Going to the dogs under Brown

Gordon Brown’s vision for the country is a desperately feeble one:

A fair society is one where everyone who works hard and plays by the rules has a chance to fulfil their dreams whether that's owning a bigger house, taking a holiday abroad, buying a new car or starting a small business.

Is this a society for humans, or for dogs? Dogs can work hard and obey rules, and be thrown a few bones as a reward.
There’s so much missing from this, not least: who makes the rules, and how? Isn’t a “fair society” one in which people get more power over their lives?
What’s shocking here is the contrast between this and the ideals leftists had 150 years ago.
Back then, John Stuart Mill deplored the “struggling to get on…the trampling, crushing, elbowing, and treading on each other's heels“ as a “disagreeable symptom” of a passing phase of society. Brown, by contrast, seems to glorify such grubby materialism.
And Marx thought a rich society - and Britain today is surely richer than even Marx envisaged - would be able to offer its members self-actualization and freedom. Brown, however, can do no better than a mediocre human resources manager seeking to entrench capitalist alienation: turn up on time, do what bosses tell you, and you‘ll get a little pay rise.
Now, you might object that Brown is not talking to post-materialist privileged people such as me.
But he’s not addressing the poor either: this speech is billed as an appeal to middle class voters. The genuinely poor want any house, not a bigger one, and they want a job, not their own business.
There’s something, though, that depresses me even more than the narrowness and lack of ambition of Brown’s words. It’s that they might actually appeal to voters.

Comments

[Trevor Brown]

As I see it, the standard of living of the majority is not determined by government policy.

People's lives are very much better than they were 150 years ago, but this is not the consequence of wise government or wise elctoral choices.

What has put more bread on the table is agro-technology, and holidays abroad for the masses, aero-technology. I don't see the hand of government in any of this.

All states in the world, are more or less enjoying the same huge advances in living standards, regardless of regime and philosopy.

see for example

http://fabooks.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/was-it-all-for-harry-potter/

[Paul Evans]

Do you not see the hand of government in any of this Trevor? Are you, in a roundabout way, trying to say that the private sector is totally brilliant at everything and governments just can't do anything properly?

Just checking....

[PooterGeek]

If only Brown could offer the dog-like masses a Vision. If only the little people could see The Truth like Marx and Mill and you, Chris.

Yes, it's difficult for them to do so in the absence of anything as grubby as evidence, but these are Great Philosophers we're talking about here, not managerialists. Collecting data is for swots. All a real intellectual needs to make a case are snobbery and psychobabble.

As I was saying to the AA man the other evening, "Thanks for fixing my car, but---in my ideal world---I would have self-actualized myself along the A27 to the rehearsal studio for band practice and spared you the capitalist alienation".

[Tom Freeman]

It's a truly miserable paragraph. But he does go on to say:

"people’s aspirations for themselves and their families go beyond the material concerns.

"They are about the hopes they have for high quality care for their parents, the concerns they have about the environment we share, the anxieties they have about the safety of their streets, and the pressures in the feel in balancing work and family life.

"And so I believe that we have before us the chance to have more people than ever before fulfilling their aspirations in the widest sense."

Atrocious waffle, of course. But at least his pitch isn't just 'vote Labour, buy stuff'.

[John Terry's Mum]

PooterGeek

Are you as smug, pompous and boring in reality?

[John C Vetterlein]

Our shining aspirations.

All things to all men and women?

I fully recognise your aspirations:
bigger houses
holidays abroad
cars . . .
earn and spend,

Yesterday I vowed to save the planet,
today I chuck the planet
upon the scrap heap of political expediency!

[Pet welfare]

All states in the world, are more or less enjoying the same huge advances in living standards, regardless of regime and philosopy.....
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Viva-Magazine-Your-Premium-Womens-Natural-Health-Magazine/262734921452?ref=ts

[sildenafil citrate]

Dogs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…
I know, iknow, Everyone wants a dog but heres another story about someone wanting a dog. I want one and wanted to know what the average price for a girl dog is, for a boy dog is, for a girl puppy, and a boy puppy.

[Sterling Silver Belly Button Rings]

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[sample nursing care plan]

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on the wrist.

[Garry Brei]

Like a buying a new car or even getting your car fixed, there's always motivation. You want to get your car fixed because you want it to have better condition and performance; or if it needs repairs because of some accident, you would want it to be back to its previous state. Motivation, we all need that -- it's what makes us work hard, do more, and play the rules very well. Everyone who works hard needs some little reward, right?

[Handwriting analyst]

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