Is society barmy or am I? Reading the newspapers it is hard to tell whether the reader is failing to appreciate the subtle beneficence of the system or whether, as seems strikingly obvious, the entire social order is an ill- disguised mad-house.
At the end of September BBC radio announced that a dangerous criminal was on the loose. He had already murdered his sister and had phoned his brother with a promise that he was next to be killed. The "dangerous criminal" in question was described as "deranged", which is not a bad word for a character who goes around killing people. Oddly enough, the BBC reporter was at pains to tell us that the criminal in question was a "Falklands War Veteran". Only a few years ago this now deranged criminal had been doing his bit for Queen and Country. Now. "doing his bit" is not a bad word to describe what happens when a soldier puts on a uniform and. with the government patting him on the back, engages in indiscriminate killing of workers he has never met. Which might sound like the behaviour of a dangerous criminal. But we would be wrong: our friend, the veteran. was a glorious hero when he was killing the hirelings of his master's enemy. He whose deranged criminality we are urged to condemn today was given a medal when he had acted under orders.
If the killer who couldn't break the habit when the war ended is caught he will be sent to a psychiatrist who will tell him, in pseudo-scientific jargon, that he is a sinner. (Shrinks are only the exorcists of a world which pretends to be modern.) If two psychiatrists consider that he is a danger to himself or other people he can be locked away without his consent — just as during war-time conscription, if a doctor says you are fit you can be ordered to become a killer without your consent. But if those who are a danger to themselves and others can be incarcerated, according to the terms of the Mental Health Act. why haven't they got Michael Heseltine yet or the military generals or the rest of the legalised murder establishment?
Talking of mind-doctors, if you ever go to a psychiatrist and complain that you are being watched by someone who is out to destroy you, there is every chance you will be suspected of paranoia. When capitalist nations think that potential destroyers are watching them it is called a "spy scandal". And workers are urged to get cross because those Red bastards are out to discover our secrets. It is hard, just for the moment, for most workers to think of a secret which the Russian spies will be out to get from us. Do they really send spies over to Britain to find out that Mr. Smart of 44 Acacia Avenue has a pile of porno magazines tucked under his mattress and Miss Squint, the regular Church-goer, is having a non-platonic relationship with six choirboys? Workers have no secrets worth stealing; the secrets which the KGB comes to get are as much secret from us as they are from them.
While "spy scandals" go on and phone-in pundits declare war on "the Soviets" (not realising that they were destroyed by the Bolsheviks well before 1921). the ruling class of Britain and Russia do not allow such trivia to get in the way of trade. SPY EXPULSIONS FAIL TO ROCK TRADE BOAT was the Sunday Times Business News headline in the week of the so-called scandal:
Britain's trade with Russia is set to rise above the spy dramas of the past fortnight. A major Anglo-Soviet commercial treaty could be signed by the end of next month and British companies are strong contenders for two £1 billion petrochemical plant contracts (22 September).
British exports to the Russian Empire rose by 65 per cent last year, but Paul Channon. Tory Trade Minister, is not happy that "our" exports are far less than those from West Germany. France and Italy. He is anxious to point out that "British companies should be in a strong position to help improve the Soviet Union's backward agricultural and food processing industries". And we thought they were enemies! Or could the Minister of Trade be a KGB agent?
On 28 September the Guardian's Brussels correspondent informed us of a plan to dispose of the EEC butter mountain by feeding it to the cattle:
The idea is to mix elderly butter from the one million tonne mountain with more conventional feedstuffs for calves. This, says farm commissioner Frans Andriessen. will have a "positive effect" on veal.
Well, it’s nice to think that butter will have a positive effect on veal; the elderly and unemployed workers who can afford neither veal nor butter will be delighted to read about such positive effects. Alas, like all great schemes dreamed up by attendants of the asylum.' the Andriessen plan has a weakness: there is currently a 785,000 tonne beef and veal mountain in the EEC. So. if the butter helps to increase veal production that will simply be shifting one surplus to another place. There is. of course, the idea of letting people eat the butter and the veal, but. . . well, let's stick to "serious" ideas, shall we?
Steve Coleman
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