You see, I'm a socialist, so I find this an appalling idea - limiting the right of the people to vote, that's for fascists, statists, oligarchists, & dictators. So the people sometimes vote for stuff you don't like; live with it.
No, that's not the point and the danger.
In Scotland, they are now hoping to include sixteen-year-olds in the Independence issue vote. Sixteen.
Do you remember what
you used to believe when you were sixteen? You can sell a kid any dream you like; the street corners are always well populated by folks selling them what they want, and of which they imagine they understand the consequences, should they think that far. You also know sixteen-year-olds with an understanding of politics, or even many
adults with a sophisticated knowledge of it?
I read here these bleats about exploitation, the horrors of the rich etc. et bloody cetera. I enclose a little collage of what it means to be moderately successful as a middle-class person. The lad who owns this stuff is my brother-in-law. He started life with few qualifications other than a very good set of parents and a comfortable home life. Akin to my own. I’ve known him from when he was about eight. (His is a Brabus LWB S Class Mercedes and hers has the AMG toys.)
He left school, became apprenticed to a firm where he worked all day, went to college and eventually qualified as an Associate of the relevant professional Society. He studied harder and became a Fellow. His wife worked just as hard. She ended up supervising a staff of over three hundred people, and he created and developed a chain of estate agencies which he finally sold and he then continued in another branch of the profession. He now consults.
In the evenings and at weekends, they would entertain a vast number of business people and he’d also play at least two full rounds of golf per week. It’s a work-load that would have scared the shit out of me, quite apart from killing me off physically. They have a home in Spain, a very nice one in Scotland.
Now, someone tell me they were lucky?
Those are the people that make life tick; they create the jobs within their professions; their spending creates work in many, many others, they devote their lives to the work ethic. Does someone really hate them for their success, for the fruits of their labours? Many clearly do. And all it proves is how fucking useless many of the rest of us really are. I could have done much the same, but I chose to chase dreams of beauty instead. I enjoyed it; it was fun; it never brought many of the material benefits of a real job. But, it fed the family, showed us the world and much happiness. I envy no one their success because I know it never comes by itself.
Rob C
