tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post6399395502406935153..comments2024-03-17T11:05:22.464+00:00Comments on The Life And Opinions of Andrew Rilstone: ONCE UPON A TIMEUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-2911530544771731182011-03-21T13:02:19.524+00:002011-03-21T13:02:19.524+00:00”Mr. Marx also believed that society was defined b...<i>”Mr. Marx also believed that society was defined by its economic base -- one half of society controls the means of production, and the other half doesn't -- and that everything else grew out of that fundamental inequality. You can't fix the church or the schools or the family until you fix the economic basis: once the proletariat control the means of production, everything else will come right as surely as night follows day…<br /><br />…Everyone creates an enemy in their own image. The Daily Mel's fictional universe is a mirror image of the Marxism which she abominates.”</i><br /><br />Whereupon, as if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared!<br /><br />Judging by past experience when you write “Mr. Marx” I am better off reading “those tub-thumping slogan-spouting Marxist fundamentalists”. (The type I tend to dub Tankies.) And certainly those people had a tendency to claim ‘revolution’ as a kind of magic cure-all which would automatically do away with all ills. (Including, among many of them well up to the Eighties, the “bourgeois deviation” of homosexuality.)<br /><br />Nevertheless, there surely <i>is</i> a small group of people who have a disproportionate amount of wealth and property, and that ownership gives them a disproportionate amount of influence over society. They may be believing a sensible thing in a silly way, or at least in an un-nuanced sort of a way, but there’s still that nugget of sense beneath it all. Claiming the world to be run by a cabal of Gay Marxist German intellectuals, conversely, is like claiming the twelve foot lizards, Father Christmas is pulling the string or John Lennon was the walrus goo goo goo joob. It has zero material basis.<br /><br />And the mirror image of the Tankies is surely not the Daily Mel but the free marketeers. “Privatisation” merely replaces “command economy” as the magic fix. Of course the Mel <i>support</i> free markets but it doesn’t tend to be a central plank for them, they prefer to depict themselves as defending British traditionalism.<br /><br />I think the anti-Gay thing just comes from a middle class spendthrift Puritanism. Sex is permissible provided it’s for a set purpose (baby making), is conducted in the marital bed on Saturday night and no-one enjoys it much. Whereas those queer boys, their <i>sole purpose</i> can be none other than enjoying themselves…Gavin Burrowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-67867984946384408912011-03-21T12:35:17.095+00:002011-03-21T12:35:17.095+00:00(Oh, and I noticed you're arguing in the alter...(Oh, and I noticed you're arguing in the alternative, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth pointing out the problem with one of the alternatives).SKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09102522819364312684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-34150566423189131632011-03-21T09:50:31.005+00:002011-03-21T09:50:31.005+00:00Ahhh, busy morning, a chance to relax and my favou...Ahhh, busy morning, a chance to relax and my favourite phrase of the week so far appears (St Paul and Jesus agree with Dave Sim...) <br />I believe there is no other writer on planet from whom I would expect to read this. <br />Thank you...Cannaehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15714728788145149941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-76249420752008476292011-03-20T22:28:30.119+00:002011-03-20T22:28:30.119+00:00"if you avoid their politics""if you avoid their politics"Andrew Rilstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16934052271846235431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-26058196667709270112011-03-20T21:00:28.826+00:002011-03-20T21:00:28.826+00:00You just Godwinned *yourself*, which deserves some...You just Godwinned *yourself*, which deserves some prize or other.Helen Louisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07600284354557428351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-7832154496823438332011-03-20T17:34:27.389+00:002011-03-20T17:34:27.389+00:00I just Godwinned my own thread, didn't I?I just Godwinned my own thread, didn't I?Andrew Rilstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16934052271846235431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-74208963462103392932011-03-20T17:34:05.156+00:002011-03-20T17:34:05.156+00:00That everything was much better in the olden days,...That everything was much better in the olden days, especially attitudes to gay people and black people. (Although I have to admit, once you get over the appallingness of black face minstrels, AND the silliness of people singing "in Dixie Land I take my stand" in Posh English, I think the Black and White Minstrels clip is a really nice bit of song and dance. Which is a bit like saying that Mr and Mrs Hitler are a charming couple if you annoy their politics, I admit.)Andrew Rilstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16934052271846235431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-26933167585343021882011-03-20T13:39:53.105+00:002011-03-20T13:39:53.105+00:00That Generation game clip was one of the most deli...That Generation game clip was one of the most delightfully camp things I've ever seen.Helen Louisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07600284354557428351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-42227776721301138102011-03-20T09:19:48.090+00:002011-03-20T09:19:48.090+00:00Okay, explain the point of the clip please.Okay, explain the point of the clip please.Nick Mazonowiczhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01672027642700116849noreply@blogger.com