I wonder how many people under about thirty can remember Pulp's great song of 1995, "Common People?" It told the story of a young girl from a wealthy family who wanted to sample the poor life of the "common people." It was thought to be based on the wife of the Greek finance minister, although Jarvis Cocker the lead singer and writer was quite secretive about it. I always thought it was personal to him as the emotion pours out of it. One of the points of the story is that the girl can never sample the life of poverty and boredom and crime, watching the roaches climb the wall; because her dad could stop it all with just a call.
And it is just the same for many of the youth of today, jumping aboard the Jeremy Corbyn bandwagon of skin the rich. Live a socialist life, have everything and pay nothing for it, at least not yet. Take the money off everyone else, look at how racist and violent everyone else is, but you can threaten that rich woman and exploit those Jews because they're not our sort.
Perhaps the state protects its young too well?
The Young People can do it because their figurative dad is the capitalist state that they so hate and it has always protected them from the bitter consequences of their stupid actions. It allows free speech, has wealthy people paying billions to support the poor (the richest 10 percent pay 59 percent of all income tax).
It provides more aid for the poor of the world than almost anywhere else. It defends its own young from aggressive states like Russia and lunatics like Kim Jung-un of North Korea. It does all this before these young people contribute anything towards it and before they realise the sacrifices others have had to make to allow them these freedoms.
Yet still many of them moan away.
Why must we pay tuition fees? Others had them paid for them! But they have never had it explained by Corbyn and his mob that only 13 percent of people in 1980 received Higher Education compared with between 40 to 50 percent today (according to www.history and policy.org). So do they want us to go through every university class removing three of every four students?
We could get the many removed to do real work to pay for the true academics. How the screams and howls would go up then.
Recently some sensitive young people at a top university were outraged to find that an experienced and respected teacher did not fully embrace the prevailing views on gay relationships. What did they do? Report him to the Dean of course, hoping to get him fired. "What sneaks!" I hear the realists among you yell. Fortunately, the Dean was a person not infected by prevalent dogma and she told them that they should engage with the lecturer in question and try to find out why a clever person held different views than they did. The Students Union stepped in to coddle them, offering counselling to any who were upset.
Good grief! They are not being asked to take Hacksaw Ridge or land on Juno beach in Normandy!
The consequences of falling for this idiocy
Things may soon be taking a nastier turn. The capitalist state itself is now under threat from Labour. Theresa May has recently felt the need to defend Capitalism, explaining what should be the blatantly obvious to a world that has experienced the Cold War and the Hell of the 1970's when similar policies were thrust upon the UK by unions who controlled the Labour Party of the time. The world that is experiencing Venezuela today.
I know many millions of young people will not take on board the naive nonsense of Corbyn and his gang, I salute those people. I have known many who have lived in poverty and worked their way out and many more still in poverty who do not stoop to robbing the vulnerable or setting fire to shops in their own streets.
They also know that poverty is relative and that if you must be poor somewhere, better be here or Japan or Canada or Holland (capitalist economies) than Iran or Somalia or North Korea or Venezuela.
The rest must open their eyes. Corbyn's promises are hollow. Why do you think there are no good examples of countries who are doing well through following his doctrine? Why do you think no left-wing group has started successful projects with their own money to show how it could all work?
Yet still, the motley crew may persuade enough people to get them into power. The capitalist dad of the young people will lose his ability to protect them from the worst ravages for many generations. Naivety will die very quickly.
Harvey
I am reminded of a scene from the great 1950 James Stewart film "Harvey," about a non-existent white rabbit. It is achingly funny but also tells some of life's truths. In one scene mother and daughter are discussing life and the daughter says something very foolish and naive. Mother replies :
"Myrtle May you have a lot to learn, AND I HOPE YOU NEVER (have to) LEARN IT!"
Amen to that.
