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Tuesday, 14th October 2008

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Joyce McMillan: Toxic task of leading our nation leaves the top dog demoralised



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Published Date: 28 June 2008
YESTERDAY'S page three headline in The Scotsman said it all, about the current temper of British public life. "True Brit," it cried, over a report on the Wimbledon tennis championships. "It's game set and match, as crowd howls for underdog."
It's true that the British – and the English in particular – always love an underdog, particularly a British one at Wimbledon, but now, the habit of howling for the apparent underdog, and kicking those in power, has also become rampant across the pol...



The full article contains 986 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 27 June 2008 9:48 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Joyce McMillan
 
1

Nikostratos,

28/06/2008 00:49:25
It is all the fault of the capitalist system makes thieves liars and cheats of them all then .EH?
2

donald,

glasgow 28/06/2008 07:09:04
Joyce MacMillan herself a True Brit.
3

Peter Curran,

Kirkliston 28/06/2008 09:17:13
The capitalist system didn't make men greedy and amoral: such men - and I use the gender specifically - have always existed. Capitalism and technology have yielded great benefits to the peoples of the world (or some of them, at any rate)- the deficiency lies in the present nature and structure of the global corporation, and the 19th century legislative framework that was designed to control it while encouraging entrepreneurial risk-taking.

The unintended effect of such legislation has been to create legal entities that are protected by law but effectively unconstrained by law. The directors of major corporations can claim that it is not their business, but that of government, to create the moral, ethical and legal framework in which they operate, yet their naked power and scale of operation across nation states permits them to subvert the legislature. The insidious process, known euphemistically as 'externalisation', has allowed the giant company to outsource everything that once kept large organisations rooted in some kind of morality - welfare departments, health and safety, personnel departments, etc.

Joyce McMillan is right - no one can doubt that the Bushs, Blairs and Browns of this world were and are supine puppets in the face of global capitalism. But it doesn't have to be that way for Scotland - small in this instance can be beautiful, and we can resist or at least avoid the worst excesses of the military/industrial complexes by saying no to nuclear weapons, no to military bases, no to the despoliation of our beautiful country. We can enjoy the best of capitalism and technology and avoid the worst, because we don't have to posture and prance as an imagined world power - the now risibly named 'Great' Britain.

 

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