I always end up disappointed.
New socialism does very, very little to address what's wrong with Britain's society today. And I know why – their answer to virtually every problem, whether it be a crime epidemic or an outbreak of TB, is to throw money into those communities in the hope of belated cure, rather than spending on the facilities of prevention.
Take the example of grammar schools. Grammar schools gave bright kids regardless of background (or the contents or their parents' wallets) an opportunity to be educated to a level which pushed them into a position to excel. Not all of them. Some passed their exams, others failed. But they were offered a chance, and it's a chance which is being removed with vigour. They cite elitism as a reason to ditch grammar schools, but it's not elitism because it doesn't matter how much money mummy and daddy have got, as it's still free. A working class child is no more likely to turn out thick or non-academic than a middle class one by nature. But if everyone can't win, everyone has to lose.
The old (albeit often corrupted) ideals of traditional socialism were based around roles, around joint ownership and around equal benefit and responsibility as individuals and as a collective. The ability to influence the driving of one's and all's own infrastructure. Nationalised railways and trade unions who knew when enough was enough, having stood firm in the faces of government and those who wished to take advantage of their workers both financially, and in terms of working conditions as a whole (as a means to gaining financially, evidently).
History has proved time and time again that sooner or later the seams start to give way. Governments want money, so they sell of the rail networks to private franchises. Trade unions get too big for their boots and keep making demands to justify their own existence, someone in parliament simply gets rid of them. After all, they have the power to slow production down to a standstill in the name of the greater good. What's the point of funding a trade union who guards and aids an unproductive industry when you can simply outsource the whole shebang? All that's really needed is an excuse, and in the 1970s and 80s, that's exactly what they gave Lady Thatcher.
Now Socialism has evolved – it has made the switch from an economic system to a highly politicised system. It's not about collective ownership at different levels, roles, responsibility, and equal opportunity. It assumes nobody wants ownership over the actual workmanship. It assumes nobody is happy leaving at 5pm and going off to the pub to forget about it all or play with their kids. It assumes everyone wants to be at the very top.
But everybody doesn't want to be at the very top. Some do, many don't. And who decides where the top is anyway? It seems The Left do that part of the thinking for us. And who decides what being at the top means or represents? Is it good or bad? If it's banking, you only have to look at the reaction to bankers' bonuses during the G20 protests back in the spring. Would “Fred the Shred” have been any more likeable if he'd been working class? If it's property development, look at the property slump. If it's government, the expenses scandal put paid to much of the respect many had for MPs (although not ALL MPs were to blame, in fairness). The jobs at “the top” are all despised by the very same New Socialists who think everyone ought to have a stint there – at the very top. Do they just want someone to email death threats to? A big Lego style building to throw chairs through the windows of? And if these middle class rebels got what they claim to want, how would they feel about having working classers like me and my friends ousting their parents and their friends from their comfy existences and into council housing with the local thug squad? Out into the wilds of joint ownership and shred wealth.
I also wonder where the promotion of those genuinely essential jobs in society are. Why does nobody talk about plumbers, electricians, carpenters and gas fitters anymore? Why so little focus on paramedics, ambulance crews and midwives. It seems that “good jobs” are simply defined by what one can earn out of them, rather than the fulfilment, immediate importance and standing in society one can gain from doing a trade or providing essential front line services. The only reward is financial reward according to the New Socialists. And everyone should be entitled to it. Then there's the fame factor. If you can't be a banker, be a rapper, and be classed as a failure if you don't make it. Know that in the eyes of the various media you surround yourself with, you're a nobody. Feel the resentment welling up inside you.
Going back to the pay issue, I'm not saying that someone shouldn't be paid what they're worth. As someone who has always been at the average salary mark or below it, I know what it's like to restrict my social life to virtually null, buy cheap and processed Sainsbury's Essentials food instead of brand names, to look at those in the big houses with nice gardens and wish I had similar.
But it wears off.
I come to the realisation that with the big house comes the big mortgage, the high insurance premiums, the ultra expensive security systems and the morbid fear of taking a holiday in case a break-in should occur and thieves should steal my £5,000 TV. I don't worry that while I'm in my (fictional) plush office assessing projected forecasts until midnight, my (proverbial) wife is out looking for a bit of genuine company and understanding elsewhere which eventually leads to other things, including the future break-up of my family. I don't worry my children will throw me down the stairs for my inheritance the day they turn 21. I go to the pub, I meet my friends and I talk about football.
And I'm happy. I don't want to be a millionaire because I'd waste it all on crap. As would a lot of other people. But then again, if we're all spending it keeps businesses afloat, creates an illusion of prosperity and means people mind less about little things such as the Europe's Islamic revolution, more and more curbs on the freedom of speech, spy tactics, the dumbing down of education into nothing more than a brainwashing institution designed to turn children into adults who simply won't notice.
In conclusion, giving people money distracts them from the destruction of Britain. But now the chickens are coming home to roost, as the realisation sets in that the money has ran out. Nay, much of it probably never existed.
This socialism will never work because it's not meant to work. It simply exists to create a population that looks to the government to involve itself in everything. Making everyone rich. Enabling everyone to buy that X-Box, that massive TV, that holiday to New York, the house.
It's not about you. It's about the businesses you spend your money with.
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