Bearing Down For A Better World
Lifted from the comments yesterday, Class War unveil their latest triumph of radical activism. Because, according to one class warrior,
It’s our job for the rich to fear us.
When not waging a “decisive battle against gentrification” by smashing the windows of an estate agent, the Class War Massive declare their ambition to “get rid of the rich” – by as yet unspecified but apparently terminal means. This heady intellectual broth has inevitably attracted our finest minds, among them, the self-styled “rebel ethnographer” Dr Lisa Mckenzie, whose mental adventures have previously entertained us.
From their Facebook page:
…the gilded elite who have ruled us since Norman times remain in power and dominate land ownership just as they did when they first robbed it.
So it’s the fault of the French, then? Everything would be fine if only Harold hadn’t taken one in the eye at Hastings?
So it’s the fault of the French, then?
Can’t argue with that.
self-described “class warrior” and “rebel ethnographer” Dr Lisa McKenzie, currently blunting minds at the London School of Economics.
Thank God standards haven’t dropped.
Wikipedia informs us that Dr McKenzie stood as a Class War candidate in the 2015 elections and received a depressingly large 0.1% of the vote.
There is a class war waging and we are losing it…But 30 years later the same approaches do not work. Endless photos of overseas riots and balaclaved anarchists bring no movement here. The same old same old is getting us nowhere.
But yet they keep doing it, if only there was a lesson to be gleaned from failure.
Meanwhile, tackling another vital problem of the day the pretentiously, yet hilariously, named Class Womens Death Brigade (whether they or someone else is supposed to die is unclear) takes on the Jack The Ripper Museum. Fear them as their inflatable hammers and stickers destroy you rich bassards !
Meanwhile, please stop at the Class Wars™ Online Shop, and join us for the 20 Annual Punk Picnic which is free except or the “…pre-picnic fundraiser, t-shirts, compilation CD/download and all that flapdoodle, in order to help cover band expenses.”
Thank God standards haven’t dropped.
A good thing too, not just anyone can teach about graffiti “muriels”, and nothing says serious academic like neon magenta hair.
Thank God standards haven’t dropped
I’m still processing the fact that Dr Mckenzie’s video – in which she inadvertently and at length undermines her own point – is being used by the University of Nottingham to advertise its sociology department and “centre for advanced studies.”
Where, presumably, such standards are commonplace.
…she inadvertently and at length undermines her own point…
Speaking of which her…
…recent research funded by a Leverhulme Early Careers Award…
Leverhulme Early Careers Award, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, founded by noted rich dead white guy, Lord William Hesketh Lever. Obvious joke will be eschewed, but damn those rich people.
Dr Mckenzie’s video – in which she inadvertently and at length undermines her own point – is being used by the University of Nottingham to advertise its sociology department and “centre for advanced studies.”
If I didn’t know it was real I’d have assumed it was a spoof.
If I didn’t know it was real I’d have assumed it was a spoof.
Well, it is veering towards Brass Eye territory. And the police helicopter rumbling overhead is the cherry on the cake.
“It’s our job for the rich to fear us.”
It sounds as if these people don’t fear us as much as they should.
“It’s our job for the rich to fear us.”
I wonder if they’d be willing to take that righteous rap to, oh say, the Central African Republic which has a per capita GDP of less than one dollar U.S. per day? To paraphrase humorist Fran Lebowitz, it’s easy to denounce “the Man,” when your mouth is full of “the Man’s” pot roast.
It’s our job for the rich to fear us.
People will often destroy that which they fear, and the rich have plenty of resources at their disposal to do just that.
These idiots are Britain’s answer to the Palestinians. Relying on the humanity and self-restraint of their enemies while incessantly attacking said foes. Eventually Sampson isn’t going to sit back and take it anymore.
Well, I’m down with blaming it all on the French. Can we cast some Blame Belgium’s way too?
I love the way they have so many links to Guardian stories on their Twitter account, all nicely credited.
They really are so, so wadical.
“People will often destroy that which they fear, and the rich have plenty of resources at their disposal to do just that.”
I believe the rich have less to fear from the radical left than do those less well off.
I believe the rich have less to fear from the radical left than do those less well off.
Absolutely. When not smashing estate agent windows or shitting in people’s gardens, they tend to harass local residents and vandalise small businesses – acts of spite and thuggery that Dr Mckenzie then construes as equivalent to the overthrow of apartheid.
Malice and vanity, every time.
Malice and vanity, every time.
From your second link and the excusing of the Taliban by Gopal, A modernity that has “little to offer Afghans other than bikini waxes and Oprah-imitators.” I am guessing that Gopal didn’t ask Ahmad Shah Massoud or any of these ladies who went to school with him in the 1970s.
Very much off topic, but I had to share this. I find it … well … disturbing, let’s say.
https://youtu.be/CkjAoq7XRv8
I don’t think I’ve ever been able to find the original quote, but Jack Kerouac once attributed to Dostievsky “Give man his utopia and he’ll destroy it with a grin.”
They rail against “gentrification,” vandalise small businesses and shit in people’s gardens. So imagine these creatures moving in next door.
I mean, what’s the opposite of gentrification?
I mean, what’s the opposite of gentrification?
Scumification, douchifying, slumification, wankerizing, might be some of the more polite ones.
slumification
I suppose there’s “urban blight.” But I prefer the more colourful alternatives – scrotification, for instance.
(For readers overseas and those accustomed to urbane and rarefied company, it’s a long ‘o’, as in scrote, as in scrotum. Generally used by working-class people to denote someone who’s untrustworthy, possibly a thief, workshy, etc. Someone you wouldn’t want as a neighbour, however modest your means. See also, toe-rag.)
As I believe that is the delightful Miss Dr. McKenzie on the far left of the banner (right in the photo – also see here), and because the the innarweb is chock full of interesting information, it appears as a member of the Academic Staff of the London School of Economics Miss Dr. McKenzie is hauling down north of £50,000 ($65,000), not counting whatever her grant is.
As the median income in the UK is around £27,000 ($35,000), does this mean she has to find herself a new home ?
There you go again, Muldoon. Pointing out the philosophical flaws in a system of ethics/morality predicated upon the amount of “stuff” over which someone claims dominion. It’s not about the existence of “dachas.” It’s about who has the dacha.
Or the corner office in the Politburo or all-expense-paid trip to Davos to bitch about Capitalism.
Your suite in the re-education camp is already prepared complete with the dreaded “comfy chair.”
They rail against “gentrification,”
That guy in the middle reminds me of something…
Your suite in the re-education camp is already prepared complete with the dreaded “comfy chair.”
I denounce myself, and will report to Sector 9 for re-grooving immediately.
Well, it is veering towards Brass Eye territory. And the police helicopter rumbling overhead is the cherry on the cake.
I was also reminded of People Like Us
I believe the rich have less to fear from the radical left than do those less well off.
Not least because they can pop off abroad.
P.S. Where on earth do they get the loopy idea that all our current generation of owners of rolling acres are all Normans? I suppose they are the sort of people who are so talented that they believe both that and that all the nobility are descended from Charles the Second’s mistresses, Tudor wide boys, and nineteenth century mill-owners.
I would have said “chavification” myself. But the Class War types probably hate the chavs and the working classes, too.
Not least because they can pop off abroad.
I believe I have appealed to the authority of G.K.Chesterton before in these pages, but he is the gift that keeps on giving, so here we go again:
I don’t understood why the lefty hordes never go after the wealthy who are, nominally, lefties like themselves. You know, champagne socialist and the like, living behind secure gates and enjoying all the perks of having far more money and power than is good for them.
Surely in the name of equality the hatred of unearned money, undeserved privilege and illgally-gained advantage should be spread round equally.
God I hate tryping. “I don’t understood” was meant to be “I don’t understand.” There you go.
Bearing in mind what happens when these people actually achieve power (Cambodia, North Korea, Angola etc.), the banner is not just amusing hyperbole. They really do want to kill people. So I think some preemption against that lot up there with, say, an L7A2 and a tasty belt of 7.62 would not really be an overreaction.
I don’t understood why the lefty hordes never go after the wealthy who are, nominally, lefties like themselves. You know, champagne socialist and the like, living behind secure gates and enjoying all the perks of having far more money and power than is good for them.
An issue is not who has what money, the issue is quite genuine upper class vs lowest class . . .
Pulling from Nancy Mitford—‘k, so back in ’55, but I’ll get back to that—;
So, yes, that got written in ’55, but then Stalin was ’29 to ’53, Mao was the ’40s to the ’70s, Pol Pot was the mid ’70s, the Kims got started in the late ’40s . . . and Angola has been just a mess since the ’70s . . . . Oh, and . . .
. . . The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all. Aristocrats were always anarchists, as you can see from the barons’ wars.
Lesseee . . . First Barons’ War, according to Wikipedia . . .
The war resulted from the king’s refusal to accept and abide by the Magna Carta which he had sealed on 15 June 1215, and from the ambitions of the French prince, who dragged the war on after many of the rebels had made peace with John.
The Second Barons’ War, according to Wikipedia . . .
The reign of Henry III is most remembered for the constitutional crisis in this period of civil strife, which was provoked ostensibly by Henry III’s demands for extra finances, but which marked a more general dissatisfaction with Henry’s methods of government on the part of the English barons, discontent which was exacerbated by widespread famine.
Sooo . . . . given . . . I would have said “chavification” myself. But the Class War types probably hate the chavs and the working classes, too.
No, not the chavs and the working classes, it’s the chavs or the working classes . . .
Working class people hate chavs.
. . . therefore, actual functioning patricians, — whether a working class master carpenter framing a house correctly the first and only time so as to do it once, or a upper class senior mandarin trying to sort out economies and schools and repairing roads, — are the most interested in having various levels of government work correctly.
It’s the peons, the working class chavs and the utterly middle class posers, who are the embodiment of the lowest class more than some variety of lower class . . . .
So I think some preemption against that lot up there with, say, an L7A2 and a tasty belt of 7.62 would not really be an overreaction.
Though I would agree in concept that this lot would benefit greatly from an up close and personal glimpse of the elephant, the very large difference between them and the real Ches, Maos, Pol Pots, and Kims is that they are poseurs who think neon hair and piercings are a “revolutionary act”. Despite their pretentious names there is not a genuine “warrior” amongst them.
Go to the “Class War” website, they have had more “decisive battles” than the allies in WWII, yet they have accomplished nothing by their own admission. Their putative “leaders” like Miss Dr. McKenzie are hardly the second coming of Clausewitz.
These bozos are the proverbial latte sipping academics, not football hooligans, the only people they will agitate against or stand up to are those who they know won’t fight back. In a real revolution the lot of them would be as scary and effective as a basket of puppies.
. . . In England, public business is its own reward, nobody would go into Parliament in order to become rich, . . .
Of course a Yet Particular Mention does also keep coming to mind . . .
Farnsworth: it is from among such people that the butchers of collectivism have always been drawn.
Dr. McKenzie is hauling down north of £50,000 ($65,000), not counting whatever her grant is.
‘I don’t consider myself wealthy, says £138,000-a-year Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/14707575.__39_I_don__39_t_consider_myself_wealthy_quot___says___138_000_a_year_Jeremy_Corbyn/
Dr. McKenzie is hauling down north of £50,000 ($65,000), not counting whatever her grant is.
‘I don’t consider myself wealthy, says £138,000-a-year Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’
I should imagine that Mr Corbyn and Dr Mckenzie have mastered much the same manoeuvres as Polly Toynbee, who, despite her resentful denunciations of “the rich” – whom she names “pigs” – doesn’t in fact seem to have a problem with wealth – her own, I mean. Even when it exceeds that of the people she denounces as shameless, grasping and obscene. Perhaps like her, they merely object to wealth being earned by people who dare to disagree with them, and who can’t be arsed to feign pieties they don’t actually live by.
…it is from among such people that the butchers of collectivism have always been drawn.
Quite. Though they may not pull the triggers themselves, they’re not above putting a few psychopaths into jodhpurs and Sam Brown belts and having them take care of the messy opposition.
…and who can’t be arsed to feign pieties they don’t actually live by.
I recall a previous post of yours, albeit in a different context, to the effect that “the cost of piety should be borne by the pious.”
When virtue ceases to be about motives, personal actions and results, and becomes solely a product of mere words, disconnected from anything else, then civilization is well on the road to destruction.
“…mere words, disconnected from anything else…”
Yes, but there’s all that huge demand for Raising Awareness!
I recall a previous post of yours… to the effect that “the cost of piety should be borne by the pious.”
Given the context, it seems a reasonable test of whether a piety is sincere. But as shown in the post linked above, Toynbee et al fail it, quite dramatically, and even suggesting that these people might actually live their professed values results in spluttering and fits of hostility. Again, Polly’s conscience is apparently troubled more by what you earn and keep than by what she earns and keeps, and so any life-changing acts of kindness will simply have to wait, perhaps indefinitely. As I said, it’s hardly a resounding affirmation of her professed moral imperatives.
… there’s all that huge demand for Raising Awareness!
It’s funny how raising awareness of some issue always involves me contributing my money to allow some wanker to go on vacation to trek Nepal or something–to bring “attention” to human trafficking or whatnot.
Well, I want to raise awareness of the plight of Missouri’s indigenous fish populations. This involves you contributing to my fund to acquire one of these puppies.
Do it for the bass!
Though they may not pull the triggers themselves
I wouldn’t be so sure. I’ll grant that they are unlikely to be the psychopath in charge as that requires a purposeful ruthlessness that they do not possess, but I can easily see any one of them getting his jollies by shooting the enemies of the revolution once things are under way. The more so as it would compensate in their minds for their inferiority complex. Don’t underestimate the bloodthirstiness of the chronically ineffectual who is finally allowed to give free rein to his delusions of grandeur. Or hers. These are the ranks from whom the sadists are drawn.
Farnsworth: it is from among such people that the butchers of collectivism have always been drawn.
The operative words being past tense. The Venn diagram of, for example, the students and teachers who went into the Cambodian jungles and who made up the Khmer Rouge and a lot of pretenders whose idea of hardship is poor wifi connection has no overlap if the circles are even on the same piece of paper.
Yes, fight back, by their admission since 1982 and still losing despite all their “decisive battles”. This is what we call a very large failure of introspection. Nobody is following these idiots, they don’t even know what they allegedly stand for other than to fling crap – look at their calendar, 26 August, Brighton Burkini Solidarity Event, the next day Solidarity with the Kurds, failing to notice that the Kurds aren’t what you would call on the same team as the Burkini proponents.
Contrary to these tools putting anyone in power, in the event of a real working class uprising, they would be the first given beet shovels and sent into the fields.
When virtue ceases to be about motives, personal actions and results
I believe that is what David calls virtue signalling.
then civilization is well on the road to destruction.
Well, it was nice while it lasted. Jolly good show, fellows.
…I can easily see any one of them getting his jollies by shooting the enemies of the revolution once things are under way.
I don’t disagree. There will always be those who wish to bring their onanistic frenzied fantasies to reality. Most of them, however, are the sort who cannot be bothered with the implementation of theory. Implementation–beyond taking a dump in someone’s front yard–is messy business. They’re the thinkers, don’t you know?
Most of them, however, are the sort who cannot be bothered with the implementation of theory
Only because there are only a handful of them. Cowards hunt in packs.
… whether a piety is sincere …
Dr McKenzie’s understanding of being pious probably involves gristle wrapped in pastry.