The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

The thing with communism is that as soon as earned income becomes shared it removes one of the crucial incentives for people (that and status). However the failure of Communism doesn’t mean that we need to chuck out the baby with the bathwater. We may not need to share our wedge but we do need to grasp that its about shared responsiblity and shared endeavour. The stunning logic for this is that we are all fucking in it together.

Even the inhabitants of Nottingham.

I think what we’re seeing in the UK is a veneer of superficiality about the important things in life. We’re so obsessed with material consumption, acquisition and wealth that we’ve negated the stuff that keeps us going much longer than money. It will take generations to eradicate the greed gene that has been cultivated in the United States of Britain.

There are legions of bureaucrats who have to create work to justify their positions. We’re so far removed from the act of having meaningful lives that we excessively large vehicles on the road as representing our status.

I could go on really. Its not just Nottingham. I grew up in Southampton for many years and on going back there a few times last year I simply couldn’t engage people in the important topics of the day. It was all property price escalation, salaries, cars and fortunately their kids but also I think the self indulgent exercise of loving kids and not giving a fuck about anything else just makes a mockery of the whole amygdala twitching exercise. Why not buy a cute bunny and cut its head off when they’re finished gushing and cooing over it because its the same thing.

We’re all in it together, we’re obliged to to take a medium term view of things and neo liberal capitalism is fundamentally flawed with its rapacious treatment of the planet, its resources and the way it dehumanizes people. That isn’t to say that shared wealth is where its at but shared endeavour and shared responsibility most certainly is. That can’t be done while sucking the planet dry is the only game in town. And a very addictive one at that.

Anyway its Monday. I thought I’d come over and break wind rather than over at mine because I’m in open heart blog surgery while I transfer the domain name. I asked why it took so long and my tip top IT man said it was like two servers having sex and trying to figure out where it all goes!

Right back to fellating The Man!

That’s an excellent point about HK Charles – but the key difference is the industry there is still alive and thriving whereas in Nottingham it is quite the opposite.

What this manifests itself into is a HK society that has a generally positive sense of optimism, so their spending ability and desire is high [especially as this also links into the cultural value system of continual progression] whereas in Nottingham [and countless others] there is a belief it’s future is decidely shaky which ironically is also driving spending because people are either trying to ‘forget’ their situation/issues or want to feel relevant to other, richer people/cities.

Of course I am generalising and there’s tons of other factors [including which division the local football team plays in – a study we did years ago] but the overall effect is one city is globally relevant whereas the other has a council continually spending money on areas that don’t really matter because they want to keep the illusion of relevance alive – an illusion that isn’t really working both interms of attracting outside city investment and internal city morale.

Another scary situation is that I believe this ‘denial’ attitude will continue to drive drug, alcohol and gambling use because not only will they provide momentary release from reality, but they provide moments of ‘excitement’ that simply aren’t there in normal, mundane life.

Am I being over-the-top?

Absolutely.

Does this mean the underlying issues aren’t there?

No … and the longer governments and people deny this [or simply don’t care] the more people aren’t going to have opportunities to show how great they can be with some support.

Life should not be a privalidge, and as much as I don’t think brands should make up investment shortfalls – especially when it’s driven by Governments obsessive military spending policies – I do believe something has to be done because this head-in-the-sand approach is eventually going to get to a stage where global warming is the least of our concerns.

i wanted to write something sarcastic to this, i wanted to talk about the weight of my cock being more than a fucking grifter but this is a good post and underneath it all youre a good man so ill shut the fuck up and keep the thing on track

Hi Lauren – I hear you too – and don’t forget I lived in Wollongong for 6 months of my life, and oh-my-god, what a 6 months, ha!

Without trying to say Nottingham is better than Wollongong [but obviously it is, ha!] what I would say is that Wollongong’s infrastructure was built on the back of BHP Steelworks whereas Nottingham had a more diverse foundation that helped it rise from mediocrity – which means it’s fall from grace is even more depressing, but then I would say that wouldn’t I!

And as for NYC, well that was always a major city so even though it went through a tremendous downturn, it was always pretty much destined to rise again by the simple nature of it’s heritage and financial industry.

I’m not saying you’re shortsighted and I’m not saying you’re wrong in what you say, it’s just a sense of sadness that so many cities with so much potential are falling by the wayside …

I didn’t mention HK..!! – Confused of Southampton!

Southampton boys. You gotta love us.

Seems to me that you should be arguing for less government. A post industrial service economy is not about circulating money around an area – the key is to create products/services that have export value, If you don’t have exports (and thus new money coming in) the amount of money being circulated will inevitably shrink over time due to overheads and imports. The public sector is all about recirculating/redistributing money and nothing to do with creating wealth/value – that’s the problem.

But Oz has abundant natural resources and Lauren.

typical campbell, writes a fucking good post and then hes the one that takes the comments on a tangent. last fucking time hes going to be able to throw that criticism at me.

Thank God Charles came back with that – I re-read his post 3 times trying to find the fucking HK reference!
The older I get the more disillusioned I get with ‘Democracy’ as it is in the West because, as you’ve observed before Rob, it’s politics done American Idol style – it’s not about who is going to fix the country, it’s about who has the nicest smile and offers the best short term gain. England is coming out of 10 years of “Socialist” government during which property prices have increased exponentially, inflation has been kept at all-time lows, Tesco has prospered, violent crime (particularly amongst teens) has increased exponentially, the education system has gone down the toilet (seriously, the MOE now says that class sizes of 30 – or even 40 – pupils are not only feasible but realistic), teenage alcoholism is a national epidemic and the healthcare system is verging on collapse. But it’s OK because Blair was a ‘Statesman.’ Or maybe not. I hate what Blair and Thatcher before him have done to England. Fucking hate it. The irony is, I think, that what they have done – or tried to do – is not that dissimilar to what Lee Kwan Yue has done with Singapore – by increasing mass prosperity and the ‘middle class’. The big difference is that in Singapore it comes with a (maybe naive) optimism – an innate desire for betterment – which is almost completely absent in England, where having more money seems to translate into more Magners and coke. Last week a 16 year old girl was run over in Essex because, off her face on too much booze and spliffs she walked down the middle of a busy road challenging cars to run her over because “I want to die”. It strikes me that there is a desparate nihilism developing, reminiscent of Japan, where kids are virtually killing themselves because they don’t see a future for themselves – or the future they see is so grim and fucked up that they don’t want to be a part of it. And it’s not that kids haven’t always got off their faces. A mid-40s mate of mine in London last week recalled getting stoned on weed in Greenwich and going and lying under the Cutty Sark on a regular basis. The big difference seems to me to be the lack of optimism.
Honestly, the older and more like Mary Whitehouse I become, the more I think LKW has a point with Singapore – a sensible, benign dictatorship beats pop-politics hands down. Get the best people running the country, making decisions for the good of the country rather than their own personal fucking gain and pay them a competitive salary so you get the right people rather than a bunch of publicity-seeking slags. Yeah, you have to pay a price with a bit less freedom to behave like an antisocial arse in public, and I’m the first to admit that the lack of freely available pornography is somewhat irksome, but maybe it’s a small price to pay for knowing that you can walk down any street and not get mugged, knifed or raped by a gang of pissed 13 year olds.
Sorry this is so long Rob. I blame you. And the government, obviously.

And of course BTBB, some of the less desirable residents have been expatriated.

Rob I still disagree I really don’t think it has changed in our lifetime anymore than the UK has changed in general. When we were young (ha a long time ago now) there were always the more affluent areas and the dodgy areas. As long as I can remember St Anns & Hyson Green as examples have been areas that had higher crime, sex industry and lets face it as we are both from West Bridgford not the postcodes we would aspire to live. In fact with property prices having increased so much in the UK our generation, unless big earners have fled the likes of West Bridford to live in the likes of Clifton, Carlton, Beeston you name it. I don’t go out in Nottingham city in fear of being mugged or set upon, and yet I remember female friends of ours being beaten up 20 years ago for wearing black and being into Rock.

Yes I am fortunate to live in an affluent area of Nottingham, however we are less than half a mile from one of the largest council estates in the UK and I have a friend who lives on that estate with no trouble whatsoever.

I think we will have to agree to disagree on this subject!

I blame the rock fans.

Why would you all stay there?

Because you and my Mum are Nottingham’s numero uno crime Lords that’s why 🙂

Sure stats are open to interpretation – hell, my life is spent ‘interpreting’ but my post was actually more about Council/Government investment and the fact that they focus on elements that reward their ego rather than the progression of all it’s counties people.

But hey, this has been more fun 🙂

Remember when they spent over a million quid to be voted ‘City In Bloom’ …

That was another wonderful investment too …

And for the record, I HATE the ‘new’ Market Square, it’s actually managed to turn something with soul into Milton Keynes. Or Singapore 🙂

That’s funny, because in a random poll conducted 10 seconds ago, 100% of Iraqi planners said they would rather move to Iraq than work with creatives like Andy!

You good lovely?

thats because i wouldnt pay them the going rate of 2 loaves of water and a bottle of warm water a week

still on for 10 fucker?