<em>Post updated, hit the jump.</em>
I’m not talking about freedom of speech, or freedom of religion, or any of the more abstract freedoms which we are told we should care about. I’m talking about economic freedom.
According to this article in the Times:
PARTS of the United Kingdom have become so heavily dependent on government spending that the private sector is generating less than a third of the regional economy
The state is becoming the economy, and Britain is becoming a communist state by stealth.<em>Update:</em>A discussion has developed on twitter regarding whether we are becoming a Fascist or Communist State. Personally it I don’t think it makes alot of difference, the result will be the same. If anything we are become more of a hybrid than fully one or the other. Lets take a look at the characteristics of our situation and see where we stand:
- The state makes up a large part of the economy = Communism.
- Citizens encouraged to use credit = Fascism.
- State owned sources of above credit = Communism.
- Criticism of state behaviour discouraged, either covertly or overtly = Both.
- Constant war footing (Iraq, Afghanistan, Terror) = Fascism.
- Means of production left in private hands but heavily regulated by the state = Fascism.
- Gov’t policies based on Socialist ideals = Communism.
- Heavy use of propaganda and control of the media = Both.
- Disdain for democratic processes and overt or covert manipulation of the same = Fascism.
End result: A hybrid Fascist/Communist system which is just as totalitarian as one or the other.
Something which should be clarified is that I’m not talking about the utopian fantasy that is true communism but the more insidious version that is all that can exist when you add human nature to the equation. Neither am I talking about the overt Fascism which was seen in Nazi Germany or Italy under Mussolini, though I don’t believe it will be long before the state will be able to parade its motives and true nature publicly.
If the crisis we are going through deepens, as I think it will, the citizenry will accept any kind of abhorrent governance if it promises to lift them from this recession. Then we’re really fucked.
