The Left and the Credit Crunch Open Goal

The best opportunity for the Left in decades... But where are they? The ball is sitting just yards away from an unguarded net and there is no striker to stroke the ball home.
The pitch is empty because a large part of the team in red strips are still in the dressing room arguing with each other and the rest of them have been bought by the other side.

Simon Cowell and cryogenics

Last week the pop mogul Simon Cowell announced he will have his body frozen when he dies, hoping that in the future medical science will be able to revive him.
Leaving aside the egotism of the man and the scientific practicalities of the revival operation, this makes for depressing thoughts for us mere mortals, ordinary people without the means available to Cowell and the other very wealthy people on the planet.
Up until now we thought that despite the inequalities of life, the disparity of life's possibilities between the rich and the poor majority, at least in death we would be equal. There would be way to cheat such a certainty, and all that inequality would then mean nought. Now the rich and famous can possibly live on and on, while we are dead and gone. And our children will have to suffer such people for eternity.

Cynicism cont

Following on from my first blog, take a look at George Monbiot's empassioned demolition of Hazel Blears and her ilk, in Tuesday's Guardian. Blears would probably denounce Monbiot as a cynic, when the only cynicism here is the careerism that she and her colleagues have practised since 1997.

Cynicism

Probably the most misused word in today's parlance. People are labelled as cynics when they should more properly be referred to as disillusioned. Indeed, the people doing the labelling are the real cynics, deploying the word in bad faith in order to write off individuals and their points of view, in much the same way as the term ''conspiracy theorist". Cynicism is indeed far more the preserve of those in power, rather than those who criticise authority. Cynics seek to gain from their pronouncements, the rest of us just speak. Real cynicism in action can be seen in countries occupied by foreign powers or in societies in the midst of despotic overthrow. Those criticising the despot as he comes to power are denounced as cynics, while the real cynics stay silent, ready to manoeuvre themselves into positions of favour and power.