? What is stopping a repeat of history?

Is Obama the one to unite a strong left and provide the security and answers we need without is reverting to the hard line traditional instincts on the right? 

(Plan to post again with what I think the 'New Fascism' might look like. But feel free to comment on your views. Am I mad?)