Development of the #GonzoLecture (03)

I'd like to thank you for reading me, in the 9th year of this peculiar experiment, initially conducted as attempting to model the "construct" of #gonzo as an art form - but now appears, thanks to the various interactions made possible by it, to have blossomed into a fine, learning vehicle, as well as small interest-group, art "school", gang of art outlaws, however you see it.

This Prof helped me with my doctoral directions, to exploit what I was "seeing" in the historical context of what occured, particularly between 2008 and 2013, which I was writing about, at the time.

She was saintly in her "management" of this mentally-ill, freak before her. She interviewed me, for this doctoral qualification they were seeking to establish, decided I was okay, and appeared interested in my proposed, educational construct of #gonzo. I thought I was really into something, at the time, but couldn't really get my head around what it was, I was dealing with.

I was waking up, to the harsh vision of seeing a society, that was being driven for the benefit of others who possessed huge wealth and privilege, and the rest of us were basically being fu¢ked over, expended, valorised into flames, so that this completely unjust state of affairs could be maintained.

I'd been concerned with this, first hand, and noted, in the environments I served, that much of what we as academics were doing, seemed to be a bit of a game (verging, sometimes on racket).

Some "customers" appeared to be complying with some of what they considered to be a not so good, or particularly useful "product", on the implicit understanding that they'd get the award, for which they'd paid.

I think, this state of affairs has been going on for a long time in UK Higher Education, because students didn't have to pay so much, for what was a well-earned path to relative riches.

However, the dastardly fee-change, implemented by the UK Con-Dem govt, which saw in September 2012, the first batch of undergraduates paying £7-9k per year, in fees. I only taught one semester that year and then were really easy-going, and happy with what what I was doing.

I had struggled to adjust to an environment that seemed to function more in accordance with what people fancied doing, than what was strategically expedient for the accomplishment of the mission of the organisation. This is something that I still don't understand.

People seemed to think that success was dependent on controlling the politics, not on doing the work. In the middle of it, some did do good work.

So, I'm recounting some memories of those days. In the middle of it, I hatched something innovative, that might ignite hearts, beneath the frozen facade of the dull, all-encompassing conditioning of this age.

Clegg & his part in the death of British Liberal Democracy

Mr Nick Clegg will be remembered as the man who single handedly took Liberal Democracy from relative irrelevance, smiled & talked on a TV debate, managing to convince voters he was a viable alternative to the dreadful Gordon Brown. He then took the LibDems from unelectability, reneged on almost every single principle of Liberal Democracy to make an unreasonable & some may say devilish pact with the dark side of the political agenda by using his party's votes to enable Cameron's Conservatives to unexpectedly sieze power in an unholy alliance of mismatched bedfellows. 

After then having gained power literally by any means necessary, Clegg and his band then u-turned 180degrees on degrees and their pledge to fund free degree education for everybody capable of completing it. They had seen free education as a route to restoration of a selfish,  thoughtless stupid miscalculated misstep of the evil hater of working people everywhere, Thatcherism when they deregulated higher education to make it a quasi profit driven, government funded, competing market. 

However, when faced with political principles versus political prominence,  Clegg caved in to conservative demands to make education pay even more for itself by forcing a "buy-now, pay-later" culture on all future, prospective degree students. 

The "DFS-ing"  of UK higher education just piles the illusion of win-win in the middle of an undesirable status quo by suggesting graduates will make more than enough future salary from their degree to justify & finance their massive, lengthy repayments, or them avoiding repayment if their life doesn't quite work out the way they planned and they don't earn more than a rather low salary. 

Anyway, this week Clegg, who seems badgered by divisions in his own party, some activists within which probably always had a conscience and no doubt stood silent yet aghast as they saw their manifesto tossed out after the vote count, their consternation tempered only by the rise in their pulses as they began to sniff a possible power thrill  they never seriously thought they'd be a country mile away from experiencing. 

As they move from being the people with the ridiculous, idealistic policies to the uncomfortable collaborators in their own and possibly their country's demise, I imagine there was a feeling of no return as one bastion of progressiveness after another was torn down in one action after another to blame the little guy for all the economic problems and make him responsible for tightening his belt as the solution. 

It was one step beyond. Will you listen to Clegg this week claiming that it was the libdems only who were prepared to get their hands dirty? Their hands are dirty. No wonder we feel hopeless when those who dedicate their lives to being the best, turn out to be the worst. At least the Tories stuck by their traditions even with their coldness towards the basic needs & expectations of those working people in they're supposed to serve. 

Clegg & the Lib Dems are finished. Nobody will ever trust them again. 

What do you think about this? 

Comments below.... 

Insanity

Any business specialist knows - or anybody else with even half a brain - that any franchise is the transfer of core values of the parent onto various, vaguely related "offspring". These multiplications are actually related by brand and everything it stands for. For further education about all this, I suggest you consult this blog's younger sister GONZO EVENTShttp://gonzoevents.blogspot.co.uk/

So in step the unelected coalition - the government nobody voted for, or wanted. Shorn up by votes/seats from his willing lapdog and political mutt, Clegg, the Cameron-dominated Tory-hybrid parliament occupiers have endeavoured ever since the country couldn't decide, to push on with a continuation of quasi-Thatcherism. They don't call it that of course - not even Cameron and Greasy George are that stupid - reallly! Thatcherism's one brand that has no credibility anywhere, anymore.

However her slash n save policies are still at the core of any market philosophy our new millionaire rulers might have. Thus cutting all public spending is the only lever of austerity they still possess. Cut education, cut defence, sell off everything you possibly can. Keep people thick and undefended - that's okay.

What's not okay is cutting health spending - so league tables, cutting costs, opening up "competitive markets" by turning the public health services into private, quasi-funded, hybrid companies.

So while developed nations such as the USA try to stop dumping unwell people into taxis because they don't have the necessary insurance coverage to received healthcare, Cameron's Britain takes a much un-needed trip the other way: people left to die in corridors, etc.

My own father was recently left alone at 3am in a hospital bathroom by some student nurse fuckwit, shouting for help, whilst being ignored. She was "trained" following a formal complaint. She's lucky I didn't get hold of her first.

So, after turning the best, national health service in the world into some quasi-privatised, bastard Tory-child, the Conservatives have come up with another, equally-stunning strategy. If you've sold off everything you've got, then why not franchise overseas?

Fantastic. So now, "NHS" will be emblazoned over buildings, people and processes everywhere! What a refreshing idea!

I just got my eyes lazered at "NHS Dubai"! My life's now in HD - and the rest beaches are fantastic!

What do you think about it, if anything?

Hello again, Shithead

You'll recall in the run up to the UK's last, fated general election that this blog wholeheartedly attempted to support Gordon Brown's Labour Party.

The basic cases made at the time were that Nick Clegg and his "third-way by default" party were theoretically quite good, with their little hearts in the right place, but basically were interested in power at any price, including the a willingness to renege on any of their "heartfelt" principles at the drop of a hat.

Cameron's evil Tories were going to shamelessly continue Thatcher's hollow, profit-driven dismantling of all unionised labour and public sector provision in a short-termist attempt to finance tax-cuts for the already-rich.

The problem with the only, true option was that Labour had been in power too long and frankly needed a big, fat boot up its arse and a few, healthy years in opposition, whilst it seriously got its shit together.
Well we got the latter arrangement. We did so thanks to the useless Gordon Brown.

Gordon had sat in the wings, presiding over an inevitable economic meltdown at the side of grease-ball Tony Blair. This followed lies regarding our involvement in Iraq and its associated cozying-up to the insane, Bush administration's covert campaign for world domination.

So with the view that it was his turn, Gordon wanted the Prime Ministership as and when it became available. So when Tony Blair had outstayed his welcome, the situation was on the verge of collapse, off he went to cushy, high-paid public-speaking engagements, leaving Gordon to manage the shop.

Though a likely genius and economically able to hold his own, good old Gordon suffered from an awkwardness as a public figure due to strange-looking, bog-eyes and poor communication skills. Bumbling along, more like a toad than an actual man, he ended up the antithesis of Cameron's slickness.
This went really bad for Gordon when the stupid population - about half of which is too dumb and apathetic to even bother voting - bowed to Murdochian, media pressure to allow a presidential-style debate.

What wasn't predicted, was how impressive the hitherto-trivial Clegg would be in his TV performance.
Gordon performed badly in 3 televised debates - he couldn't even look at the camera properly - and then the worst happened.

In a live, local "pressing of the flesh" circus appearance, Gordon did his part, before retiring to the comfort and safety of his convoy. Unbeknown to him, his microphone was left on as he continued to share his observations of his last conversation with a voter.

Unaware that the public could hear his comments, he described the woman as "dreadful" and a few other choice adjectives he should have left well-alone. At that point, Gordon showed his true, self-centred colours and I believe Labour lost the election.

All that was left to do was count the votes and listen to Gordon's pathetic apology to his minions for losing the election single-handedly. He condemned us all to these cruel years of an unelected Clegg-Cameron wasteland, the ramifications of which will likely never be eradicated.

Yesterday it was announced that Gordon was back and would be a special envoy to the international community. Good news for Gordon.

I've never been particularly bothered about the type of work Gordon will be doing in his new role, nor the kind of folk he'll be doing it with.

God help them, that's all I can say.

Do you like Gordon? Post a comment...
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Here's where all the money went...

This is the Cutty Sark which is a very old boat. It's now standing splendid next to the newly constructed "Olympic Nando's"
The Queen will unveil it. I don't know if she's smash a bottle of Krug against the side of it in celebration of the being able to tack new bits of wood back on after it was horribly burned in 2007.
There's a whole, huge story about the amount this cost to sort out and the level to which the public money which was spent went to a worthy cause or not, but let's enjoy the moment for the Queen and the nation.
Let's try, above all, to feel better about our country. Afterall, the marketing powers have managed to get the Queen's Diamond Jubilee colliding with the London 2012 olympics in the same year.
Now it seems that the Cutty Sark is being incorporated into the whole design rationale.
I, for one, will be absolutely nowhere near this whole fiasco as it happens tomorrow.

What do you think? Is this a vital part of the nation's history, or a total waste of money when it could be being better used elsewhere? Comment...

Don't forget about the Lib Dems

Squeaky clean Lib Dems got coverage today for their expenses in that elitist, Tory rag, the Telegraph. There I go making it sound all exciting just by writing about it. But seriously, I didn't think Lib Dems actually incurred expenses, because I didn't think they did anything. Certainly it's a chance to stay squeaky clean in relation to the other parties because they haven't been in power since...well ever. Not since Lloyd George has a Lib-related leader had chance to get his mug on the front pages. Nick Clegg, who is apparently the Leader of Britain's oft-ignored, third party, stumbled into unaccustomed action saying he'd be jolly-well, really displeased if it turned out they were all as corrupt at the moat-clearing Tories. Well, he didn't actually say that exactly, but he did say something or other that I've forgotten to write down. I'd like to encourage Britain not to forget about this political group; they do fulfill an important function in the political landscape. In a nutshell, if we didn't have LibDems, event these corrupt ones, as it turns out they seem to be from today's Telegraph's front page, we'd be a two-party state, like America. Plus it's not so nice to have everything red or blue. I like to see some orange. Or is it yellow? I can't remember...