Political schizophrenia (1989)

From the January 1989 issue of the Socialist Standard

ON THE ONE HAND, all over the world people are deeply saddened by the magnitude of the Armenian disaster. 100,000 workers, many living in matchbox housing built on the cheap, were killed in what insurance companies call an "Act of God". (Sure must be a good god who puts on these murderous acts.) The thought of men. women and children, just like us and those we know, being killed instantly or left in the rubble of collapsed cities and towns makes us weep.

ON THE OTHER HAND, the same people who weep over 100,000 Armenian dead vote for a "defence" policy based on the principle that "our" security can be best achieved by threatening to bomb the Russian Empire (of which Armenia is a part) and kill hundreds of thousands of workers. The Armenians live and die under a state dictatorship; they do not vote for their foreign policy. But most British workers vote on the basis that it is quite reasonable to murder men, women and children and turn the towns and cities in which they live to dust.

ON THE ONE HAND, democracy means that a majority is allowed to have its way. We would not call an election democratic if 10 percent of electors voted for A and 50 percent voted for B — and A won.

ON THE OTHER HAND, Britain’s “freedom-loving" government has passed a Housing Act which calls a democratic election one in which the views of the minority can prevail. If a local council wants to sell off its council estates to private landlords, the new law states that a referendum must be taken of the tenants involved. Votes in favour of selling to a private landlord may be far fewer than those against, but those tenants not voting at all have their votes added to the "fors". so that a majority of "againsts" can be defeated by a minority of “fors" plus the abstentions. Torbay Council has already conducted a referendum on the basis of this new definition of democracy.

ON THE ONE HAND, the government is in favour of the deregulation of franchises for TV channels. They say that the public should be allowed to decide what they view. To the allegation that running TV on the same basis as the press will lead to TV barons producing tabloid trash, the government says that people are free to watch what they like.

ON THE OTHER HAND, the government has banned the advocates of certain ideas from being allowed on TV because viewers may be taken in by them. This act of censorship is defended by those who say that workers' minds should not be exposed to the defenders of illegal terrorism.

ON THE ONE HAND, prices are supposed to be an indication of what people need. All economics text books explain that without prices, high and low. to reflect demand for goods there could be no rational allocation of resources.

ON THE OTHER HAND, 15 million children starve to death annually in a world of food mountains. They cannot afford the price of food. In the eyes of the market they are invisible because they cannot pay the market price and give the food owners a profit. “Rational allocation" under the profit system equals mass starvation, while farmers are paid not to grow food.

ON THE ONE HAND, all decent people deplore child abuse, particularly of a sexual nature. The News of the World (6 December) — went into the horrific details of how twisted men indecently abused a young teenage girl.

ON THE OTHER HAND, the same issue of the newspaper displayed a virtually nude photograph of a thirteen-year-old girl who readers are told has exciting sexual fantasies. For whom was such a picture included, if not the very men who regard children as sexual objects?

ON THE ONE HAND, defenders of capitalism say that socialism could never work because human co-operation runs contrary to human nature. Despite the fact that whenever there is a social disaster floods of workers rush to help the victims, they say that humans are basically selfish and anti-social.

ON THE OTHER HAND, defenders of capitalism are constantly asking workers to act more co-operatively towards their bosses. They point out, quite rightly, that capitalism would not be able to make profits without workers agreeing to behave in a relatively selfless, co-operative, social spirit.

ON THE ONE HAND, psychiatrists define schizophrenia as an illness involving the perception of contradictory realities in the one mind.

ON THE OTHER HAND, the ideas which defend capitalism seem to fall into exactly that category. You can only defend the ideas of this crazy social system if you push all of your more reasoned, experience-based ideas to the back of your mind. Capitalism does not refer to such thinking as a psychiatric disorder which needs to be remedied; it sees such ideas as "common sense" and encourages workers to entertain such absurd contradictions in their minds.

SOCIALISTS

- offer sympathy to the victims of the Armenian catastrophe, but do not advocate a policy of killing even more Armenians at a later date.

- maintain that democracy means the majority having its way, always doing its best to make room for the wishes of the minority in any situation.

- favour TV output which will give viewers free access to all ideas and images they may choose to see. and oppose all bans on what we are allowed to see.

- reject the economics of capitalism, which assert that we need buying and selling and prices to determine what people need; priceless, free access to all goods and services for everyone is the only way to allocate goods efficiently.

- are sickened by the abuse of children, and by millionaires like Murdoch who make a profit by selling child porn in their so-called newspapers.

- repudiate the myth that humans are inherently anti-social and uncooperative, and state emphatically that human nature is no barrier to a sane, socialist society.

If you think the same way. then why not find out more about The Socialist Party with a view to joining us?

Steve Coleman