Matt Gets Political

On folk politics - Or, why the left can't win. "This for the ones who said "Onwards! Comrades! Til' our deaths!" With ruin on their breath, and the weight of centuries on their tongues. Loading failed manifesto's in their guns, as if defeat repeated often enough could some day mean that they had won."  - Pat "The bunny" Schneeweis Where did the future go? At this point it is disturbingly clear which side of the political spectrum has successfully staked its claim in the social imaginary to notions of progress, modernisation and technology. So what is to be done? I'll begin this as is trendy in the style of a man relating to his reader, as if he didn't hold them in the deepest contempt; For my part I can't even join in the standard lament to be found in pieces like this one that prior to the collapse of authoritarian communism in the Eastern Bloc, at least there existed an alternative to really existing capitalism t...

Noam Chomsky (left) `and Edward S. Herman (right) co-authors of the propaganda model. Straight away my first post breaks one(1) of my rules of writing, given that the impetus for writing this comes from something I read from that denizen of rigour  Nick Cohen (2). The focus of the article however will be a sympathetic reconstruction of Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky's 'Propaganda Model of Mass Media'. Something which admittedly, I wish had a less tin-foil hat sounding name. As context is necessary I am going to quote from the article that prompted me to write this and briefly have a bit of a go at Nick Cohen, mainly because I sat through his book Waiting for the Etonians  and want my time/money back. Alas, I am forced to settle for having a pop at him on the internet. The rest should hopefully be transgression free, at least in so far as dem rulezzz' go(3). I will quote in full the paragraphs I take issue with you to save you from reading the article(4). B...

This isn't my first go at this whole blogging thing. In fact anyone reading this who has known me since I was 16 will be aware of this. That in a former life, if nine years ago can be called that, I had a blog where I used to write ill informed comment pieces. Those of you who payed close attention to it at the time, and undoubtedly I am describing a vanishingly small sample size, will remember a couple of things. Namely, the narrative voice was of a snarky, ill informed teenager who read to much Vice , not enough theory and the comments pages of the Sunday Times  with disturbing frequency. As well as this my imaginary reader may recall the posting was often infrequent, mostly poorly researched, and some times contradictory. It relied to much on commenting on comment - which in all fairness can be forgiven. I was 16. It is however something I will try and avoid in the future Those of you who read everything I posted - at this point it is now extremely likely that the sa...