102 lines
5.6 KiB
Markdown
102 lines
5.6 KiB
Markdown
+++
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title = "The Capitalist Pig-Dog Blog"
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date = "2015-04-19"
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tags = ["politics"]
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categories = ["pig-dog"]
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+++
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#### Wat?
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I'm a sucker for catchy names (do say it out loud, at least once), but the
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premise might need some explanation for people who aren't me. It's worth noting
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at the outset that I'm primarily writing this for, and to, myself; but there's
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no point in being unreasonably obtuse about it.
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"Capitalist pig-dog" is a wonderful insult I've heard in the past, usually
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issued by comical Communist caricatures at heroic Capitalist caricatures in
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pursuit of a cheap laugh or two. I can't track it down to a particular source,
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although the Pythons are partially to blame for popularising "pig-dog" in
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general. The term really caught my imagination about a year ago, and I've spent
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the intervening time trying to work out what it *means*. Or could mean.
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Any analysis of my political/socioeconomic views puts me somewhere generally
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identified as leftwing. Although I can't call myself a communist in good faith,
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people I discuss these things with will happily label me a communist or
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socialist after a few rounds of discussion. Hopefully, it goes without saying
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that I should try to stand by my beliefs, and live according to them. Even if
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said beliefs are dead wrong (of course, I don't believe they are), doing
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*nothing* about them would be a little odd.
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The most obvious thing I can do is to vote in elections according to said
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beliefs; being a UK citizen, I get a wonderful range of choices.
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Ah.
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The [Green Party](https://www.greenparty.org.uk) are probably closest to me at
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the moment, although I wouldn't consider myself to be a natural Green voter.
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Living in York adds [Yorkshire First](http://www.yorkshirefirst.org.uk) and
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the [TUSC](https://www.tusc.org.uk) to my ballot paper, but removes
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the [SDLP](https://www.sdlp.ie), [Plaid Cymru](https://www.plaid.cymru/), the
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[SNP](http://www.snp.org), [SSP](http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/),
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[Sinn Féin](https://www.sinnfein.ie) and [Respect](http://www.respectparty.org).
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A choice of three vaguely representative candidates to vote for isn't terrible
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(assuming the TUSC and Yorkshire First are in my ballpark), so I can express my
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beliefs in this way.
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However, since [York Central](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_Central_%28UK_Parliament_constituency%29)
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is a pretty safe Labour seat, and the election is run according to the frankly
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pathological [FPTP](https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/first-past-the-post) system,
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that vote doesn't then result in my beliefs being advanced through the political
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system. By itself, this form of political expression is a non-starter. At best,
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I can help one of these parties to start establishing a support base to get an
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MP into parliament to... well, do very little.
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[Westminster is not kind to small parties](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/28/caroline-lucas-im-not-playing-about]).
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Voting, then, is not doing much for me, or my beliefs. Even if it were, it's a
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couple of minutes of action every five years or so - and my beliefs are
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important to me. Since the parties in power are busily advancing beliefs that
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are, in my view, fairly diametrically opposed, surely there is more that I can
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do? Activism for parties I *do* support, and reform of the associated
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electoral systems, is a long game, and I do put some resources into that -
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although I could do more, I'm sure. In my personal life, I can resist the
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prevailing (or Westminster-prevailing, perhaps) social currents and act
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according to my conscience instead. Economically, though, I'm a bit stuffed.
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The UK is, at least in theory, a capitalist state - and by living here, drawing
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a wage here, paying taxes and spending money here, I am engaging in that system.
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These actions mark me as a capitalist pig-dog by deed, even if my words are
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quite different.
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#### Help, I'm stuck in a capitalist country
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I'm not actually stuck, of course. I could move to a different country - one
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matching my ideological leanings more closely. Some thought and research has
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gone into this possibility - I recently visited
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[Finland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Finland), and I'm keeping
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an eye on [Scottish independence](https://commonspace.scot) - but it's on ice
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at the moment.
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What else is there to do? Here's the not-very-revelatory revelation: in
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[capitalist economic systems](https://mises.org/sites/default/files/Economics%20in%20One%20Lesson_2.pdf),
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[spending money is a bit like voting](http://www.goodreads.com/series/40494-apprentice-adept).
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People engage in consensual exchanges - labour for money, money for (other)
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commodities. Competition drives down prices, price discovery guides production,
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and consumer choice determines which competitors win out, in the end. Consumer
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choice is generally assumed to be "rational", which can be interpreted in a
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number of ways, and may not be true in general anyway.
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In reality - in my judgement, anyway - the system I'm in doesn't work like that
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at all. But if it works a *bit* like that, I can advance my beliefs by earning
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and spending according to them. I think I already do that to some extent, but
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I've never tried to analyse or quantify it; I just act in fairly knee-jerk ways
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to the new story _du_jour_ . What if I look at everything I earn, and everything
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I spend? What if I analyse it and try to maximise the effect that my money has,
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in creating the sort of world I want to live in? And what if I blog about it,
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and others join in? Will I still be a capitalist pig-dog? Will they?
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Let's find out.
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