tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post4955715191754569039..comments2023-11-05T22:35:31.766+00:00Comments on Neil Clark: Big Business and Britain's BrainwashingNeil Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10479041156190090119noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-27344507345271765562008-01-22T16:26:00.000+00:002008-01-22T16:26:00.000+00:00jolies: great point. in the 70s and 80s BBC2 regul...jolies: great point. in the 70s and 80s BBC2 regularly showed classic foreign films. Not any more, sadly.Neil Clarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10479041156190090119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-59263411395800511212008-01-22T11:12:00.000+00:002008-01-22T11:12:00.000+00:00My own pennyworth of cultural nostalgia (and lamen...My own pennyworth of cultural nostalgia (and lament) was thirty years ago, watching on a Friday night a season of films by Luis Bunuel...on BBC2! I was fifteen, much of what I watched bewildered me, but I was enraptured. Such an opportunity would be unimaginable now...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-5169009596832209792008-01-16T22:09:00.000+00:002008-01-16T22:09:00.000+00:00I read your article in the Morning Star and agree ...I read your article in the Morning Star and agree with you that large areas of our society have become saturated by commercialism of the worst type. There are though still many parts of the country that retain a traditional British character, I mean a quiet Sunday traditional dinner and shopping locally. Have you read "Bonfire of the Brands" by Neil Boorman? <BR/>Rampant capitalism is destroying a great deal of culture by homogenisation and suffocating advertising. Cuba is one of those countries where there is no advertising boards, no advertising on tv, no Macdonalds or ghastly Starbucks but where science, culture,art and sport flourishes without brand sponsorship. Cuba is the brand!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-58520530991041919412008-01-11T14:41:00.000+00:002008-01-11T14:41:00.000+00:00I suggest that hulme dont look too deep into the D...I suggest that hulme dont look too deep into the Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook as he has in the Dirty Albanian lies book....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-88764218576484505782008-01-11T03:37:00.000+00:002008-01-11T03:37:00.000+00:00Have you read "An Army of Davids" by Glenn Reynold...Have you read "An Army of Davids" by Glenn Reynolds, a.k.a Instapundit? It came out about a year and a half ago. The idea is that technology has empowered individuals to do things they wouldn't be able to do otherwise.<BR/><BR/>You seem to think that capitalism is about making everything bigger, but small and big seem to go together. For example, marketing guru Seth Rogen wrote a book called "Small is the new Big"<BR/><BR/>You seem to think that capitalism is the enemy of social interaction. Capitalism is about creating value for people, and part of that value is a place for people to hang out.Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15146665485840381349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-69236935237230254992008-01-10T21:53:00.000+00:002008-01-10T21:53:00.000+00:00Hiya Neil,I will admit, I only spoke to a few peop...Hiya Neil,<BR/><BR/>I will admit, I only spoke to a few people of roughly my own age. I defer to the fact that you're wife is actually Hungarian!<BR/><BR/>I'll have to ask my brother. He lived in Budapest for something like five or six years.<BR/><BR/>I will admit, life in France is refreshing with shops closing at 5pm and off at weekends. It's a lovely way of life.<BR/><BR/>However, the upshot of that is you earn less and things cost more. <BR/><BR/>I think I'm incredibly lucky to have the option of choosing which way of life I want (American or European) since so many people are stuck with one or the other (and generally yearn for the opposite of what they've got.)<BR/><BR/>On the face of it, I'm a dirty stinking capitalist - but a world with corporations gone wild is just as scary to me as socialism. Somewhere in between - a generally free market with some sensible government regulations - would be best for everybody.<BR/><BR/>One reason why John Edwards isn't too bad a bet in the next election over here. I'm either for Obama or McCain (I can't vote, so it really doesn't matter) but Edwards has some sensible ideas about reining in the explosion of corporate greed and giving the regular working stiff a chance to make a go of it.Roland Hulmehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08979437320446956987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-84318490458970966202008-01-10T17:30:00.000+00:002008-01-10T17:30:00.000+00:00Truly, Britain is the Sick Man of Europe.Truly, Britain is the Sick Man of Europe.David Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06839882674758833524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-14181059230399866302008-01-10T15:29:00.000+00:002008-01-10T15:29:00.000+00:00Thanks, Derek. Hope all's well.Roland: I fully agr...Thanks, Derek. Hope all's well.<BR/><BR/>Roland: I fully agree that America is a generally friendlier place that Britain. I found New York incredibly friendly when I visited in 2006, and wrote about it on the blog. But don't understimate the social problems in the US too, the high crime rates, drug/alcohol abuse. You accuse me of wanting to turn the clock back to 'socialist fantasy world' that never existed, but in the piece I also say that things are much better in continental Europe, where turbo capitalism has still to dominate.<BR/><BR/>re Hungary: How old were the people you spoke to? The Stalinist Rakosi years in the late 40s and 50s were undoubtedly miserable and dreary, but Zsuzsanna was writing about the era of Kadar's 'goulash communism' in 70s and 80s when things were much better.Neil Clarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10479041156190090119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-39549756929065928112008-01-10T14:39:00.000+00:002008-01-10T14:39:00.000+00:00That's a beautifully written article. Complete bol...That's a beautifully written article. Complete bollocks, of course. But very nicely written.<BR/><BR/>I live in America and people here are living in the pinnacle of the 'turbo capitalist' model - yet have much better social interaction, friendship and civility than the Brits. Thanksgiving is excellent proof of a totally uncommercialised secular festival that strengthens friendships and families. Britain doesn't have anything like that.<BR/><BR/>No, blaming 'turbo capitalism' is just dreary socialist propoganda. The basic inescapable truth is that Brits just AREN'T as friendly as other foreign cultures.<BR/><BR/>I was interested by Zsuzsanna's input... I visited Hungary a few years ago and the people I spoke to seemed to remember it being a miserable and dreary place under communism. That's why they had the (brutally subdued) uprising, wasn't it?<BR/><BR/>Along with your rose-tinted reminisence of visiting communist-era Belgrade, it seems you want to turn the clock back to a socialist fantasy world that never actually existed.<BR/><BR/>Nostalgia just isn't what it used to be.Roland Hulmehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08979437320446956987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-41036424363571545802008-01-10T13:52:00.000+00:002008-01-10T13:52:00.000+00:00Well said, I think the likes of you and I need to ...Well said, I think the likes of you and I need to be pushing Oliver James new book 'The Selfish Capitalist', which are know you are doing.<BR/><BR/>Capitalism not good for the planet or ironically our prosperityDerek Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05462511891409913195noreply@blogger.com