Hi Chris,
All very interesting.
I've been grappling with something bubbling up inside for the past few years along these lines.
My political instincts such as far as I can define them have been hugely influenced by my dad's US Republican views and my mother's Conservative voting. Against that I've always supported the notion of the NHS but it's only in very recent years/months that I've been wondering where is the voice to make the case for collective ownership on behalf of all for some assets that are too valuable to yield to profit making organisations.
Who is doing that talking?
It'll be very difficult to persuade some of our vintage who lived through the excessive and corrupt power-mongering trade unions of the 60s/70s who , it could be argued, paved the way for the visionary private sector boys to replace various industries e.g. Fleet Street. The unions, once the prophetic voice calling for justice, equality and good working conditions had become a millstone around the need to change with the times....blind leading the blind again. The ditch awaits.
But as Naomi Klein has been pointing out there is an equally sinister agenda behind the monetarism that caught hold of Thatcher and her cronies and this agenda has definitely lead to the dismantling of the public sector.
Working conditions and salary structures imposed on doctors, academisation imposed on the teaching profession, outsourcing the whole of state education away from LEAs are the latest symptoms.
We are not in Christ to retreat to the Law but the structure of the Mosaic Law-bound society struck a balance between 'state' and 'private' with its Jubilee structure built in. Much is made of Jubilee and how it was designed to act as a brake on some becoming super rich whilst others were enslaved (literally in some cases)by poverty. But the whole Law was there to create or at least regulate a just and fait society. As Paul said 'the law is holy' and the law is good.
But the whole of the Law included taxes. Most 'tithes' or taxes were to be saved up for the person themselves to have enough money to eat and drink and leave their work and afford to celebrate and worship God in Jerusalem at the feasts. An example would be Joseph and Mary, Jesus and his brothers and sisters and companions going to Jerusalem when Jesus was about 12. But other tithes were put aside for the priests. The priests were not only attending to the Temple in Jerusalem but public servants that dealt with public health issues, running the equivalent of prisons, taught the people and so on = all paid by the tithes. The idea of all this being outsourced is hilarious!!!
There is a case for governments raising taxes. But there is equally a case for those funds being used solely for the use of all not end us as 'profit' for private companies. It seems absurd that organisations and the individuals within them should profit from the people - and profit they do!
Fascism? If the government is in the pockets of the rich and all the outsourcing contracts are arranged via government we have corruption built into the system and this is by definition fascist.
The in/out referendum is a side show if the EU, as well as it's possible birth-child UK-PLC, is run by the same corrupt ideology.
But someone will have to speak up and make a cogent case for collective ownership of valuable national assets, to end out-sourcing as well as tax avoidance.
The outcome of the battle over the steel industry will tell us a great deal. At least it's forcing everyone - Corbyn included, to think through the issues.
God will send his prophets- and they may well come from an unusual source. One might imagine it is JC (Jeremy Corbyn) but I'm not so sure!
Shocked? Yes I think so.
John
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