This is the hundreth post of Because It Doesn’t Affect You. I myself have largely forgotten the mission statement of what this blog was supposed to do, and I can’t even say what it now represents. I should think that by now everyone who bothers to read this should get an idea of what my areas of interest are, and if there are somehow some long-term readers, you’ll probably have noticed that some subjects have pretty much dropped off, and not entirely intentionally. It took five years to where a lot of other WordPress users reach in one, mostly because of my penchant for long-form essays, and the fact that I don’t get paid to write. Nah, I actually have to do fairly intensive physical and emotional labour – a situation that to one extent of another was true even near the beginning.
With all that said, here are a set of responses to questions that you might be having:
What is your name?: Not relevant. The people who know know, and those who don’t don’t.
Okay, where do you work?: Also not relevant.
Where do you live?: I’ve already mentioned that I live in Croydon, in the United Kingdom. I feel less of an affinity to it the more I get older, mostly because of how shut out I feel from it.
As a general commentary, in late modernity, I don’t think that the communitarian ideal expressed in “Third Way” politics is achievable to any significant scale (I’m talking as encompassing the entire town or city), and can probably only manifest in small municipalities. I think that New Labour figured that out, and decided to go ahead with the pro-business stuff. I say this because for all this talk about pride in your area, London Borough of Culture and all that “Croydon Stands Tall” shit recently, Croydon is more of a place you move to, move through, and move from. Community is there – as it is everywhere, but I don’t really feel apart of it. I think that even Croydon Council understand a bit of what I’m saying. Their property development escapades would suggest that they do, and there trying to look for a solution to it. I feel a bit sorry for zoomers though. Their sense of alienation is going to be profoundly felt – even accounting for a post-pandemic world.
Ar you going to continue with this?: Probably, yeah. Largely out of obligation. There’s a bit unfinished, and I literally have another post to publish right after this one. I just didn’t want that one to be the hundredth one.
Will the blog change direction?: I’m basically even debating to continue with it altogether but I do wish that I wasn’t as restrictive with it as I was.
Any other regrets?: Mostly around not writing more, especially when so much time was spent towards something that turned out to be a farce.
Anything that you’d like to work on?: I definitely think I would post more music stuff now. Even if it’s just a video. Beyond that there’s a few topics that come to mind what I’d like to do.
- Novara Media – British left-wing media publication notable for its contributors claiming to be communists, although they seemed to have settled on a social-democratic position. Guilty pleasure (at best) watching them (On second thought, I’m not in a hurry to write about them)
- Fully Automated Luxury Communism – Book by Aaron Bastani, one of Novara Media’s co-founders. Didn’t like reading it.
- Simone Weil – French philosopher who became rather influential years after her death to the New Left. Notable for her anarchism, and conversion from an irreligious outlook to sometime of a modern Christian mystic, and strong sense of empathy and justice.
- Writing on China – the civil war, the revolution, and its modern development.
- BreadTube – a significant part of the online Left, and a large community on YouTube. Not in a hurry to write on the phenomenon, mostly because it would be so time-intensive.
- MF DOOM – Rapper known for wearing a Doctor Doom mask (really, a prop mask from the 2000 film Gladiator) known for his multi-syllabic rhymes, vast pop-culture references, and frequent use of Five-Percenter terminology. Very enigmatic figure, died in 2020 – with the cause of death still unrevealed.
- Technofeudalism – Concept by Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis, in which he insists that capitalism has changed significantly enough from the neoliberal mode that it deserves recognition as such. Seasoned socialists believe he is really just plugging a book. Both assertions will be explored.
Anything that you wanted to write but now don’t?: There’s a post on Keir Starmer that’s still in my drafts that I have little interest in finishing, partly because events have overtaken me, but also because I don’t care that much about the internal squabbles in Labour now. Finishing it would seem really redundant. I think that I promised to do a better explainer on critical race theory, but I’m not inclined to do it now. The article itself had a weird response because some conservative drone primed about CRT from right-wing sources started messing up my comments section with his stupidity. There’s also a draft on HG Wells meeting with Stalin from four years back – I’ve since changed by positions substantially since then, and even if I hadn’t, the meeting itself wasn’t all that deep – Wells was just touring the USSR and was asked to briefly meet him. And unlike what openDemocracy might think, Stalin showed himself to be a more principled socialist than Wells in the discussion. The former at least recognised the importance of the Chartists to democracy as well as a working-class movement – something that the liberal Wells could not appreciate, and glibly dismissed. I’m happy to say this to anyone, and in person.
Post that I’m most proud of: So far, it’s the neoliberalism one. I really feel like I worked hard on it, and it’s the only long-form one that I don’t have impostor syndrome on. It’s probably gonna get a sequel of sorts.
Anyway, if anyone’s got cake please it my way.
Because It Doesn't Affect You 