why no politics?
Anyone who's read much from the first couple of years of santiago's dead wasp, and even more those who have known me since I lived in Cardiff may wonder what has happened to the politics. There used to be quite a significant number of political poems and periodic commentary on various issues. In the case of poetry for once the answer is simple, I wasn't very good at it. The best that could be said for my explicitly political poems is that they were 'felt' and 'energetic' - unfortunately they were also often shit. As for commentary on specific issues, like most things that's a little more complicated.
But before that, what's prompted this reflection is obviously the election of Nick Griffin to the European Parliament. Well Nick, I didn't vote for you, you don't fucking talk for me and you never will. It seems like the BNP never met a problem that couldn't be blamed on immigration.
The last paragraph represents exactly one of the reasons why I write less about politics than I used to and less than I would like. After the final sentence I attempted four different ways of continuing. The first idea was to refer to Britain's, and the northwest's, radical tradition. I would have mentioned unions, Tom Paine, republicanism, chartism, the Peterloo massacre - essentially a random tumble of bits and pieces. The second idea was to talk about the self-evident stupidity of BNP policies, and how absurd it is to claim not to be racist when the repatriation of immigrants is one of your aims. The third idea was to talk about the dubious history of Andrew Brons in particular, who got a seat in Yorkshire and Humber. The fourth and final idea was to talk about the sort of ideals I was brought up with, which were ideals of tolerance, equality and respect for others. But for all of these I would have had to do a minimal amount of fact-checking at the very least, and I'm not writing journalism, it's merely an opinion piece. Now you could say that laziness is a poor excuse for not broaching the subject, but I'd rather people read properly informed debate rather than my half-formed musings. But it is clear I haven't been especially explicit about my principles recently, that is a problem, and I will correct it shortly.
This is not the only reason why I write less about politics than I have done in the past. The other reasons are a distaste for party political/ideological affiliations, and my background and character which mean I have never really been part of a group of people aligned along primarily political lines.
To take the last first I grew up shy, bullied through most of middle and high school, in a small village a long way from even a small city like Lancaster. There were not a lot of opportunities to make affiliation with others, and I was anyway distrustful of groups. Even when I later started to communicate with others it was mainly by post. Public transport was so poor it was a major organisational feat to get to somewhere like Bradford. Having not much money and no great confidence in places where I didn't know anyone, it was not something I did frequently. Not having much one to one contact with others, not engaging in much political debate or activity meant I had little confidence in my own beliefs. This still has effects today, it's still extremely difficult for me to go anywhere on my own, especially where a lot of the people there already know one another.
The first point about my distaste for party political/ideological affiliations is perhaps easier to understand. I find that both party affiliations, and adherence to any specific ideology can build-in an inflexibility of attitude. For this reason I've always resisted getting too deeply into study of any particular -ism. The nearest I came was a period of studying anarchism and exchanging letters with anarchist groups. But I very quickly found that some anarchists were unrealistic about their ability to bring about what they wanted, and had no historical sense of what the potential pitfalls might be if a revolution were to happen. Other anarchists were more realistic but held views I found utterly objectionable. Faced with Class War and other similar anarchists advocating community justice made me realise how much I value a system of law and order that respects the rights of the accused as well as victims and the wider community.
But I have strong convictions. I am republican, I am opposed to the death penalty, I am opposed to violence of all kinds, I believe in equality for all, I feel that we need both stronger links to Europe and the rest of the world, and a greater localisation of democracy. I feel immigration to be a beneficial thing, I believe that both government and the legal system should be secular, and more. It often concerns me that I don't make this clear enough frequently enough, and that it seems to be almost invisible from my poetry.
But before that, what's prompted this reflection is obviously the election of Nick Griffin to the European Parliament. Well Nick, I didn't vote for you, you don't fucking talk for me and you never will. It seems like the BNP never met a problem that couldn't be blamed on immigration.
The last paragraph represents exactly one of the reasons why I write less about politics than I used to and less than I would like. After the final sentence I attempted four different ways of continuing. The first idea was to refer to Britain's, and the northwest's, radical tradition. I would have mentioned unions, Tom Paine, republicanism, chartism, the Peterloo massacre - essentially a random tumble of bits and pieces. The second idea was to talk about the self-evident stupidity of BNP policies, and how absurd it is to claim not to be racist when the repatriation of immigrants is one of your aims. The third idea was to talk about the dubious history of Andrew Brons in particular, who got a seat in Yorkshire and Humber. The fourth and final idea was to talk about the sort of ideals I was brought up with, which were ideals of tolerance, equality and respect for others. But for all of these I would have had to do a minimal amount of fact-checking at the very least, and I'm not writing journalism, it's merely an opinion piece. Now you could say that laziness is a poor excuse for not broaching the subject, but I'd rather people read properly informed debate rather than my half-formed musings. But it is clear I haven't been especially explicit about my principles recently, that is a problem, and I will correct it shortly.
This is not the only reason why I write less about politics than I have done in the past. The other reasons are a distaste for party political/ideological affiliations, and my background and character which mean I have never really been part of a group of people aligned along primarily political lines.
To take the last first I grew up shy, bullied through most of middle and high school, in a small village a long way from even a small city like Lancaster. There were not a lot of opportunities to make affiliation with others, and I was anyway distrustful of groups. Even when I later started to communicate with others it was mainly by post. Public transport was so poor it was a major organisational feat to get to somewhere like Bradford. Having not much money and no great confidence in places where I didn't know anyone, it was not something I did frequently. Not having much one to one contact with others, not engaging in much political debate or activity meant I had little confidence in my own beliefs. This still has effects today, it's still extremely difficult for me to go anywhere on my own, especially where a lot of the people there already know one another.
The first point about my distaste for party political/ideological affiliations is perhaps easier to understand. I find that both party affiliations, and adherence to any specific ideology can build-in an inflexibility of attitude. For this reason I've always resisted getting too deeply into study of any particular -ism. The nearest I came was a period of studying anarchism and exchanging letters with anarchist groups. But I very quickly found that some anarchists were unrealistic about their ability to bring about what they wanted, and had no historical sense of what the potential pitfalls might be if a revolution were to happen. Other anarchists were more realistic but held views I found utterly objectionable. Faced with Class War and other similar anarchists advocating community justice made me realise how much I value a system of law and order that respects the rights of the accused as well as victims and the wider community.
But I have strong convictions. I am republican, I am opposed to the death penalty, I am opposed to violence of all kinds, I believe in equality for all, I feel that we need both stronger links to Europe and the rest of the world, and a greater localisation of democracy. I feel immigration to be a beneficial thing, I believe that both government and the legal system should be secular, and more. It often concerns me that I don't make this clear enough frequently enough, and that it seems to be almost invisible from my poetry.
Comments
While I was in work, and before I checked a link it was kind of funny, but I cannot encourage this kind of stuff.
'sexy' take note, all future comments will be deleted as a matter of course, so don't bother.