When Bankers Were Good: BBC2 Tues 9pm

John_Pierpoint

The link is to the interactive version, sure beats staring at a lava lamp, with or without whacky baccy.

TruckerT

Back to topic...

The whole point about human nature/'civilisation'/religion/and,yes, capitalism...

...is that it is supposed to be able to offer an alternative to the law of the jungle, from which only 'lower' species than us cannot escape

But it doesn't actually work!

19th century intellectuals (including some bankers/quakers etc), agonised over these questions of 'conscience' (remember that 'conscience' is a uniquely human characteristic), and the process continued into the 20th century with the rise of the labour movements/communism/the war to end all wars/and, more latterly, the greens

But the opening of the 21st century has so far only served to illustrate the fact that the law of the jungle reigns supreme

TruckerT

TruckerT

TruckerT wrote: »

Back to topic...

The whole point about human nature/'civilisation'/religion/and,yes, capitalism...

...is that it is supposed to be able to offer an alternative to the law of the jungle, from which only 'lower' species than us cannot escape

But it doesn't actually work!

19th century intellectuals (including some bankers/quakers etc), agonised over these questions of 'conscience' (remember that 'conscience' is a uniquely human characteristic), and the process continued into the 20th century with the rise of the labour movements/communism/the war to end all wars/and, more latterly, the greens

But the opening of the 21st century has so far only served to illustrate the fact that the law of the jungle reigns supreme

TruckerT

ps - I forgot to include, in my list of 20th century 'idealisms', the establishment of the European Union and also the single currency known as the Euro

tt

John_Pierpoint

When I was a young foolish idealist; I was 100% in favour of what was then called "The Common Market"; wedded to the concept of a loose co-operation of "equal" sovereign states. At last Europe had broken the cycle of petty squabbling leading to tribal wars.
Like Adam Smith, they had at last realised that there was nothing more innocent than trying to make a profit - Swiss style.

Well that is what I thought I was buying when I supported the UK's entry into "The Common Market".

I even had a revival in idealism, when there was evidence that "EU" (when did we vote for that?) appeared to be widening not deepening as we welcomed the spin off countries from the former Soviet empire. In spite of a generation of brain washing, these peoples were still culturally very much "European". Perhaps having survived a period of hardship, like the Jews and the Irish, they were prouder of their heritage, than those who had a more comfortable existence?

The common currency simply made it easier to travel and trade.

There was a warning bell ringing though, those running the show were very reluctant to simply dish out the same subsidies to land owners - perhaps poor Polish peasants are not "really" land owners? A system that subsidises Samantha's pony and her brother's tennis court is at one end of the range, with huge multi national sugar companies at the other extreme, is all very well; but we ain't going to send cheques to Eastern European peasants, if it can be avoided.

Well in Orwellian terms silly old cart horse me, I must have been wearing rose tinted spectacles.
Needlessly to say the pigs who rise to the top in a "democracy" have been quietly creating an empire of their own.
Lots of high minded posturing and passing of "laws" to improve "justice".
An empire that has not had its accounts signed off for years and years because there have been snouts in the trough at the centre and simple graft at the periphery. A central organisation that is so out of touch with global economic realities that it simply voted itself as 5+ percent budget increase.

Well I have woken up to the reality that the pigs are now running the estate, and the local trades people have realised that some of the farms are being run amazingly badly and so have withdrawn credit and demanded that the slate is wiped.

"May we live in interesting times".

TruckerT

Sir Merv is one of the good'uns - he listens to what I tell him!

TruckerT