johnnytailback

There is such a thing as truth. Non-relative, unassailable, valuable truth. Do not let people relativise the concept of truth into vapour.

I dont read as often as I used to, mainly because not many books are written for me. I want something with a little more muscle and bite than standard-issue power fantasies, whimsical romance, the autobiographies of people who never do anything and things with elves. The Western medium has cycles, and it's currently in a creative downturn. That doesn't mean there isn't excellent work being done. That simply means there's not much of it. And little of it is talking to me. Not many books reflect the fact that I live in a multicultural society fitted with a global communications net, nor do they reflect the fact that I don't own a pair of Superman underpants.

I want books and movies that show the difference between reality and fantasy, or better yet, explain why one is one way or the other. Things where there are moments of pure, heart stopping beauty in the most tragic and broken environments. And the loveliest community on earth will not be able to eliminate the dog turd. That, and the understanding that the world can be neither perfect nor doomed. But that it can be better. And the people who get to decide if it's going to be better or not are the people who show up and raise their voices.

Also, for the several creatures who complained that in their perception I somehow equated American neo-conservatives with Nazis last in class; you're retarded. You are intellectually diseased animals who represent everything the human race has to overcome. Even junkies like Rush Limbaugh laugh at you people. Oh, and pre-emptively -- whenever I use the word "retarded," I get a dozen shrill yells, calls and e-mails from sensitive students using university connection time. Get fucking jobs.

A very short, clumsy prcis of how things are supposed to work. We pay taxes. The government takes part in market activity. The taxes and emolument are paid into a common treasury, called the Treasury. The Treasury is used to pay for what people need. I imagine most people are still with me, because roads don't just appear in the night and fire departments aren't operated by slot-machine. Most of the people I just lost are the American libertarians who believe taxes are the only thing between them and owning rocketships, the heavy anarchists who presumably think the future is breatharian, and the serious tribalists who intend to trade food for wicker baskets what they made themselves. People who like electricity are, by and large, still on the same page.

Now, I depart from the pack on the other side. I'm still an English Socialist. This means I believe in telescreens, thoughtcrime and other things doubleplusgood. Cradle-to-grave healthcare. A mixed economy. And a free high-quality education system. I do not believe that we give education on a transactional basis.

I'm happy to pay tax. I'd like to pay less, because some months it's hard to find the scratch to pay for new vats of boiling oil to pour on the peasants from my battlements. But I'm happy to pay. Because it means the firemen will come when I call, it means I'll get treated when I'm sick, and because it means that our children will receive the education necessary to, we live in hope, make better choices in their adulthood.

A fee of several thousand notes is the difference between people from poor backgrounds being educated in the massed knowledge of the world, and being taught out to say "would you like fries with that?" I'm not especially smart. But I'm happy to continue paying my tax so that people cleverer than I am can go on to actualise their gift. Or did you like the idea of yet another generation looking up at the night sky and seeing nothing but the dull septic glow of McDonalds logos?

I appreciate that my American readers likely didn't understand a word of the above, aside from the digs at libertarians. I don't care, because Im slacking off at work and get paid anyway.

I'm going to spend the money on Communism.