Do the sheep have teeth?

I’ve just read Justin’s piece on the bailiffs story. I feel I need to revisit the issue as I don’t think I was pissed-off anything like enough the first time.

Also, check out the reader comments. Get a measure of just how fucked up these proposals are, and how people who’ve done bugger-all wrong, can find themselves caught up in the system and on the wrong end of an ass kicking a dose of reasonable force.

Justin writes ::

You could call this another front in New Labour’s war on the poor but the thing is, they way things are going right now, the number of people who could end up on the receiving end of this is growing by the day. It’ll probably take a nice, respectable white middle-class stockbroker, who’s down on his luck and has photogenic children, to be killed or seriously injured before people realise that this isn’t just about keeping the underclass nervous.

It’s teaching all of us to never, ever, be poor. To never, ever, have a run of bad luck. Keep your head down and keep kissing the boss’ arse. Bite your tongue over your pay and conditions. Come in a bit earlier and stay a bit later. Don’t forget you’re the smallest of cog in this economy – a little fear should keep you lubricated and in good working order a little while yet.

Indeed. Are we going to continue to take this shit? I know, we’ve swallowed this god-awful system of governance for centuries. What other choice is there?

I’ll tell you what, you just sit there and flick-trough your latest copy of Heat. Read that front-page tabloid story about Amy fucking Winehouse’s recent trip into rehab. Send a text to create yet another convey-belt star live on TV. Have you seen Britney recently? She’s really got her shit back together, no?

What the hell is wrong with you? Are you bat-shit crazy or just thick as shit?

You’re being played. They’re taking the piss out of you.

Your Prime Minister has spent a decade telling you how gaaawwwd-damn awesome he is, yet as soon as the credit-fuelled good times ended, your emperor was left with no clothes. Some of us predicted this. Brown said he’d overseen an “end to boom and bust”, but those of us who own a history book and a calculator knew that it would all come crashing down.

And now who pays?

The politicians who encouraged you to borrow and spend beyond your means? Don’t be daft. Labour and the Tories are both just bigger cogs in the same system – the democratic window-dressing, if you like. Brown doesn’t get to go for drinky-poos with the financial elite because they love his books, you know?

So what about the bankers who “managed” the system? Will they be strung up and be flogged? Fuck no! Your taxes are “re-capitalising” the banks and the champagne still flows and private shindigs continue.

You see when those at the top of the hierarchy fuck-up, you have the pleasure of bailing them out. Yet when you and I fuck-up, they send the heavies around to give you a slap and make off with your wife’s favourite necklace. And in this scenario, you’re the criminal.

Justin is right. We have zero stake in this system – we are the smallest cogs.

They feed us a constant stream of mind-numbing celebrity guff to keep us disinterested as they ram us up the collective arse. And they’re wise enough to understand that we like the occasional terror story or bogeyman to keep us all needy and placated.

We’re the batteries that power the establishment. We just need to be kept stupid and distracted. You’ve seen The Matrix, right?

Call me a bitter bedroom nihilist if you like. I’ve had faith in politics in the past. I once believed that, while the realities of office may blunt our politicians effectiveness, they have our best interests at heart really.

Do they fuck. Is giving private debt collectors the power to kick down your door and restrain your screaming family, in your best interested?

I don’t want to resort to a burn-the-palace-down Libertarian politics, but what choice do I have? We thought we had voted in progressive and liberal politics a decade ago, yet all we got were a bunch of authoritarian warmongering halfwits, who couldn’t organise a cutlery draw.

So I’ve come to a conclusion: The house is against you. It wants you to lose. So it’s time to stop playing the game.