Alex Salmond – leader for Scottish independence.
The nationalist are marching ahead. In Scotland this is the year in which Scotland has a choice to either stay in the UK or become an independent country. At the same time the UK will also decide on whether they should elect more UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) members of the European Union – UKIP want to leave the EU.
With all this machinations for divorce it is clear that people are no longer outward looking with a belief that we are citizens of the world. The present view is that any body different should be blocked and lets keep what is ours and not share anything with the world and the ‘others’.
The trouble is as we get more information it is easier to retreat back into the comfort of our upbringing which tend to be simpler and less complicated. Hence the rise of religion and nationalism. It is easy to have the ‘answers’ and reject alien cultures and beliefs.
Looking back to a time when things were simpler, people knew their place in life and answers were handed down without dissent. Now we live in a age where opinions can be summed up within 140 characters and spread globally. Time is a finite resource and competition for attention is more competitive than ever before.
Hence, those with assets and a modicum of intelligence can garner a bigger share of the ‘noise’ than those without assets and a lot of intelligence. Why have intelligence when you can shout and be heard because you can ‘buy’ the audience? If you have intelligence and assets, the world is yours to take.
For example, would you rather listen to Kate Middleton or The Duchess of Cambridge? Is Imran Khan’s – the taxi driver view on religion any better than Imran Khan the cricketer? So the problem we have in a atomised world in which collective conciousness can be brought and sold quickly, it is not surprising that things which gave us comfort, are looming larger in our view of life.
Therefore it is easier to get surrogates to propagate a view by paying them. Hence, the view that the alien is wrong and you are right because the collective conciousness reinforce this view by taking up all the time for spreading information by being the most perpetuated.
At the moment Alex Salmond as leader of Scotland wants to debate the merits of independence with David Cameron the leader of the UK. David Cameron refuses to debate because he knows the emotional reaction to person who is alien to the population of Scotland would be too damaging and may lead to a growing support for independence from the UK.
David Cameron may have some good points on why Scotland should stay in the UK but he would engender so much hatred because of what he stands for, hence, he has to use surrogates to argue his views for him.
Ban Ki Moon is the paid surrogate for the consensus that came about after the Second World War. However, that consensus is breaking down as the hypocrisy of the leaders become easy to view and understand. Welfare is now seen as a dirty word, human rights is considered a crime, science is considered an enemy and education a luxury. The paid surrogates of the plutocrats who believe they are divorced from society and see no need to suck up to the masses are now creating the ‘noise’ of selfishness and denying opportunities to the ‘other’.
Why give opportunities to those who do not share your view on life or are not willing to bow down to your natural superiority?
How do you defend education, a fair income, the right to a decent life and democracy? It is clear that the robber barons, gangsters, plutocrats and their servants are not going to give it up voluntary – why should they? Things have been going their way for the last 35 years and it isn’t going to end soon. Monitoring dissent has never been easier making it simple to take out contrary views. The rise of radical plutocracy has never been as great or dangerous as it is now.