As you may know the members of the Watcher’s Council each nominate one of his or her own posts and one non-Council post for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week’s Council nominations is here. The Council plans to continue the present rotation scheme until the arrangements subsequent to the Watcher’s retirement are finalized. Stay tuned! This outing the Council’s weekly submissions are being hosted by Soccer Dad.
Wolf Howling, “Deconstructing the Socialists War On Law & Order In Britain ”
I have a couple of points of disagreement with GW’s post on British politics, society, and “law and order”. First, we are all socialists now. Anybody who believes in income redistribution which means anything other than the head tax to which the U. S. federal government was limited until our constitution was amended to allow a flat rate income tax, graduated income tax, or, indeed, any other form the Congress sees fit on enacting into law. The sad reality is that you can’t have a modern society without some form of redistribution and, if you accept income redistribution, you’re a socialist. Second, I don’t know enough about British politics or sociology to comment on GW’s facts but I think there are alternate interpretations to what’s going on in Britain and, indeed, in all of Europe’s ethnically-based nations today. Britain is more ethnically, religiously, and socially diverse now than at any time in its history. Higher crime rates are part and parcel of social upheaval and social upheaval is implicit in diversity. That’s what we said when our European cousins sneered at our high crime rates forty years ago. Now they’re more diverse than they were then although not nearly as diverse as we are and they’re having the same sorts of experiences that we have.
Done With Mirrors, “Who Knew?”
I’d hoped that I’d get the opportunity to vote for this masterful post by Callimachus and I was not disappointed. Callimachus takes the Wayback Machine to look at what the senators who voted against the Authorization to Use Military Force were saying then. Hint: it’s not what they’re saying now.
The Glittering Eye, “Vice President Gore’s ‘Space Race’ Energy Plan (Updated)”
In my submission this week I consider former VP Gore’s plan to wean America from fossil fuels (for electricity generation) in just ten years. The shorter version: it ain’t gonna happen.
Bookworm Room, “The Moral of the Story”
Bookworm notes that when you remove the moral core from works like Pride and Prejudice and Little Women, you’re left with vapid chick flicks. But it does appeal to a broader audience.
Rhymes with Right, “Dems Email Hillary Supporters: We Own You — Now Support Barack!”
I think there’s one point that Greg misses in his commentary on the Democrats’ attempts to re-establish party unity (and discipline) after the bruising and lengthy primary season: in most areas where Democrats dominate the primary is the only election that matters.
Cheat Seeking Missiles, “Obama in Berlin: Wrong City, Wrong Time”
Laer comments on Sen. Barack Obama’s grand tour.
JoshuaPundit, “Why Maliki Suddenly Wants A US Withdrawal From Iraq”
Freedom Fighter analyzes Iraqi PM Maliki’s recent statements in terms of interfactional politics. I think it’s also important to note where he makes his individual statements since he seems to be saying different things when he’s in Baghdad than when he’s in the UAE.
Colossus of Rhodey, “Yet Another Rant ”
Hube complains about bad golf etiquette or, more accurately, out-and-out lying in golf.
Hillbilly White Trash, “Can America “Get it back?” ”
The short version of LC’s post is that, if you subsidize something, you get more of it. We subsidize financiers, lawyers, and doctors. Doctors limit their membership so we aren’t getting more of them. But we are getting a lot more financiers and lawyers.
The Razor, “Speak Truth to Power – Just Not to Educators ”
Scott examines a case of banning marshmallow shooters in Delaware. I can’t help but think that the obsession on the part of school officials with anything that even looks vaguely like a gun is ill-founded but probably is coming from parents. Or what the administrators believe that parents think.
Soccer Dad, “Horribly Wrong Part II”
Soccer Dad continues his critique of the release of Samir Kuntar in Israel’s bizarre “prisoner exchange” of a week or so ago.
Well, I’ve decided which posts I’ll vote for this week. Which posts would get your votes?
Will we ever see eye to glittering eye?
You are of course correct in your point on income redistribution, but socialism as envisioned by Marx involved much more ownership of the means of production, not simply the moderate income redistribution we have now. Even Britain’s socialists have dropped the call for ownership of means of production – though they only did it a decade ago. True socialist economic theory seems barely alive on the margins of academia and in some of the left wing punditry. Oh, and Venezuela.
The other half of socialism is ripped from Marx’s philosophy of history and interpretation of events. Few on the left can probably quote the opening sentences of the Communist Manifesto, but you can draw a straight line from those sentences to the paradigm of oppressed and oppressor, victimizer and victim that dominates much of the thinking of the left today. And the concept of “multiculturalism” is wholly in line with Marxist philosophy. At any rate, nowhere is this side of socialism more dominant than in Britain, though it is gaining ground daily throughout the West. It is proving an incredibly destructive ideology.
I have no doubt that you are correct that rising crime rates are do, in large part to social upheavel – also being brought on by the socialists, but that is for a seperate post. For example, the crime rates in several burroughs and sections of London have shot up over 1,000% after Romania became a member of the EU and a large number of gypsies resettled in Britain. That growth in the crime rate coincided with their settlements in Briain. But all of that is being exponentially compounded by the ever growing mountain of red tape being put on the British police.
My two biggest points in that essay were meant to be, one, the statist tendencies of socialists and their desire to solve problems by fiat rather than devolving power. I am eating crow on that one. I received an e-mail today letting me know that the Home Office, incredibly, just issued a green paper calling for elections of the local heads of police and an end to national police targets. I am reading it now (its long) and, if it is not just smoke and mirrors, then I will be writing my mea culpa on that one for tomorrow. Given the left’s unbroken habit of centralizing power in Britain – thus creating the mess I describe – to say this has caught me by surprise is an understatement. Indeed, not since I learned that there was no Santa can I recall this level of surprise.
Fortunately, my second point was the primary one – how an embrace of the socialist paradigm was resulting in a huge breakdown on the punishment side of the house. Criminals are being treated with ever greater leniancy, to the point where your chances of going to jail for anything short of aggravated assault or murder is slim. The examples I give are not mere anecdotes. It is really incredible how much Britain’s courts have become a revolving door for criminals. The concept of rehabilitation has come divorced from the concept of punishment in Britain. If you look at the comments, you will find a British police inspector who writes in to say that I hit the nail on the head on that one.
To be honest I don’t think we’re that far apart other than in emphasis, GW.
I think there’s a fundamental disconnect on the issue of punishment between the traditional Jacksonian American view and the social reformer view regardless of which side of the Atlantic it’s on.
American Jacksonians tend to believe in punishment. Not that they’re particularly law-abiding but that they tend to see punishment for crime as the price you pay for losing your gamble. Social reformers on the other hand tend to view crime as a disease to be cured.