what was that about zeitgeists again

[maradydd]

Warren Ellis, in Planetary #7, January 2000:Jack always said it was difficult for us Americans to understand what it was really like [in Britain] in the darkest parts of the eighties

Comments

[darthzeth]

Yeah, I looked up Planetary since I was unfamiliar with it. I realize that there may be context around that comment that would make it annoy me less :)

I guess I've just heard too much hyperbole over the years about politics over the past decade or so. I've definitely got my own idea about what a 'perfect' set of laws are, and I've been complaining about bad laws since the DMCA was passed int eh late 90s (about when I started paying attention). But I read history, and I look at what goes on in other places, and I realize we don't have to so bad. For all the stupidity and corruption in my government, it looks like paradise next to some places out there. I'm thankful I live in a country whose hallmarks are short sighted and inept politicians, rather than truly evil ones. I can live with simply bad policy.

I'm even optimistic that we've made progress over the years! If Thatcher was pushing for eradicating homosexuality, she failed. I'm convinced that even marriage will be available for US homosexuals soon enough. I think social liberals have won alllmost every significant battle against the conservative culture warriors so far.

I wonder what damage warrantless wiretaps will do, as well. It's a step in the wrong direction, for sure. I don't want our myopic inept politicians giving tools to potential future evil politicians. I am well aware that the march to tyranny can be a slow one. I haven't ruled out the possibility of true darkness coming.

Although, if that quote was about surveillance, I wonder why it's in the past tense. If anything, the UK's gotten worse...

[maradydd]

I don't want our myopic inept politicians giving tools to potential future evil politicians.

Oh, right there with you. I think it was in a conversation with staghounds that this came up most recently, that the Left often puts tools in place that the Right promptly uses against them when the Right comes back into power. And there's a lot that can happen in just shy of three years.

Although, if that quote was about surveillance, I wonder why it's in the past tense. If anything, the UK's gotten worse...

It was written in 2000; I think a lot of the worst was still yet to come at that time, though with regard to social unrest, a lot of that was already in place. For all that Labour sees itself as having won a lot of victories, their policies don't seem to have had many of their predicted effects.

[darthzeth]

the Left often puts tools in place that the Right promptly uses against them when the Right comes back into power.

Yeah. I would ask American conservatives if they wanted Bush's expanded police powers in the hands of there favorite love-to-hate liberal, usually Hillary Clinton at the time. Even if you do trust Bush, why would you trust his successor?

[maradydd]

And yes. For all that there are multiple countries on the verge of being on the same precipice of economic collapse that Germany was in the 1930s, I certainly do not see any of them heading toward anything like National Socialism, as one perhaps rather tired example.