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@Johnny: Ah! You've just given me the other MP track! I think you're onto the Newman track too. So, I'd say you need to battle it out with JERO's wife for the chocolate! Good luck!
By the way, all this deviation on this thread is highly irregular!
@JERO: Damn! How did you know I love Belgian chocolate and I'm a sucker for a question like that?! I've got the Colin Newman song and one MP. Just can't crack the other! Aaaaargh!
@ Johnny: Boring? Hmmm. Well, I expect you are referring to some passages of Magma which I think can be heavy going if you are unfamiliar or not in the groove. As for The Grateful Dead, I'm ashamed to admit they remain one of the most glaring gaps in my musical knowledge. One of these days… Generally, however, I am not a fan of boring music, which is why I'm here!
@JERO – Thanks so much for the excellent Magma link. You're going to love the gig, I hope. I saw them a few years ago at the Festival Hall in London. [EDIT Correction – it was the Barbican, along with the intriguing Chrome Hoof.] Amazing! For anyone still struggling with Magma, you HAVE to see this. Is there a finer live moment ever captured in a TV studio?
You might be interested to know that my 1, 2, 3 goes: Yes, Motorpsycho, Magma. As for Wire, I have most of their stuff. I saw them around 1987 when I was really into that run of albums, The Ideal Copy, A Bell Is a Cuo…Until It Is Struck and It's Beginning to and Back Again (quite poppy and commercial stuff, but still inventive – sadly underrated). To be honest, although they were pretty good that day, they're not the first band you'd rush to see live – especially these days – and probably wouldn't be so appreciated by most Psychonauts, I'm guessing, so maybe it's just us!
[EDIT Check out the recent Slift gig also on the ARTE Concert channel.]
Fish Out of Water bro getting down to The Jig Is Up. He really digs Snah! For my money, this track would have been a highlight of any Kenneth-era album on which it might have turned up. Absolutely brilliant. How can a band produce something so, so good and then pay it so little respect? (I suppose it's because they produce so much other amazing stuff, but still… Mind you, I'd rate it above a few tracks on Eggplant, Bahind the Sun and HBM.) How are people not raving about it? Beats me!
Fish Out of Water dude takes on A.S.F.E.
I was all the way in after that!
That's nasty!
Seems as good a place as any to stick this. Stuart Maconie will be playing a Motorpsycho track on Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone this Sunday at 20:00 (British Summer Time) on BBC Radio 6 Music.
Psychonauts might also be interested to learn that his featured album will be by Moondog.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000z6z3
I shall be listening in loneliness.
Poor, old supernaut! I almost feel sorry for you!
I'll tell you whar: as you've managed to avoid being insulting this time – more or less – you can have a break from me, at least. How about that?
And if this thread is getting you all steamed up, you know, there are all the other threads. You could just avoid this one, single thread?
I had hoped you would answer my question, but I guess you can't. Shame.
Anyway, sorry about the freedom.
Here are some good vibes for you!
Wouldn't it be great if Motorpsycho played at this festival?!
Obviously, Norman, I knew that you would dislike and disagree with the first half of the article!
Can I just point out that it's not actually The Guardian? The founders of Off-Guardian have all been censored on and/or banned from the Guardian’s ‘Comment is Free’ sections. Now, isn't that something?
In the Mark Twain spirit (“If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.â€), I used to read The Guardian regularly, but also supplemented with other papers – all but two in the UK are of the right. I expected to be misinformed by all the papers, but wanted to know what it was I was to be misinformed about at any given moment, and in what way, and then to reflect upon why. Over the years, I noticed a distinct change at The Guardian. I came to question how it could possibly be financially viable too. I have concluded that it carries out a particular and well disguised mission on behalf of the elite. Seeing Unilever coming in and funding it added to my scepticism. Then The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joined in the funding. I didn't know back then that they were also big shareholders in Unilever. Anyway, what's that saying? The press is free for those that can afford to own one.
I know you are keen to defend capitalism. I agree with some of your points and I believe that elements of capitalism benefit us all, but, given human nature, unfettered capitalism doesn't go as well as the rosy picture you paint. In fact, without the necessary checks and balances Рthose safeguards I mentioned that you weren't too keen on Рcorruption is simply inevitable. In fact, the big winners will be those with the least scruples. I've got nothing against enterprise, hard work and getting rewarded for one's efforts, especially if one is bringing something useful to society. Competition obviously keeps people at their game. I am also a great believer in freedom (sorry that's such a bore for some people here) Рprincipally freedom of the individual. When it comes to business, however, I don't subscribe simply to letting the market rule. Yes, the market plays an important r̫le, but, without regulation, people are exploited, the planet is ravaged and the health and well being of all goes down the pan Рand some suffer the consequences harder and earlier than others. Obviously, it's a tricky balance to strike, and people will disagree about where and how you draw the line. Even with regulation, you have the problem of the revolving door between the regulators and those being regulated, and you have lobbying, cronyism and myriad other problems.
You say that socialism and 'state capitalism' lead to poverty, oppression and hunger. It's a bit of a stretch, isn' t, to try and make out that plain old capitalism doesn't do that?
I mentioned human nature. I hold that we are all flawed. I believe we are all capable of doing bad things – up to a point – but, actually, most people aren't that bad; they have lines they won't cross. However, I put it to you that there is a minority who are quite different from the rest of us. They are born without the ability to empathise. They can hurt others and exploit others without compunction. They are also very good at influencing others. Most of us are simply unable to believe that someone could do the things that we could never do, but such people do exist, and they do indeed do those things. Now, if you can backstab, lie and cheat and keep getting away with it, always keeping within the letter of the law, or not getting caught, or being able to buy justice, the sky's the limit for you.
If there were not such people in our midst, capitalism might work as well as you say it does. But there are, and therefore it doesn't. Don't worry, though – I don't want to replace it with something worse! I do, however, want adequate oversight. Furthermore, I think it makes sense for the state to own and operate utilities and infrastructure. We'll probably agree to differ on that!
On the question of oversight, this is where the people have to take their share of the blame for why things don't go so well. I get that people have hard lives, so I'm not saying this is easy, but If you just immerse yourself in escapism, and you don't play your part in holding these people's feet to the fire, I'm inclined to say you deserve what you get. It's worse than that, though, because people get so taken in by these individuals.
Let's just call these individuals psychopaths, as that is probably the correct clinical term. I haven't even broached the subject of these psychopathic traits being handed down the generations, such that you have dynasties (I'm not necessarily talking about royal houses here) – dynasties of ruthless types that consolidate wealth and power.
Yes, there are genuine wealth creators, and such people are trumpeted and celebrated by capitalists, but there is this other breed, who adopt the garb of wealth creators, but really they are wealth snatchers. These are the ones who gain at the expense of everyone else, and it is because of them that we cannot simply leave everything to the market.
This is the predator/parasite class. I'm not even going to begin delving into how they operate within secret societies to further their ends. People think that stuff is nuts. Yes, it is, but, it's all too real (and I'm not talking about rank-and-file freemasons, who are probably quite decent people).
There are many observations I could make about the article – it isn't perfect – and a few more of your points I would like to debate, but we do have some common ground, I think.
My main focus is on The Great Reset, and I don't want to get too far away from that, but, in short, yes, I think you do have a valid point in questioning the author's assertion that The Great Reset is a new, super, radical form of capitalism. I'm not sure we have adequate terminolgy for what is being built, and each, in so far as they can get a sight of it, is probably going to reach for their own biases in order to try and frame it.
What I see coming is something closer to Communist China – but worldwide. However, you might just as well invoke the term, fascism. It's not, I fear, a dystopian fantasy, but rather, an actual emerging dystopia. Such a state of affairs always comes on gradually (you probably know the boiling frog analogy). The only way it stops is if we stop it.
There are some incredible, brave and aware people doing their very utmost to sound the alarm. The only hope is that they get heard, but, of course, when they are banned from social networks and ignored by the media, their audience is limited to those who go looking. I've already given the link to Naomi Wolf's warning, which I see, as I finish this, you've had a look at. I'm not sure that it's that she's 'not left enough'. While you can talk about what is and what is not capitalism, I'm not sure that the terms 'right' and 'left' are serving us so well any more. Better to talk about pro- or anti-freedom. She's too pro-freedom. And, yes, the re-education camp really could be the destination for someone like her in the not-too-distant future. It is a reality in this day and age for so many Uighur Moslems in China. Those not in the camps are under the cosh of the social credit system. (What would the Uighurs say to Bent, I wonder, on the subject of vaccine passports?) In China, they are now expanding their operations, moving on to Christians. Developments in Hong Kong are more visible. Does the West do anything? No. So, why not?
But that's never going to happen here, is it? Well, I'm going to wheel out again a quote by the arch-globalist, David Rockefeller, on the subject of China. He was a big fan! Bear in mind that his glib reference to "whatever the price of the Chinese revolution" is actually the small business of many millions being slaughtered.
Quote:Whatever the price of the Chinese Revolution, it has obviously succeeded not only in producing more efficient and dedicated administration, but also in fostering high morale and community of purpose. The social experiment in China under Chairman Mao's leadership is one of the most important and successful in human history.Has China been incubating the system that is about to be rolled out around the world, with the aid of new surveillance technology? Forgive me if I finish by quoting Naomi Wolf's warning, in case someone who missed it can go back and watch it via the link. Good to cross swords with you.
Quote:The vaccine passport platform is the same platform as a social credit system – like in China – for 8 billion people.Naomi Wolf – Why Vaccine Passports Equal Slavery Forever
