'We Are Not the First Civilization to Collapse, but We Will Probably Be the Last'
Neoliberalism and Thatcherism have brought the world to its nadir of decadence
The end is nigh
The Course of Empire - Destruction. Painting by Thomas Cole
‘Civilizations die in familiar patterns. They exhaust natural resources. They spawn parasitic elites who plunder and loot the institutions and systems that make a complex society possible. They engage in futile and self-defeating wars. And then the rot sets in. The great urban centres die first, falling into irreversible decay. Central authority unravels. Artistic expression and intellectual inquiry are replaced by a new dark age, the triumph of tawdry spectacle and the celebration of crowd-pleasing imbecility.’ - Chris Hedges, in ScheerPost
Be aware and look all around you, is this not the time to change? Is this not the time to wonder, and reflect on what this life is all about? Believe me, from where I stand, from what I see, feel and hear, if we don’t change our ways now, we’re headed toward ecological, political, economic, societal and civilisational collapse.... Again, look all around you, can't you see all the tell-tale signs?
Virtues and the Common Good or Mammon? Heated Competition or Constructive Cooperation?
Serving humanity or serving greed, selfishness and individualism? Loving and Caring for the World or fake pseudo-nationalism?
These are a few of my questions on how the champions of neoliberalism and its English version- Thatcherism- and their acolytes and foot soldiers, have since the late 1970s, destroyed everything of value, beauty and goodness, as, for an example, I have tried to highlight in the posting below, their destructive and soul-destroying act, when they privatised and commercialised WATER, the most significant source of LIFE. We are all now the victims of their insincere and heinous ideology, when every bit of gold has been changed to lead and dust, lest we forget.
This is the pertinent question: Is there any hope to get empowered to change our lives and to build a better country, a better and fairer world?
The answer, in my mind, is an emphatic YES. But only, we collectively rise and challenge the vicious, evil and toxic ideology of neoliberalism and Thatcherism. Carpe Diem!
Photo: Times Higher Education
Whatever Happened to the Moral Compass?
This is my question to the Thatcherites
Debunking the Greatest Heist and Con Artistry of All Times
Water privatisation was an act of supreme folly, a moral obscenity, a crime against humanity, civility and goodness
Water is Life
Photo credit: DPMI
The well-known statement 'No water – no life' is significant in the life of all living things on earth. Water is accepted as the basis of life on the planet (Jeremiah 2007:2). Nothing on this earth has life without water. Water was in existence even before life:
‘In the beginning of creation, when God made heaven and earth, the earth was without form and void, with darkness over the face of the abyss, and a mighty wind that swept over the surface of the water.’-(GN 1:1-2)
Water is the Common Good
‘Water is a human right. It needs to be managed as a common good. Considering water as a commodity or a business opportunity will leave behind those that cannot access or afford the market prices. Commodification of water will derail achievement of the SDGs and hamper efforts to solve the global water crisis, already further exacerbated by the triple planetary crisis: climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and toxic pollution, affecting the life and health of billions around the world.’-Water is a common good not a commodity: UN experts
See also:
To stop water crises, the world must value water as a global common good
Why we need a new economics of water as a common good
Water should be a public good, not a commodity. Catalonia is showing how
Without Accountability and Transparency, there is no Trust,
and without Trust there can be NO Democracy
“Accountability is an essential element in a democracy. Hypocrisy has no place.”- Alan Dershowitz, a prominent Constitutional Law scholar
“Transparency in government is a vital interest in a democracy”- Merrick Garland, Chief Judge of the United States Courts of Appeal.
Moreover, according to the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, ‘trust is another vital ingredient in democracy.’
My conclusion from the above sayings is that democracy without accountability and without transparency and trust is nothing but the cheapening of our cherished values and thus, a hypocrisy.
Dare I say, this is exactly what has happened in our country for a very long time now, and especially since the sorry rule of a bunch of self-interested, self-promoting Tory leaders in recent years.
British democracy is brought to its knees
Britain Has Become a Sinking Ship of Systemic Corruption, Cronyism and Chumocracy
After Boris, the chief cheater and liar, was sacked by his fellow Tory MPs, Liz was appointed by the now totally humiliated Tory family, paid up members and MPs to lead them and us, and make the UK great again. She only lasted 49 days. Then, the same Tory MPs that only a short while back had voted for Liz, got excited again and voted for Rishi, whom they had rejected as a leader only 49 days earlier, to lead them and us, and make the UK great again!! What a shame, what a shambles, you are correct to say.
Now, we the people, powerless as we are, must at least try, to show ourselves and others that, we wish to stop being made fool of, a laughing stock, by at least showing some interest in what has been going on in our name.
To just do this, to my mind, in the interest of justice, truth, and dignity, there is nothing better and more urgent than finding out what these foot-soldiers of Thatcherism and those before them, have done to WATER, the source of life, and why our land, environment and us, the people, are now covered in poo.
So, let us proceed!
The Stink and the Moral Obscenity of Selling off Life and the Global Common Good
Photo credit: Sewage Watch – Our polluted rivers and beaches
Privatised water companies have made our country and the people ‘Swimming in sewage.’
‘Privatisation is a legalised scam. Since the 1990s, investment from the privatised English water companies has gone down 15%, and they’ve built up a debt mountain of over £60 billion (paid for by us). Meanwhile, shareholders have received £72 billion - £2 billion a year on average.’
And now, what a cheek, what a scam! Whilst since the privatisation, they have been, excuse my choice of word, shiting on us, despite giving away over £72 billion in dividends to their mostly, nearly, foreign owners, they want the British customers to forkout a record £96bn investment to fix raw sewage leaks, build new reservoirs and reduce leaks, over a five year period from 2025. What a scandal, what a moral obscenity!
‘You look forward to swimming all week and then you come down and find the sea’s full of shit again and you can’t go in’- Tim Adams in The Guardian
First and foremost, may humanity never forget those heartless, mindless, Ideologues with their destructive ideology of neoliberalism that have empowered and enabled a group of greedy, values-free companies to destroy and vandalise the most beautiful gift we have ever been given, our precious mother nature.
Photo: BBC Media
Watch what they are destroying: Our Planet Earth, Our Mother Nature
N.B. I am prompted to write this posting, after watching an excellent two-part documentary ‘ Our Troubled Rivers’ by Paul Whitehouse, which was aired on the BBC, debunking the moral obscenity of water privatisation which is now vandalising our Mother Nature with all major harmful consequences for everyone, rich and poor alike.
Photo: BBC
Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers – Review
Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers- Watch the two episodes HERE
‘Britain is an extreme oddity regarding privatisation: nowhere else in the advanced world is there such a willingness to sell everything that isn’t nailed down. Time and again the British public is ripped off and sold out by its leaders.’-Privatisation, a very British disease
See also: 1979 and all that: a 40-year reassessment of Margaret Thatcher’s legacy on her own terms
As well as the disease of Thatcherism and privatisation, we also must remember that, there are other serious British ‘Diseases’ affecting the nation's socioeconomic and political progress, which has resulted in a broken political structure, when prime ministers rise and fall like flies in the sky, here today and gone tomorrow!! No wonder our country stinks, covered all over in raw sewage and poo!
Neoliberalism and Thatcherism: The Emperors Have No Clothes
Illustration via Medium
Britain in Decline and The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism and Thatcherism
We Must Never Forget or Forgive the Enemies of progressivism and Progressive Values
The Final Outcome: The Humiliation and Caricaturisation of Neoliberalism and Thatcherism
The Game of Musical Chairs in Britain: Five Prime Ministers in Six Years- BRAVO to Democracy!!
Photo credit: India Today
13 Years of Misrule: The Age of Absurdity, Incompetence, Irresponsibility and Unaccountability
‘Taxes are too high, they say, and borders are too porous. International human rights treaties are too binding; teachers are not doing enough teaching; police are not doing enough policing; there are too few doctors and too many civil servants. Children spend too long on their phones; benefit claimants are too lazy; speed limits are too low.
‘The Tories don’t like a country that is shaped by 13 years of their rule but prefer not to take responsibility. They have developed a keen reflex for diverting blame…’- Rafael Behr, The Guardian
Now it is glaringly obvious that Thatcherism and Neoliberalism, are nothing but a socio-political and an economic ideology that rewards psychopathic personality traits by inflicting inhumanity, anxiety, fear, hopelessness, pain, poverty, injustice, racism and chaos for the many, whilst facilitating thieving by the the few, for the few, and of the few. This inhumane and false ideology in turn has changed our ethics, values and our personalities, and has in the process brought out the worst in us.
They Wrecked Britain
Illustration by Sam Whitney/The New York Times
The Tragedy of Britain: Vision-less, ideologue leadership
The Tragedy of Britain: Championing ‘Bastard Economics’
The Tragedy of Britain:..and thus, they gave us their Brexit!
The Tragedy of Britain: The Lies of Boris
The Tragedy of Britain: The Lies of Liz
The Tragedy of Britain: Rishi with no Life Story to Tell
And now, the Comedy of Errors- The Moral Obscenity of Thatcherism- has gone Full Circle
The Circus Continues…
Rishi Sunak: 'I am a Thatcherite... I will govern as a Thatcherite'
Photo credit: YouTube
'Thatcher, a woman? Not on my terms'
"Thatcherism was wreaking...the most heinous social, economic and spiritual damage on this country."
The prophetic words on Thatcher, Thatcherism and the so-called ‘schoolboys’ Thatcherites. These prophetic words ring true today under Thatcherite Rishi, as they did under the chief culprit herself!
Photo credit: Sky News
‘The Oscar-winning actress, loudly jeered by Tory MPs, said: “When I made my maiden speech a little over two decades ago, Margaret Thatcher had been elevated to the other place but Thatcherism was still wreaking, as it had wreaked for the previous decade - the most heinous, social, economic and spiritual damage upon this country, upon my constituency and my constituents.
“Our local hospitals were running on empty.
“Patients were staying on trolleys and in corridors.
“I tremble to think what the death rate for pensioners would have been this winter if that version of Thatcherism had been fully up and running this year.
“Our schools, parents, teachers, governors, even pupils, seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time fundraising in order to be able to provide basic materials, such as paper and pencils.
“The plaster on our classroom walls was kept in place by pupils' artwork and miles and miles of sellotape. Our school libraries were dominated by empty shelves, very few books, and those books that were there were being held together by ubiquitous sellotape and offcuts from teachers’ wallpaper used to bind those volumes so that they could at least hang together.
“But by far the most dramatic and heinous demonstration of Thatcherism was certainly not only in London, but across the whole country in metropolitan areas, where every single shop doorway, every single night, became the bedroom, the living room, the bathroom for the homeless.
“They grew in their thousands. And many of those homeless people had been thrown out onto the streets from the closure of the long-term mental hospitals.
“We were told it was going to be called Care in the Community. What in effect it was was no care at all in the community.
“I was interested to hear about Baroness Thatcher’s willingness to invite those who have nowhere to go for Christmas. It’s a pity she did not start building more and more social houses after she entered into the right to buy, so perhaps there would have been fewer homeless people than there were.
“As a friend of mine said, during her era London became a city Hogarth would have recognised. And indeed he would.
“But the basis to Thatcherism - and this is where I come to the spiritual part of what I regard as the desperate, desperately wrong track that Thatcherism took this country into - was that everything I had been taught to regard as a vice - and I still regard them as vices - under Thatcherism was in fact a virtue: greed, selfishness, no care for the weaker, sharp elbows, sharp knees. They were the way forward.
“What concerns me is that I’m beginning to see possibly the re-emergence of that total traducing of what I regard as being the basis of the spiritual nature of this country, where we do care about society, where we do believe in communities, where we do not leave people to walk by on the other side.
“That is not happening now. And if we go back to the heyday of that era I think we will see replicated again the extraordinary human damage that we as a nation have suffered from.”-Excerpts from a Memorable Speech on Thatcher by Glenda Jackson at the House of Commons on Wednesday 10 April 2013
Watch the speech HERE
Now reverting back to the Thatcherite sell-off of WATER- The Source of Life and Existence
When Margaret Thatcher sold off the water industry in 1989, the government wrote off all debts. Today Water firms’ debts since privatisation hit £65bn, whilst customers pay on average 20% of their bill towards servicing debt and rewarding shareholders.’
For evidence on these figures and more see: Sandra Laville and Anna Leach in The Guardian and Luke Barr This Is Money
'UK water firms drowning in £65bn of debt with cost of repayments set to soar due to inflation (but they're still paying shareholders huge dividends)'
UK water firms drowning in £65bn of debt with cost of repayments set to soar due to inflation
(but they're still paying shareholders huge dividends) © Provided by This Is Money
‘Since privatisation in 1989, water bills have risen 40% and the industry is profitable for shareholders. Yet are households getting benefits? In recent years, we have seen a surge in the discharge of raw sewage, hosepipe bans and a lack of investment. OFWAT, the water regulator recently stated.
“For some companies, poor performance has become the norm. This cannot go on,”
Despite the many problems in the industry, water companies have been able to pay themselves £72bn in dividends since privatisation. A utility once run in the public interest, is now run for the benefit of private companies. Even the market friendly Financial Times recently stated: “water privatisation looks like little more than an organised rip-off”- Tejvan Pettinger, Economics Help
…’Privatisation was always an odd step, and no other country has copied England. Clean water is a vital public service wherever you are. This was shown by the tragedy of Flint, Michigan in the US, when an attempt to save money by tapping a contaminated river in 2014 led to residents being poisoned. Four government officials resigned and the water company Veolia was sued over its failure to admit that there was lead in the supply. The English scandal is sewage. Last year, Southern Water pleaded guilty to knowingly permitting noxious matter to enter rivers and seas for almost six years. Running its treatment plans below capacity, it had dumped raw sewage into protected seas, contaminating shellfish and acting with what the judge said was “a wholesale disregard for the environment, for delicate ecosystems and . . . human health…”- Camilla Cavendish, Financial Times.
And now, see what we were told, how we were brainwashed
We were told that Water Privatisation will lead to a share owning democracy, when we will have a share in an industry that we all- the entire nation- indeed owned already, when it was a nationalised industry.
Now look who owns the share, who laughs all the way to the banks, who gets the dividend and who gets the juicy bonuses!! For sure, it is not the fools who bought the false ideology of greed and privatisation. See the figures for yourself:
‘English water companies work for a handful of shareholders around the world, while pouring sewage into our rivers and seas and allowing water to leak from the pipes. We should copy Scotland and France, and bring water into public ownership.’
‘Over 90% of the English water companies are owned by international investors, private equity funds, and banks. Only 8.5% of shareholders in the water sector are UK pension funds.’- Continue to read more on this unfolding horror and immoral story: LET'S TAKE BACK OUR WATER
Photo credit: another Angry Voice
'A significant majority of British people believe that the water supply is so vital that it should be run as a not-for-profit public service, but the Westminster establishment consensus is that in England it should continue to be run as a vast profit extraction scheme operated mainly by foreign governments and overseas corporations.'- AAV:Who owns our water?
See also:
Revealed: more than 70% of English water industry is in foreign ownership
Down the drain: how billions of pounds are sucked out of England’s water system
England's privatised water firms paid £57bn in dividends since 1991
Why Water Privatisation FAILED: Watch the Video
We were told that Water Privatisation will lead to more investment, cleaner water, rivers and seas.
Now look at it, what they have done. They have discharged sewage everywhere. Instead of investment in water treatment and more, our land, rivers, lakes and seas are now covered in poo and worse, endangering our lives, health and wellbeing, whilst destroying our mother nature.
All those who bought the share and then sold them for a quick return, see what you have done to yourselves, your children and grandchildren and your Mother Nature
Crime Aginst Mother Nature and Humanity
The heinous dumping of raw sewage into the waterways in Britain
Photo credit: The Times
‘Water companies discharged raw sewage into rivers and coastal waters in England more than 400,000 times last year, Environment Agency (EA) data has revealed.
Untreated human effluent poured into rivers and seas for a total of 3.1m hours via storm overflow pipes that are supposed to be used only in extreme weather to relieve pressure in the sewage system…’- Water firms discharged raw sewage into English waters 400,000 times last year
See also: Sewage pollution: facts & figures
How sewage got into UK rivers and seas, and how to fix it
How gullible we were and indeed, still are!! We must pity ourselves, giving the nation five duff, incompetent and at times dishonest Tory PMs in a row in the last few years, as if Thatcher the destroyer of anything good was not enough!!
The guys who broke a nation bringing down the house of cards of a false and inhumane ideology
Photo credit: Morning Star
Here, to my mind, it is noteworthy to reflect on what I had noted on this matter in May/ June 2011:
“Do you remember Margaret Thatcher, the so-called Iron Lady!! She told the Brits that she was going to put the “Great” back into “Great” Britain. Do you remember? Then, she told us this can only happen if we accept and implement the “Washington Consensus'', the so-called dreaded neoliberalism. She told us that there was no alternative. She told us we will all prosper and develop more fairly and equitably. She won election after election. Everything was privatised, deregulated, self-regulated. Industry, manufacturing, (the real economy) was destroyed. Instead, the banks and the bankers were encouraged to rule the world. The economists with no principles and values were “bought” and the business schools, such as Harvard and Columbia were showered with money to act as “Cheerleaders” for the dreaded neoliberalism (see the Inside Job for evidence). Communities were dismantled and dis-organised. We were told that there is nothing as a society and community. We are all in it just for ourselves, we were told. Destructive competition at the expense of life-enhancing cooperation, collaboration and dialogue was greatly prompted. We were told to say no to love, kindness, generosity, sympathy and empathy and say yes to selfishness, individualism and narcissism, as these values will fire the engine of capitalism and wealth creation! In short, the hell with the common good, we were encouraged to believe.
We were brainwashed. Our other Prime Ministers have repeated her nonsense and have carried on her footsteps. It is now over 30 years since the neo-liberalism experiment in Britain. Are we any “Greater” than we were in 1979? Are we any fairer or more equitable? The country is nearly bankrupt, with public and private debt at unprecedented levels, with greatest levels of poverty and wealth disparity ever. The house of neoliberal capitalism is now at its nadir of decadence.”
You see, all those interested in life’s bigger picture, have been saying the same, over and over. The neoliberals are not in touch with humanity. They will prostitute all in the interest of profit maximisation, cost minimization, highest return to the shareholders, and the biggest and juiciest bonuses for the CEOs and their lackeys.”...Continue to read
See also:
The Destruction of our World and the lies of Milton Friedman
Selling off our Motherland: The Biggest Crime of the Broken Economic Model
The Broken Economic Model and the Inhumanity of the Lost Decade of Austerity
UK’s Broken Economic Model: A New Path is Called for- I offer you the Common Good
Wherever you look, wherever you turn to, you say nothing but crisis, hopelessness, abject poverty, obscene inequality, and like the icing on the cake, we are now covered in poo when we got fooled by Thatcher’s immoral privatisation, marketisation and deregulation. She and her useless foot-soldiers have monetised everything. Financialisation of our lives, hearts and mind, our soul and body, must be reversed. We must discover, once again, what it means to be human, what is the purpose of this journey we call life?
As long as we are in prison of Thatcherism, neoliberalism and their corrupting, soulless values, we will carry on to fall deeper and deeper, until we are fully destroyed, gone and forgotten.
The pertinent question therefore must be: What are we going to do to save ourselves and our planet earth and our mother nature?
Life Lessons I've Learned in a World of Conflicting Ideas and Aspirations.
These are the times when we desperately need inspiring and healing words of wisdom, hope and beauty.
A Gift from our GCGI archive to help set us free from chaos and despair, so that we may achieve inner peace and spiritual calm, a more generous and rewarding imagination, inspiring and empowering us to take action in the interest of the common good.
Journey to Healing: Let Me Know What is Essential
Envisioning the Future of our Children’s Education
To reverse the current destructive path and begin the task of healing, we need a different education model and we need a different economic value and economy. However, these are not possible to achieve so long as The Fraudulent Ideology reins supreme. Full stop. Carpe Diem!
This is my call to anybody, everybody in a position of power to instigate change.
‘Fix a broken economic system: It’s time to rethink that for the good of society’
Here you have it. Let us rise to this global challenge. Let us come together for the common good, suggesting possible solutions, envisioning a better life for all, enabling and empowering each other to lead a more fulfilling and happier life.
The opportunity is upon us. Let’s size it. Carpe Diem!
Photo: Green Habits UK
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