Socialist Alternative strikes ineffectively, again.

It’s just that blogging doesn’t come to me naturally. I have to be in the right mood for it. Ir should I editorialize and say the write mood for it.

Yeah that was bad. But I won’t apologize because bad puns do happen, and will happen again.

Anyway, Today I’m pissed about two things. The first one is: Civ 5 not starting the correct length game (Marathon) after the latest patch. That however in the grand scheme is a minor issue. The other is encountering Socialist Alternative in the streets and the thorough intellectual beat down I was forced to issue (Which may or may not involved the Chair Leg of Truth).

Pictured: The Chair leg of Truth

Now for those of you playing at home, you might be interested to know that I was in fact once part of the great socialist movement.

 

… From 16 – 19. It wasn’t my finest hour. These days after researching everything, I came to the conclusion that although Capitalism is not perfect, the economic stagnation that Communism inevitably brings (And trust me. Command Economies cannot work unless the supply and demand remains static) was … undesirable.

Now, during my brief encounters with my former comrades (This is subjective, they have a higher turnover than your averages sales position in an overseas call centre) I normally just say “Ex-Member” Believing that this should give me an automatic out. This doesn’t work. Maybe I should lie and say I was kicked out for not towing the party line. Or tell them how for all their vaunted high ideals, that they have kicked out people who went that extra step and did something.

Which leads me to the beat down I was forced to issue. Upon saying that I wasn’t convinced that Mandatory Detention was racist, I was pronounced a racist and walked away from and told that it wasn’t surprising I wasn’t in SA anymore.  Which…. is not exactly how I would of done it.

So, I went and clarified with this young man, and in turn we went into a detailed conversation (Read: he said statistics and didn’t back them up) Of which the highlights were:

• Me telling him that just because I wasn’t convinced didn’t make me a racist
• Him Saying that mandatory was immediately obvious to be racist
• Him Advising that he has limited time and resources and can’t discuss abstract politics
• Me advising that, well If you’re not wiling to have these conversations, then he would not be fulfilling the  short term and long term goal of building a revolutionary party:
• QED: Without engaging the population, you will fail

Hilariously, this is the problem that the Bolsheviks had way back in the day, where they would proselytize their message to the unwilling Proletariat and be shunned for it. The more I observe the so called revolutionary movement, and watch as they have achieved none of their major goals (Stop the war in Afghanistan, Stop the war in Iraq, Stop Mandatory detention) I realize that they are unable to connect with anyone outside a small section of the intelligentsia.

It wasn’t until the Bolsheviks campaigned “Peace Land and Bread” that they were able to connect with the populace en masse and take power. This simple slogan is in fact to keep power all over the world. Since we already have that, I can’t see Socialist Alternative being anything that an occasional annoyance on Swanston Street.