Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Everything They Told You Is Wrong
Everything They Told You Is Wrong
Everything They Told You Is Wrong
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ....................................10
HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN
PERSONAL MEDIA EMPIRE ...................... 10
PART ONE:
DIY MEDIA ...................... 12
ELECTRONIC PAMPHLETEERING ................13
ISOLATION ............................................. 15
WORK AND ORIGINAL SIN ......................... 15
ORIGINAL SIN AND TECHNOPHOBIA .............. 16
I’M NO GOOD ........................................ 16
TWO CLICHÉS ........................................ 17
THE “FREE MARKET” AND THE “NEW AGE” ... 17
THE COST OF LIVING ............................... 18
LAW OF THE JUNGLE ............................... 18
ANTI-CONSUMERIST MYTH NO. 1 ............... 19
INDULGE LAZINESS OR SUFFER APATHY ........ 21
INTERNAL RESISTANCE .............................. 21
TEETH GRINDING .................................... 21
INTERNAL DISTRACTION ............................. 22
HIT SQUADS .......................................... 22
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PART TWO:
PUBLISHED LETTERS ...... 65
WRITING TO NEWSPAPERS ......................66
NEWS OF THE WORLD .............................. 68
RADIO TIMES ......................................... 68
FORTEAN TIMES ..................................... 69
.NET .................................................... 70
FINANCIAL TIMES .................................... 71
THE INDEPENDENT .................................. 71
FORTEAN TIMES (2)................................. 72
THE SUN .............................................. 73
THE GUARDIAN ...................................... 73
THE CHRONICLE ..................................... 74
THE GUARDIAN (2) ................................. 75
RADIO TIMES (2) .................................... 76
THE IDLER ............................................ 77
THE INDEPENDENT (2) ............................. 79
BBC RADIO 4 PM NEWS ........................ 79
THE GUARDIAN (3) ................................. 80
THE SUN (2) ......................................... 82
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PART THREE:
INTERVIEWS ......................... 88
BBC RADIO WALES INTERVIEW ...............89
INTERVIEW WITH THE FACE ....................95
INTERVIEW WITH THE INDEPENDENT ........ 107
BASIC INCOME FORUM ........................ 109
CHANNEL 4: “FRONTAL” ..................... 114
PART FOUR:
BL~ISS BULLETIN
OF LEISURE .................. 118
FAKE ORGANISATIONS ............................ 119
BL~ISS ............................................ 120
THE END OF WORK .............................. 121
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PART FIVE:
PUBLISHED ARTICLES .. 129
ALTERNATIVE ECONOMICS ......... 130
NO SHORTAGE OF ALTERNATIVES .............. 130
BASIC INCOME ..................................... 130
GUARANTEED INCOME ............................ 132
NEGATIVE INCOME TAX .......................... 133
WILLINGNESS TO WORK? ........................ 133
ZERO-INTEREST CURRENCY ...................... 134
ALTERNATIVE CURRENCIES ...................... 136
STAMP SCRIP ....................................... 137
THE DIGITAL ECONOMY .......................... 138
THE TOBIN TAX ................................... 139
ECONOMIC “AUTHORITY” ......................... 140
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INTRODUCTION
HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN
PERSONAL MEDIA EMPIRE
This book records my modest attempts to infiltrate the
media with “unusual” material. Since I’m not a journal-
ist or media-person, and since I have no contacts in the
media (except for a few acquaintances who produce
publications as obscure and unknown as my own) it’s
very much an “outsider” project.
I started off publishing a low-budget magazine called
Anxiety Culture, with some stickers and gimmicky
graphics. The size of my audience was dependent on
advertising expenditure – which, being a lot less than
Amazon’s, meant that the operation grew no bigger than
the laser printer in my living room. Then the Internet
happened, opening up all sorts of creative avenues for
DIY-media enthusiasts like myself.
You can now become an “expert” or “authority” just by
having a website specialising in a given subject (I’ve
been approached by several TV and radio programmes –
including BBC2’s Newsnight – just on the strength of the
Anxiety Culture website). The ease with which anyone
can fake expertise and simulate “popularity” would
delight Orson Welles and L. Ron Hubbard, if they were
still alive.
Setting up your own media empire doesn’t necessarily
require launching a magazine or website. All of the
material collected in this book was published through
other channels. Basically, in each case, I wrote down my
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PART ONE
DIY
MEDIA
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ELECTRONIC PAMPHLETEERING
Whenever I read about pamphleteers from earlier times –
“eccentrics” who spent a lot of time and money trying to
publicise their ideas (eg thinkers like Thomas Paine,
Jonathan Swift and George Orwell, and weird religious
heresies and cults such as the Rosicrucians, whose
pamphlet-manifestos proved remarkably influential,
despite remaining shrouded in mystery and anonymity),
I wonder how they would utilise the possibilities of the
Internet. Orwell himself described pamphleteering in
terms which resonate with the aims of creatively inclined
Internet users:
“The pamphlet is a one-man show. One has complete
freedom of expression, including, if one chooses, the free-
dom to be scurrilous, abusive, and seditious; or, on the
other hand, to be more detailed, serious and ‘high-brow’
than is ever possible in a newspaper or in most kinds of
periodicals”
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ISOLATION
I’ve heard much talk about the supposed “isolation” of
people working from home (usually accompanied by the
suggestion that work in a “proper social environment” is
much healthier). I don’t feel isolated by my home com-
puter and modem; I feel isolated by having to spend
eight hours a day chained to a desk in a sterile corpo-
rate office, surrounded by people I dislike.
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I’M NO GOOD
Cognitive psychology focuses on “automatic” thoughts
which lead to depression, anxiety, guilt, anger, etc. You
can apply this to individuals or society. The belief in
Original Sin led to a complex of automatic thoughts,
which, when trimmed of theology, boil down to the idea:
“I’m no good”. Many modern people claim to be untrou-
bled by such thoughts, but defensiveness and sensitivity
to criticism (and much, much else) indicate otherwise.
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TWO CLICHÉS
The economic clichés: “land of opportunity”, and “don’t
quit your day job” contradict each other. If we had a
“land of opportunity”, nobody would’ve dreamt up the
phrase “don’t quit your day job” – in fact everyone would
be quitting their day jobs to take up all those “opportu-
nities”.
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INTERNAL RESISTANCE
When we’re children, people tell us what to do all the
time – and we covertly build a resistance to being told
what to do. When we’re adults, we tell ourselves what to
do (eg to achieve a goal), and then run into subcon-
scious resistance (inertia, boredom, listlessness). We
distract ourselves to avoid feeling resistance, but
resistance is not the enemy – distraction is. You can feel
resistance yet still pursue a goal, whereas chronic
distraction makes pursuit of any goal impossible.
Advertising aims to turn your resistances into
distractions – it’s about weakening your will.
TEETH GRINDING
“Rising stress at work is causing increasing numbers of
young professionals to grind their teeth while they sleep”
(Guardian 21/1/2000).
Of all work-related stress symptoms (and there are
many), teeth-grinding sounds the most apt:
The daily grind
Grinding boredom
Nose to the grindstone, etc
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INTERNAL DISTRACTION
Distraction first appears from outside (TV, noise, food,
talk, etc), then becomes internalised – your mind creates
the distraction. Then everything seems trivial and futile.
Negative mood. Impatience. Irritation. Nothing satisfies.
Possible remedy: buy a cheap electronic kitchen timer.
Isolate yourself in your room, undisturbed and quiet.
With the timer, set a 15-30 minute period to practice
some form of brain-calming technique (eg a deep breath-
ing or meditation technique – get a decent book on the
subject). The point of the timer is so you don’t have to
worry about the time while you’re practising the tech-
nique.
HIT SQUADS
“In a tough crackdown on hardcore unemployment”, “hit
squads” will be used to slot each of the 1.1 UK unem-
ployed into the million-plus job vacancies. According to
the government, “there is no excuse” for people not to
slot straight into a job.
(Above quotes are taken from the Daily Mail (28/2/00) –
a “respectable” conservative tabloid which, sadly, is the
most popular newspaper amongst UK college students.)
We’re not human beings with individual needs, desires
and abilities – we’re interchangeable units for fitting into
job slots. Otherwise we’re financial liabilities to be
quickly removed.
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INSIDIOUS STRESS
A BBC TV celebrity doctor says: “Stress-related illness is
responsible for 40 million lost working days, and costs
British industry around £80 billion a year.”
He continues: “Harmful stressors share a number of
characteristics: they tend to be pronounced, long term and
beyond the individual’s control. The latter is the most
important characteristic, because it makes resolution of a
stressful problem almost impossible. Which explains why
stress is less of a problem in high-flying executives than
in people on the factory floor.”
(It’s a well-supported finding in the social sciences that
stress most affects those “low” in social status – contrary
to the popular myth of bosses and leaders being the
most stressed.)
“Those members of society most prone to stress are also
those least likely to be in a position to resolve their prob-
lem. Relaxation helps, but if resolution of the stress-induc-
ing problem never occurs, the stress continues, and the
longer it goes on the more likely it is to do damage, relaxa-
tion or no relaxation.”
“There is another option, of course – you can jump ship.
Quitting the rat race is a very effective way of lightening
the load in the short term. But it tends to be an option only
for the privileged and can cause even worse problems in
the long run.” (Source: Radio Times 28/10/2000)
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LABOUR SAVING
Human labour is an increasingly minor part of many
productive processes. Large layoffs (of thousands of
workers) already occur on an almost weekly basis. We
could embrace the labour-saving aspect of technology
and put it to social good, or, like the politicians, we can
ignore it and keep insisting that everyone works full-
time. Or, like corporations, we can regard it as merely
another competitive weapon in an economic battlefield.
Or, like the “primitivists”, we can reject it completely and
live in mud huts with no running water.
Let’s assume that we embrace technological advance.
Human labour becomes an increasingly minor part of
production (and of many services). Distribution of wealth
can no longer be based on the idea of “reward for human
labour”, since human labour is no longer a significant
factor. Obviously, this implies the need for a system of
wealth distribution which is different from anything
we’ve seen before: income not based on work.
The idea of an income which is not conditional on work
isn’t new. Various schemes have been proposed by
economists: Basic Income, National Dividend, Negative
Income Tax, etc. The idea is that everybody receives a
guaranteed survival income, regardless of whether they
work or not. (See Alternative Economics in the Published
Articles section for more details). The economic logic for
introducing such a scheme seems very convincing to me.
But I think the main objection to it will be the belief that
people have a moral obligation to work for a living.
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SERIOUS BREAKFAST
I once mentioned, in a magazine article, that many UK
breakfast cereals have adopted sensible names (eg:
Sustain, Just Right, Advantage) in place of fun names.
I’ve since found that Sainsburys sells a cereal called
Precise. Children will be eating Precise for breakfast. One
can hardly imagine the amount of psychological damage
this will cause.
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FEAR OF TECHNOLOGY
There are many malign uses of technology. But
malignancy isn’t inherent in technology. That sounds
obvious, but many people talk as if technology itself is
tainted, corrupt, suspect, unnatural, etc. That seems
like medieval logic to me.
Neophobia (fear of the new) is very widespread. It mani-
fests in various ways: a dislike of advanced technology; a
preference for “natural” things; nostalgia; sense of being
overwhelmed by change; fear of “moral decline”; the
feeling that everything’s going to hell, etc.
Unfortunately, neophobia often distorts the ‘negative vs
positive’ argument concerning technology, causing many
people to see only the menacing aspects. But there’s not
much point in comparing lists of “good” and “bad” tech-
nology, because technology itself is neither good nor bad
– it just serves the will of those creating and using it.
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STARVING ARTISTS
I’ve heard the stories about JK Rowling writing Harry
Potter inside cafés because she couldn’t afford to heat
her home, but I’ve not seen any comment in the media
about how Harry Potter wouldn’t have been written if Ms
Rowling had been employed in a job.
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CONTRADICTIONS
The “mainstream” worldview seems full of contradic-
tions. For example:
The economy: we’re told that our economic system is
doing well, creating great prosperity. Then we’re told
that, as a society, we can no longer afford basic social
services, and that even the most vulnerable individuals
must fend for themselves.
Standard of living: we’re told we have a better standard
of living than ever before. Then we’re told that poverty
levels have risen drastically since the 1970s, and that
people are required to work much longer hours than in
the 1970s.
Crime rate: we’re told that crime is increasing. Then
we’re told that crime is decreasing. Then we’re told that
it’s increasing again. All in the space of one month.
Unemployment: we’re told we have the lowest unem-
ployment for three decades. Then we’re told that welfare
expenditure is such a big problem that we can’t afford to
be “soft” on unemployed people, and must create subsi-
dised jobs at huge public expense.
Opportunity: we’re told there are great opportunities for
everyone – prosperity is there for the taking. Then we’re
reminded of the increasingly “brutal” world and the
increasingly “competitive” market (which would seem to
indicate a scarcity of opportunities, as “competition”
implies fighting over scarce resources).
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ECONOMIC CONTRADICTION
“It always boils down to the highly improbable case that
the rich aren’t working because they have too little income
and the poor because they have too much.”
(From the economist J.K. Galbraith)
I assume Galbraith is commenting on the conservative
rationale for increasing the income to rich people (eg
through tax cuts) while decreasing the income to the
poor (eg cuts in welfare entitlement).
Or you can apply Galbraith’s quote to corporate welfare.
The typical justification for giving huge government
handouts to corporations is that it helps those corpora-
tions remain competitive in a difficult market. But the
reverse is apparently true with poor people – if you give
them government handouts it makes them “dependent”,
“soft” and less able to compete in a difficult job market.
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CRAP MANAGERS
Managers like to think they’re big on “initiative”,
“challenge”, “proactivity”, etc, and they hate “excuses”
and “whining”. But when you suggest ways they could
improve working conditions (such as introducing shorter
or more flexible working hours), it’s amazing how
quickly they come up with hundreds of excuses for not
doing it. They whine about how it might affect
“competitiveness”.
The last time I suggested something practical to a
manager was when his company (a branch of a large
corporation) was having car parking-space problems. I
suggested they let people work from home. His response
was: “I don’t think that would be good for people”. I gave
him some statistics showing that many people not only
enjoy working from home, but are more productive. The
manager shrugged his shoulders and went off to another
meeting. A memo was later issued, advising people to
share cars. No mention of working from home. I hear
they are still having car-parking problems.
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HUMAN RIGHTS
From Article 23 of the UN’s universal declaration of
Human Rights:
“Everyone has the right to free choice of employment, to
just and favourable conditions of work and to protection
against unemployment.”
Somehow I don’t think the UK government’s approach
of: “take any lousy job or lose your benefits” quite meas-
ures up to these Human Rights ideals.
Here’s another interesting Human Rights issue, taken
from a recent newspaper article:
“The European Convention on Human Rights says every-
one is entitled to a fair hearing by an independent and
impartial tribunal when decisions are being made about
their civil rights (including rights to benefits).”
Apparently the UK is in breach of these laws. Unem-
ployed people do not currently have their welfare claims
ultimately decided by an independent organisation, as
they should. Reading between the lines, the implication
is that the government won’t be able to withdraw a job-
less person’s benefits without running up against Hu-
man Rights legislation. This seems particularly relevant
at a time when the UK government is threatening to
withdraw benefits as a punishment for “antisocial” be-
haviour (presumably they think making people homeless
is a cure for antisocial tendencies?)
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DESTRUCTIVE SELF-PRESERVATION
Can society reach “post-scarcity” (ie abundance for all,
and the consequent social transformation) before eco-
disaster or war returns the planet to a state of scarcity?
The latest on global warming looks bad. It’s almost as if
the current economic system is creating exactly the
conditions (pollution/conflict) to ensure we never reach
post-scarcity. Of course, that makes sense from the
Capitalist point of view, since Capitalism is based on the
idea of scarcity – an end to scarcity means an end to
Capitalism (check any economics textbook to see the
important role of “scarcity” or “limited resources” in
supply-and-demand economics). In other words, global
warming is a perverse kind of self-preservation for Capi-
talism.
Given the rising world population level, technology is
necessary for us to reach “post-scarcity”. Abandoning
technology would return us to scarcity, condemning
millions to starvation (ie millions more than are cur-
rently starving). This is something that anti-technology
groups often tend to ignore or forget.
Wars and violent revolutions have the potential to
increase scarcity. Let’s say, for example, that in the next
20 years we have an ecological catastrophe followed by a
violent movement against technology (since people will
blame technology). So people dismantle factories, etc.
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USURY
Here’s another good quote, from Peter Russell (author of
The Global Brain):
“It’s called usury in many of the old religions. Firstly it
makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, because the
people who lend the money are the rich people, and the
people who borrow the money are the poor people. The
people who pay the interest are the poor and the people
who gather the interest are the rich. Secondly, it’s the idea
of getting something for nothing. You lend the money, you
do nothing, but you get wealthy upon it. So those who
have money just get wealthier by doing nothing. There’s
no useful work done by lending money.”
“RECESSION”
Ominous talk about “recession” in the news again. The
last big “recession” (roughly a decade ago in the UK)
seemed an excuse for:
a) The government to tell everyone to lower their expec-
tations, tighten their belts, work harder, expect no
pay rises, expect less from government, expect to pay
more to government, etc.
b) Corporations to tell their employees to work harder
and longer, and expect harsher working conditions,
no pay rises, etc.
Then, when we came out of the “recession”, surprise,
surprise: no easing up on work, no slackening of our
belts, no softening of working conditions.
Recession? Bullshit.
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TRICKLE-UP FEAR
“Worker insecurity” doesn’t just affect low earners; high
earners seem fearful too (notice their paranoid language
about how competition is “fierce”, how the market is
“brutal”, etc. They don’t sound happy.)
I call it trickle-up fear. Professional middle-class people
look down on the poor, and think: “Shit, I don’t want to
end up like that – I’d better hold onto my job, I’d better not
rock the boat.”
So the tougher we make it for the poor (harsh welfare
regimes, cuts in social services, etc), the more fear
trickles upwards. Alan Greenspan has said that “worker
insecurity” is a good thing, because it keeps inflation low
(because workers are too insecure to risk asking for
better wages/conditions). This is an openly-admitted
economic policy: frighten people in order to keep
inflation low.
Low inflation benefits rich bankers, creditors, bondhold-
ers, etc, but is terrible for debt-stricken poor people,
because their income remains low relative to their debt.
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OBSTACLES TO CHANGE
1. Outdated work ethic.
2. Market Fundamentalism (eg the belief that all income
should be generated and distributed solely by the
commercial market).
3. Social Darwinism (eg “survival of the fittest”).
4. Malthusianism (eg belief in the inevitable scarcity of
resources).
5. “The Conservative Instinct” (resistance to change,
fear of losing position of relative wealth and power.)
Plus a few other factors.
The best solution to these obstacles that I can see is a
phased-in scheme of Basic Income (guaranteed income,
not conditional upon work) which proves itself, over
time, to benefit all sectors of society (except, possibly,
the very rich, who might have to survive on a few million
rather than a few billion).
Although Basic Income seems to be against all conven-
tional “free market” wisdom, I argue that it would lead to
a true free market – ie one based on true choice rather
than financial desperation and survival-anxiety. Crime
would fall, health costs would fall, compulsive (anxiety-
induced) consumerism would fall, and, therefore, envi-
ronmental destruction would fall. Free time would rise,
health & happiness would probably rise, people would
have more time to inform themselves, pursue their true
interests, actually relate to each other, human-to-hu-
man, rather than grudgingly as rushed, stressed wage-
slaves.
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INVISIBLE POVERTY
Affluent people tend not to see the extent of poverty in
“developed” nations. All they see is the omnipresence of
luxurious electronic goods: DVDs, microwave ovens, etc.
Then they probably think: “Hey, everyone has a colour
TV – the economic system must be working”. They fail to
recognise that owning a TV (which can be bought sec-
ond-hand for a few dollars, and lasts for years) does not
mean that you can afford to pay hundreds of dollars
rent every month. Homeless people may be wearing
digital watches, but they’re still homeless.
Another factor which hides poverty is debt. By borrowing
money you can disguise the fact that you are poor. (Cur-
rent average debt per UK household: £5,300, not includ-
ing home loans). Since poor people tend to be treated
with pity or contempt, most of them quickly learn to
disguise their poverty.
To better appreciate poverty, consider income levels. The
minimum wage is a poverty level wage for a family of
four. The vast majority of jobs being created are mini-
mum wage. Welfare, of course, is below the minimum
wage. According to the latest figures (as of July 2002)
more than one in four households live in poverty in the
UK.
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PITY
It’s a curious feeling to be “pitied” – it tends to trigger
defensiveness. It’s something that poor and unemployed
people have to deal with a lot, which I think explains
why various forms of misery (eg depression, anxiety,
stress, etc) correlate with “relative poverty” more than
“absolute poverty” (according to sociology).
To explain what I mean: Everyone in a poor country may
suffer from “absolute poverty”, but there’s also not much
inequality – everyone is at the same income level, more
or less (except, perhaps, for a tiny ruling elite). It’s often
been commented by visitors to poor countries that eve-
ryone seems happier than in the “civilised” West – ie
there’s more of a sense of “happy community”, despite
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DOCTORS ON DRUGS
One of the most overworked groups is doctors. Accord-
ing to a recent British Medical Association statistic,
13,000 practising doctors are dependent on alcohol or
drugs. The BMA set up a 24 hour telephone Helpline to
deal with the problem. A third of callers claimed prob-
lems with anxiety and stress.
PERENNIAL FEARS
We have become tools of our tools
(Henry David Thoreau, 1850)
Thoreau’s “anti-consumerist” remark was made 150
years ago. How much earlier were people making similar
remarks, one wonders. At the “dawn of civilisation”,
when the wheel was first invented, did people worry:
“Sure, it helps move things faster, but we’ve all become
enslaved to it”.
Worries about technological development have been
accompanied throughout history by worries about moral
decline, disrespect for elders, lowering of standards,
impoliteness, crime etc. Consider the following quote:
“Boys and girls are dressing alike. They love luxury, have
bad manners, show contempt for authority, show disre-
spect for their elders... they contradict their parents... and
tyrannise their teachers”.
These words were written by Socrates, who lived from
467 to 400 BC. (Socrates was himself accused of being
“an immoral corrupter of youth”). Those who voice the
same complaints today don’t seem to realise that this
“moral decline” has been perceived in all ages.
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GUILT COMPLEX
Guilt is commonly believed to arise from the unfavour-
able comparison of oneself to social expectations (par-
ticularly regarding moral codes). But if that were the
case you’d expect guilt to disappear once you get into
the habit of conforming morally and socially. Often the
most socially conformist people continue to be plagued
by guilt, even if they’ve never behaved particularly im-
morally.
All cultures have certain beliefs which are regarded as
“common sense”. Any belief which is held by a society
for thousands of years eventually becomes “common
sense”. However, common sense is not always correct
(“the Earth is flat” and “sex is dirty” used to be common
sense).
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POLITICAL HUMOUR
A few years ago, the UK government blamed the interest
rate rises on the fact that people are demanding too
much in wage increases. The government then said that
current economic weaknesses in the UK are due to the
fact that UK workers are less productive than in Europe
or the USA.
So, basically they are saying that people aren’t working
hard enough, and that people are paid too much – those
are the reasons for the economic problems of the coun-
try.
These government statements were widely announced in
the media – with straight faces all around and not a
trace of irony.
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A MODEST PROPOSAL
The famous political dissident, Noam Chomsky, has
remarked that old ideas – conventional pieties – need
only a few sentences to communicate, whereas new
ideas take a lot of explaining. TV, he said, reinforces the
status quo, since it allows only soundbites of 15 seconds
or so – it’s difficult to communicate a new idea in 15
seconds.
For example, politicians use the word “tough” a lot – eg
“tough on drugs”, “tough on crime”, “tough on the work-
shy” etc, because they know that anyone who argues
with them, in 15 seconds or less, is going to look merely
“soft”. And to explain why “soft” doesn’t necessarily
mean “bad” would also take more than 15 seconds to
explain.
Anyway, here’s a proposal of mine that will definitely
take more than 15 seconds to explain to people. The
idea is as follows:
A universal Citizen’s Income can be used to get rid of evil
dictators.
Dictators flourish in climates of fear. This usually begins
as economic fear – people are scared that if they don’t do
as they’re told they’ll be living in poverty or worse. His-
torically, this is the fertilizer for raising dictators – fear,
survival anxiety, mass economic nervousness.
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A “CHRISTIAN” PARABLE
Imagine you’re 2,000 years old. For most of your life
you’ve been in a semi-conscious state, with a hypnotist
sitting close to your left ear. Every day for the first 1800
years or so, the hypnotist gave you the following hyp-
notic suggestions, over and over:
“You are a son/daughter of Adam who betrayed God”
“You betrayed God by being born”
“You are evil in essence”
“You are no good”
“You are lower than low”
“You are totally depraved”
“You are damned”
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SPECULATIVE ECONOMICS
Welfare was probably invented by the rich to keep
money circulating, and to prevent the economy from
collapsing – ie it results from self-interest as much as
from altruism. Because, if unemployed people don’t have
money, how can they buy things? Welfare is how you
keep the economy functioning under conditions of reces-
sion or depression. Companies don’t want their custom-
ers to starve, they want them to keep the habit of
“consuming”. Most welfare money isn’t “lost” – it goes
straight back into the economy, spent on cheap home
produce, utilities and rent.
Welfare is often described (by those who oppose it) as
“taking without giving”. In monetary terms this is a false
argument. Apart from saved/invested money, we all give
money to the same extent that we take it. Welfare recipi-
ents take welfare money and then give it all away in
spending. (Usually they give it to companies which pay
the salaries of taxpayers). In purely monetary terms,
welfare recipients probably “give” a greater proportion of
their income than taxpayers (since they rarely save or
invest).
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FAMILY SELF-INTEREST
By definition, “decent” people aren’t supposed to be
selfish. But we live in a competitive society which
favours the free-market doctrine of self-interest.
Competition means applied selfishness.
Career-striving to earn money for luxury status symbols
is supposedly “selfless” when you’re a parent – because
it’s all for “the family”. And “selfless” parents think
they’re justified in lecturing their kids about the
inappropriateness of selfishness. And these parents
wonder why children become rebellious and resentful in
their teens.
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WATCH OUT!
What you put in your head is bound to affect how you
feel. Much of what goes into our heads looks harmless,
but it has a depressing effect. Watch out for the adverts!
A 1980 UNESCO report stated that advertising is guilty
of “simplifying real human situations into stereotypes,
exploiting anxieties...”
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WHO PAYS?
Who pays if everyone takes? That’s a common question
in debates on welfare or Basic Income. I think the
question “who pays?” shows a misunderstanding of the
problem. Let’s rephrase the question:
“Who creates the life-support wealth?”
That distinguishes “real wealth” from “money wealth”.
My answer to the question would be: “people following
their natural abilities/enthusiasms, building on the
staggering amount of real wealth (intellectual and
material) already created”.
The next logical question would be: “how is that encour-
aged and supported?” We can answer in the negative by
saying it’s definitely not supported by letting people
starve or get sick. It’s not supported by society withhold-
ing a basic income from those struggling financially (for
whatever reason, including so-called laziness). It’s not
supported by valuing only one type of wealth creation –
“hard work”, “job” or “quick return on the investment”.
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PART TWO
PUBLISHED
LETTERS
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WRITING TO NEWSPAPERS
Letters pages in newspapers seem the most interesting
sections of the mainstream media. The reason for this is
probably that editors feel less responsibility for the views
of readers than for the main editorial/journalistic
content. As a result, some unusual and subversive
letters are often printed. Readers say what they think,
whereas journalists and editors are conscious of how
their own published viewpoints will affect their careers –
which results in a sort of respectable cautiousness.
A few years ago, the UK’s Labour government gave a
press conference in which they boasted of their record
on employment – of “getting people into jobs”. Most
newspapers covered this in exactly the same language
as used by the government’s press release, with little
criticism or scrutiny. But then The Guardian published
no less than five reader’s letters, all on the same day,
attacking the government’s claims in remarkably
scathing terms, with descriptions of appallingly awful
low-paid jobs and vivid portrayals of Britain as a sort of
deeply unpleasant forced-labour camp. One of them
said:
“The situations vacant are low-paid, demoralising, mind-
numbing and soul-destroying, unrewarding graft in fast
food joints, security firms and the new sweatshops, call
centres.”
All of the letters were eloquent and forceful, and every
word rang true – unlike the PR syrup from the govern-
ment and the pathetic journalists’ acquiescence.
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RADIO TIMES
The Radio Times is the BBC’s official TV listings maga-
zine, with a mass audience in Britain. My letter was
printed as “Letter of the week” in the 17-23 July 1993
issue. It refers to a scaremongering BBC programme on
crime called Crimewatch UK. Back in the dark days of
1993, most people really did believe that crime was “spi-
ralling out of control”, although in the decade since many
people have become sceptical about media crime hype.
Dear Editor,
The coverage of crime on Crimewatch UK contributes to a
climate of fear out of all proportion to the real threat of crime
for most people. We keep hearing about the “rising tide of
crime”, but why can’t the crime rate figures be explained in
detail (perhaps with graphics such as those used by the BBC on
election nights)? This would take into account factors like the
vastly improved crime detection technology and the creation of
new laws, both of which increase the official crime rate, with-
out any increased threat to the public.
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FORTEAN TIMES
Fortean Times is a popular magazine covering unex-
plained/anomalous phenomena and weird popular cul-
ture. The letter I wrote addressed a columnist’s critical
remarks about a group of optimistic futurists calling them-
selves “Extropians”. It was printed in the December 1996
issue.
Dear Editor,
Toby Howard’s article on the Extropians was the third example
I’ve seen recently of people with ‘alternative’ optimistic beliefs
being accused of selfishness. Timothy Leary was described as
‘an optimist’ and ‘selfish’ in his Times obituary (1 June), and
on a recent BBC2 Newsnight some ‘joyful’ hermits were criti-
cised for ignoring ‘social responsibilities’ (which is a polite way
of calling them selfish).
There’s probably nothing new in this, but it should come as a
reminder to Forteans that anyone made happy by entertaining
beliefs which aren’t consensually approved as normal runs the
risk of being labelled self-centred. There are two ways of avoid-
ing this accusation: either don’t talk about anything odd, or
don’t look too happy while you do.
Ironically, the epitome of normality these days seems to be the
world of business, which in the UK and the US (following
classical economic theory) puts the individual’s self-interest
above any notions of community or selflessness. The rationale
for this is expressed by Adam Smith’s paranormal-sounding
metaphor of the ‘invisible hand’ which apparently ensures that
unhindered self-interest ultimately benefits everybody.
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.NET
.NET is the UK’s best-selling Internet magazine. My letter
was printed as “Letter of the month” in January 2000.
Dear Editor,
I’m concerned by reports of a trend towards search engines
which retrieve only “official” or “popular” websites. Although,
on the surface, this may sound like a good idea, I’d like to start
some alarm bells ringing.
The rationale for such search engines is, of course, that people
dislike wading through website dross – the facility to filter out
rubbish is seen as desirable and marketable. Separating quality
from dross is, however, a highly subjective process. I fear that
by listing only official and statistically popular sites, the search
engines will be favouring large corporations and institutions –
which is no guarantee of quality content.
I assume that the “popularity” of a website will be measured
by the number of links to it. Unfortunately, the biggest factor
in attracting links is advertising, not merit. This means that
“popularity” will be largely a measure of advertising expendi-
ture.
Until now, search engines have given us a level playing field –
you don’t need to be a newspaper tycoon to put your message
out. This is what raises the Internet above the other mass
media. If the new generation of official/popular search engines
becomes the standard, the playing field will definitely be tilted
in favour of the big players.
Currently, web searches occasionally dredge up garbage, but
that’s a small price to pay for the odd gems that appear. The
big corporate sites will never give us diversity, eccentricity,
satire, integrity – content which isn’t about selling something.
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FINANCIAL TIMES
The Financial Times wanted to print this letter, but unfor-
tunately they followed a policy of phoning me to ensure
that I’d written it exclusively to them. In an uncharacteris-
tic moment of honesty, I admitted that I’d sent the same
letter to ten other newspapers. So it’s the only letter here
that wasn’t published – but it came close. Next time I’ll be
prepared to lie. (They would’ve printed it on 2 August
2000).
Dear Editor,
The total cost of welfare is £99 billion per year. Of that, £44
billion goes to the elderly. That’s ten times the amount spent
on Jobseekers Allowance. Yet there is widespread poverty
amongst old people. Many of the elderly are able-bodied. Let’s
put them to work. There’s no excuse for laziness and depend-
ence. If they can use a phone or walk a dog, they can be em-
ployed in telesales or supermarket trolley shepherding. Why
should only the young benefit from pointless, low-paid jobs?
THE INDEPENDENT
This letter, printed on 16 March 2001, refers to comments
made about unemployment by the UK government (and, in
particular, by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown).
Dear Editor,
Gordon Brown says full employment is achievable. Problem is,
half of UK jobs produce no “real wealth”, no resources or
services useful to human life. These pointless jobs (many in
financial services) have no effect except to move money
around in databases, benefiting the rich. It used to be called
usury. People actually burn up fossil fuels travelling to these
pointless jobs.
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THE SUN
I feel very proud to have letters printed by The Sun (this
one on 26 July 2000). I sent it in the midst of yet another
overblown media scare over paedophiles. And I received a
£15 prize (I guess that The Sun, unlike most other news-
papers, needs to provide a financial incentive to its read-
ers, most of whom find difficulty in stringing more than
two sentences together).
Dear Editor,
On average, less than ten children are killed each year by
strangers in England and Wales, according to government
figures. Road accidents, however, kill or seriously injure several
thousand children every year. The media obsession with
paedophiles distorts perceptions of risks to children.
THE GUARDIAN
This letter (published on 12 January 2000) commented on
the flu epidemic sweeping through Britain at the time.
Dear Editor,
Last year’s Government clamp-down on “sick-note culture”
was regrettable. Taking time off sick is seen as a bad career
move, with the result that everyone in the office catches flu.
My advice: prevention is better than cure, so call in sick before
you get ill.
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THE CHRONICLE
This was one of several letters I had published in my local
weekly newspaper in the late nineties. They print virtually
anything – in fact most letters, from most people, seem to
complain about dog turds on the pavement and rude taxi
drivers. I think the editor liked my letter, as it was printed
at the top of the letters page, with a big headline, saying:
“Stop the Alarms”.
Dear Editor
As I write, yet another burglar alarm is wailing in the back-
ground, hurting my eardrums. When did we all decide it was
necessary to install these demonic devices?
For the last five years, the local burglary rate has decreased
each year by about 30%, yet people continue to install burglar
alarms. My advice is: disconnect the alarm, stop watching
Crimewatch UK and get a life. Despite what the scaremongers
say, crime is definitely not escalating. Even if you’re sceptical
about short-term crime statistics, there is strong evidence that
crime is less common now than 100 or 200 years ago (those
who doubt this should spend a few years researching the
historic data on crime).
The murder rate is the same now as it was in 1857. According
to government statistics, only six children are killed each year
by strangers, on average – more are killed by parents. It only
seems that there are more of these “stranger-danger” murders
because the newspapers wallow in every single case. The risk
to children has actually fallen by a third since 1988.
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THE IDLER
The whole of this letter, including the postscript, was pub-
lished in the August-September 1998 edition of the Idler.
Dear Idler,
Did anyone notice the weird contradiction between those
newspaper headlines blaming “spiralling” welfare costs on the
“workshy”, and the official unemployed count showing the
lowest figure for 18 years.
According to the DSS’s own figures, only 9 percent* of welfare
expenditure goes on the unemployed, and that apparently
includes benefit fraud.
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THE INDEPENDENT
Printed on 18 April 2003 (in the context of the 2003 Iraq
war).
Dear Editor,
Let me see if I've got this right:
1. Britain bombs Iraq without UN legitimacy.
2. The British government warns France and Germany not to
undermine the UN over the rebuilding of Iraq.
Where is the line drawn between news and satire?
.NET (2)
This well-known UK internet magazine printed recommen-
dations by the “world’s top designers” on how websites
should look. I was unimpressed by the corporate mentality
behind their views.
Dear Paul,
I was unimpressed by the “world’s top designers”. They spoke
the usual banalities (“Design is about communication”), clichés
(“The user rules”) and gobbledegook (“Push the boundaries as
far as possible while maintaining a commonality in design”).
They confirmed my suspicion that “success” in web design is
currently more about conforming to corporate respectability
than true creativity. No wonder so many corporate sites look
identical. I also notice a sort of design snobbery which draws a
bogus line between “professional” and “amateur” sites. This is
usually based upon technological capability rather than quality
of imagination. And, of course, upon a set of anal design rules
(no large text, no groovy textures or tiled backgrounds, etc). In
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LOCAL NEWSPAPERS
I sent this letter (on BBC TV licensing) to over 80 regional
newspapers in the UK. From what I can gather most (if not
all) printed it. Local newspapers will print anything.
Dear Editor,
In the past, the TV licensing operation has targeted local
newspapers with press releases intended to frighten “licence
dodgers”.
There is now a growing campaign against the heavy-handed
practices of the TV licensing brigade. Opinion polls consistently
show 65–81 percent of the public opposed to the licence fee
as a method of funding.
The BBC prosecutes 130,000 people a year for watching TV
without a licence. Many or most are on minimum wage or
benefits. The BBC thus needlessly criminalises poverty.
The licence interferes with your right to receive information.
(You are not allowed to receive other channels that are not
funded by the licence without first having a licence to watch
the BBC.)
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The BBC is not accountable to those who pay its bills – they
must pay without choice. And it has suppressed debate on the
future of the licence fee. A senior adviser to the government
recently accused the BBC of being a “cultural tyranny”.
The BBC produces a large range of services, including at least
10 television stations, for most of which there is no demon-
strated demand. It is also launching many new radio stations
and internet/digital services. All with money extracted under
threat of criminal prosecution. Many of those prosecuted for
not having a licence cannot afford the services which the BBC
would spend their licence money on.
Greg Dyke says there is “no alternative“ to the licence fee, but
he told the Media Society in 1993 that it was possible to
finance the BBC through subscription.
A further concern is the claimed “neutral", “independent”,
“public service” nature of the BBC. For example, a study
quoted by the Guardian (22/4/2003) accuses the BBC of
broadcasting government propaganda and failing to reflect
the high level of public dissent over the Iraq issue. In fact, the
licence fee does not make the BBC independent but completely
dependent on government, which renews the fee and
appoints the Chairman, Director General, etc.
Should the TV licensing people come to you with press
releases, I would ask you please to bear in mind the above
points. Going by the polls, I think the majority of your readers
would thank you for not publishing their threateningly worded
material.
For further details on the campaign. Please visit http://
www.tvlicensing.biz or http://www.bbcresistance.com
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A letter of mine
published in a local
newspaper called
The Standard
(written under a
pseudonym).
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PART THREE
Interviews
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CHANNEL 4: “FRONTAL”
Channel 4 described their late-night TV show, Frontal,
as “a combination of cutting-edge music, videos, film,
technology and the Internet, dealing with fringe popular
culture”. Judging from the chaotic nature of the show
(presenters talking over each other, etc) it was broadcast
live. Channel 4 advertised the show heavily, drawing a
large national (UK) audience.
The Frontal producers contacted me about featuring
Anxiety Culture in their review section. They asked for a
copy of my “Propaganda Kit” to use in the review. I
wasn’t interviewed (I sent them a copy of my interview
with The Face magazine to answer their questions about
my background), but I think the transcript of the review
is worth including here for amusement value.
The review format was three presenters – James Hyman,
Natasha Bell and Lisa Rogers (who later became one of
those glamorous female celebrities who adorn men’s
magazine covers) – discussing the reviewed material
against a giant projected backdrop.
Here’s the transcript (the review was featured in the show
broadcast on 1st September 2000):
James Hyman: I think we all work too hard – do you
not agree?
(Backdrop changes to the hypno-spiral TV animation from
the intro page of the Anxiety Culture website).
Natasha Bell: I think we do.
Lisa Rogers: I work totally hard.
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POSTSCRIPT
The implication from one of the Frontal presenters that
Anxiety Culture is a grubby money-making exercise was
particularly ironic, under the circumstances. I sold, in
total, less than ten Propaganda Kits (including after the
publicity I received from this TV show). My original
intention was that if I sold enough kits, I could save
money on printing costs per kit. As it turned out, I
printed out each kit individually (home colour inkjet
printers are great quality, but the inks and the special
inkjet cards, etc, are very expensive), making only £2
profit on each kit sold.
Considering the amount of time I put into creating the
content of the Propaganda Kit (and into physically
assembling each kit) – weeks of effort – the amount of
money I made (less than £20 in total) doesn’t really put
me in the exploitative money-grabbing bracket. But I’m
working on it...
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PART FOUR
BL~ISS:
BULLETIN
OF LEISURE
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FAKE ORGANISATIONS
Creating fake organisations to serve as the ostensible
“authors” of your work attracts more attention and
provokes more thought than presenting your material
simply as “a bunch of ideas by Joe Smith”. I recommend
creating at least two fake organisations and appointing
yourself Director or CEO of each. In a sense they are no
more “fake” than a high proportion of legitimate
businesses (which often use “trading as” names to hide
the real name) or “front organisations” for political or
corporate interests (which are far more common than
most people suspect).
Having a website address for your “organisation” adds
authenticity (and can be set up for around £10), but
otherwise you can just sign-off your emails, letters,
newsgroup postings, etc, with the name of your
“organisation”.
Media people, in particular, are suckers for “organisa-
tions”. It adds credibility to their work when they can
quote organisations rather than lone individuals. Lone
individuals tend to be seen as cranks and crackpots,
whereas “organisations”, at the very worst, are seen as
cool jokes (eg group-created spoof and satire).
Brian Dean
Assistant Director, CANPP
Campaign to Abolish the Nobel Peace Prize
Osmo, Stockholm
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BL~ISS
BL~ISS was an “organisation” I created to distribute a
leaflet in the late nineties. It was basically a put-on,
although the leaflet itself was carefully designed and
convincing in appearance – and it contained some valid
information and ideas.
BL~ISS is short for “Bulletin of Leisure ~ Independent
Space Sector”. It came about because I read Jeremy
Rifkin’s book, The End of Work at the same time that I
read the flyers of a weird group called the Association of
Autonomous Astronauts (AAA for short). I combined the
ideas of Rifkin and the AAA (probably without doing
justice to either) into a weird mix, and then sent a batch
of the finished leaflets to small press distributors (who
generally like to include free flyers and other odd stuff in
their parcels to customers).
Some people might think that all this obscure, small-
scale creativity is entirely pointless. But they are
probably the same people (to paraphrase Robert Anton
Wilson’s description of “Pinks” in Everything is Under
Control) who never have an original or rebellious
thought; who believe what they are told by those above
them in the power structure (family, school, corporation,
etc); who obey orders; who, if drafted, will kill whomever
they are told to kill; who actually enjoy most of what’s
on TV.
The remainder of this section contains the full text of the
BL~ISS leaflet.
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One effect of this was the high availability and low cost
of such technology. Inevitably, the cost of living in space
became cheaper than on crowded Earth. Independent
space colonies flourished. Cost was not the only thing in
their favour, however: whilst Earth had unemployment,
space habitats had leisure.
Earth-dwellers still had the archaic, puritanical mental-
ity which linked the concept of self-worth to work (de-
spite the fact that human labour had no commodity
value – for years cheap technology had outperformed
human labour in every mundane task). In contrast, the
space colony inhabitants fully realised that outmoded
notions of work had no place in the future of human
evolution.
LEISURE IN SPACE
Work ended in three stages. In the first stage, technol-
ogy became advanced enough to replace human labour
in the agricultural sector. There followed a vast migra-
tion of human workers from agriculture to manufactur-
ing. Manufacturing was a growth sector, so it could
absorb the displaced workers.
The second stage occurred when technology became
advanced enough to replace most of the functions of
human labour in the manufacturing sector. Between the
mid-fifties and the early eighties, there was a continuous
migration of workers from manufacturing to the service
sector. The service sector (banking, insurance, account-
ing, law, airlines, etc) was growing and could absorb the
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PART FIVE
PUBLISHED
Articles
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ALTERNATIVE ECONOMICS
This is a shorter, amended version of an article I wrote for
the Idler (issue 31, Winter 2002/3). The Idler article was
titled: A Bluffer’s Guide to Revolutionary Economics, and
concentrated more on the art of bluffing than this version.
NO SHORTAGE OF ALTERNATIVES
There are hundreds of economic ideas which fall outside
conventional capitalist and socialist theories. The main
difficulty is sifting through them all to find the best
ones. As a starting point for people new to alternative
economics, I’ve selected a handful of my own favourites.
BASIC INCOME
A Basic Income is an income paid to all individuals,
without work requirement or means test. People are free
(but not obliged) to top it up with income from other
sources, eg self-employment or jobs. Over the last two
centuries this idea has been independently proposed
under a variety of names – Citizen’s Income, Universal
Benefit, State Bonus, Social Credit and National Divi-
dend – usually with the aim of remedying social prob-
lems such as poverty and unemployment.
Several ways have been suggested to fund a Basic In-
come. Nobel prize-winning economist James Meade
proposed a social dividend funded from the return on
publicly owned productive assets. An existing example of
a Basic Income funded this way is Alaska’s dividend
scheme, which is funded from royalties on Alaska’s vast
oil fields. Some economists think that funding should
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GUARANTEED INCOME
Guaranteed Income is sometimes confused with Basic
Income, but the important difference is that it uses a
means test. Every individual is guaranteed a minimum
income (set above the poverty level) – if your income falls
below this level, you automatically get a top-up from the
government, but as your personal income increases, the
amount of top-up decreases. Guaranteed Income, like
Basic Income, is not conditional upon work.
Several variations of Guaranteed Income have been
proposed, the most well known being Robert Theobald’s
1964 scheme for “Basic Economic Security”. Theobald
was concerned about the effect of technology and in-
creasing automation – he thought it was time to dissolve
the traditional link between income and work, since
most work would eventually be automated. Theobald’s
proposal’s were taken quite seriously by the US adminis-
trations under Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. In
fact, Nixon adopted Guaranteed Income proposals as
part of his “Family Assistance Plan” bill (which was un-
fortunately defeated in the Senate).
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WILLINGNESS TO WORK?
Many so-called “guaranteed minimum income” schemes
restrict entitlement, among the unemployed, to those
“willing to work” – a condition similar to that of current
welfare systems. The Belgian political theorist Philippe
Van Parijs argues that when we assess willingness-to-
work, we should make the distinction between pointless,
dead-end jobs and useful, fulfilling or “stepping stone”
jobs – and that the best people to make this distinction
are the ones doing the jobs. This is a different approach
from most conventional economists, who tend to see all
market-created jobs as “good” and “worthwhile”.
Employers can currently exploit the willingness-to-work
condition by providing what Van Parijs calls “lousy
jobs”, which people are forced to accept. On the other
hand, how, without the willingness-to-work condition,
do you get people to take jobs which are essentially
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ZERO-INTEREST CURRENCY
A different type of non-coercive redistribution of wealth
comes from the old Individualist (as opposed to
Collectivist) Anarchist approach of allowing free trade to
drive down the cost of “borrowing” money. This idea
originated with early anarchists such as Pierre-Joseph
Proudhon, Josiah Warren and Benjamin Tucker.
Free trade is supposed to drive down prices through
open competition, but according to Proudhon, Warren
and Tucker there is a fundamental flaw in the existing
system: a lack of competition in the issuance of cur-
rency. The current legally enforced money-issuing mo-
nopoly (eg the Bank of England or the Federal Reserve)
keeps interest at an artificially high level – if free compe-
tition was allowed in the creation and distribution of
alternative currencies, the cost of credit could in theory
fall to a rate well below 1% (the cost of administering the
credit; true interest would be zero). As Benjamin Tucker
explains:
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ALTERNATIVE CURRENCIES
LTERNATIVE
Although it’s normally illegal, there have been hundreds
of attempts to issue alternative currencies. The British
government suppressed an attempt to distribute low-
interest currency in the American colonies (prior to the
revolution) and quashed a similar attempt by Scottish
banks – in order to preserve the monopoly of the Bank of
England. There are published records of experiments in
issuing private currencies by the American Individualist
Anarchists (eg True Civilization by Josiah Warren and
Mutual Banking by William Greene), and of course there
are experiments that we don’t know about because of
their secrecy. During the 1930s depression in America,
hundreds of alternative local currencies were issued.
The government mostly turned a blind eye unless cur-
rencies threatened to cross state lines, in which case
they put a stop to it. It will be interesting to see how
governments react to alternative electronic currencies
springing up in cyberspace.
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STAMP SCRIP
In 1891 an Argentinian businessman and economist
named Silvio Gesell went one step further than the Indi-
vidualist Anarchists by proposing a system of negative
interest currency. The most well-known form of this
currency was “stamp scrip”, which required a stamp to
be affixed to the back of a money note each month, to
revalidate it.
Gesell believed that money is fine as a medium of ex-
change, but that it tends to be used as an instrument of
power, capable of dominating and distorting the market.
For example, money can be hoarded – temporarily with-
held from the market for speculative purposes – without
exposing its holder to losses. Real material goods, on the
other hand, can’t be hoarded without significant costs –
either in the natural deterioration of the goods, or in the
cost of storage.
In order to encourage the natural circulation of wealth
instead of speculative hoarding, Gesell proposed “rusting
bank notes” (a metaphor for negative-interest money), to
bring about an “organic reform” of the monetary system.
With money behaving more like real material wealth, the
distortions in the system caused by hoarding and other
forms of usury would be removed. This, he argued,
would result in people receiving the full proceeds of their
own labour, and would enable large sections of the
population to quit wage slavery and work in an autono-
mous manner in private and co-operative enterprises.
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ECONOMIC “AUTHORITY”
Most alternative economic ideas – even those as benign
and sensible as the Tobin Tax – have been floating
around for decades without being implemented. As a
result, advocates of such alternative schemes are likely
to be exposed to arguments such as: “if it’s such a great
idea, why hasn’t it already happened?” It’s important to
realise that the people making these objections are never
convinced by logical reasoning. Only the endorsement by
a conventional authority will convince them. A good
ploy, therefore, is to quote foreign authorities – Euro-
pean countries in particular seem more open to new
economic ideas. For example, the French, Belgian and
Canadian parliaments have already voted in favour of a
Tobin Tax; the Irish government has seriously consid-
ered a Basic Income scheme, etc. Or, you can quote
intellectual authorities. For example, Silvio Gesell’s con-
cept of negative-interest money was supported by John
Maynard Keynes, who said: “I believe that the future will
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SEX ROBOTS
Most people think a sexual revolution occurred in the
late 20th century, but if it did occur why does no-one
have time to enjoy the erotic side of life? Average work-
ing hours increased over the last three decades – which
means we have less time than ever to enjoy our bodies.
Work-related stress and road rage don’t seem conducive
to sensual pleasure.
There have been attempts to start a sexual revolution –
to release us from our humdrum lives of work and worry
– but they apparently failed. Perhaps they were blocked
by the authorities, or perhaps society wasn’t ready. At
any rate, we continue with our tired, grey, robotic rou-
tine, fully believing in the mass delusion that we’re
sexually liberated.
Meanwhile, the media lurches, in schizophrenic fashion,
from puritanical censorship to overblown sex-obsession.
When it isn’t issuing prim warnings about TV shows
which contain “scenes of a sexual nature”, it’s exploiting
explicit sexual imagery to boast audience figures. The
mainstream intellectual coverage of sex isn’t much bet-
ter – most of it seems backward-looking, as if everything
of importance has already happened.
Perhaps nothing important has happened yet. If we ever
reach a state in which everyone can enjoy oceans of
sensual bliss without the worry of a ticking clock, then
maybe we can claim, finally, that something important
has occurred.
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THE COMPROMISED
ANTI-CONSUMERIST
This article was commissioned by a magazine (which will
remain nameless) with a high circulation among the Lon-
don club scene. Unlike the other articles in this anthology,
it was never published – the magazine backed out at the
last moment and never paid me.
Ever since Sprite’s “image is nothing, thirst is every-
thing” TV commercial, ad agencies have churned out a
sort of watered-down anti-consumerism aimed at the
youth market. These “anti-advertising” ad campaigns
have proven popular with many corporations. According
to advertising critic Leslie Savan, “some of them are
savvy enough to know that the more they sponsor mes-
sages that attack [mindless consumerism], the cooler
they seem. They’re amoebae; they can constantly take in
anything and come off seeming hip” (quoted in Stay
Free! magazine).
The corporate absorption of counterculture ideas is the
subject of an increasingly large number of books, maga-
zines and websites. Some, like Douglas Rushkoff, author
of Children of Chaos, regard it as healthy, but most echo
Negativland’s Mark Hosler, who says (in an interview
with Savan): “I just don’t know where we can go with our
art because they’re just absorbing it.”
There’s a fine line between concern and paranoia when
it comes to the belief in an all-consuming corporate
monster. It’s one thing to feel dismayed at seeing a
talented comedian doing a beer commercial, but it’s
another thing to regard everybody within ten miles of a
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CORPORATE WEAKNESSES
Now let’s expose the soft underbelly of the corporate
empire. Ironically, the main vulnerability of corporations
is that they are not vast dunghills of evil, but collections
of thousands of individual human beings trapped in
bureaucratic monotony. Most of these individuals dislike
being wage slaves and see their work as drudgery. The
pro-leisure, pro-pleasure, anti-wage slavery movement is
a bush fire waiting to ignite. Millions of bored, stressed-
out corporate employees want escape. To quote William
Blake: “the whole creation will be consumed and appear
infinite and holy, whereas it now appears finite and
corrupt. This will come to pass by an improvement of
sensual enjoyment.” And, importantly, by having suffi-
cient leisure time to experience that enjoyment.
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SUMMARY/CONCLUSIONS
Paranoia is not a good strategy – it turns you into an
eternal victim. Morbid obsession with corporate power is
self-defeating and depressing. Corporations may be huge
and wealthy, but they’re also stupid. Their own stupidity
will ultimately undermine them. Meanwhile, anti-con-
sumerism, in its current forms, has flaws that can easily
be exploited by advertisers and corporate PR agencies.
Valid intellectual dissent is never really “co-opted”. If
anything, it functions as a Trojan Horse when corpora-
tions try to “absorb” it.
Written in January 2001.
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NAIVETY TV
A few years ago there was a minor public outcry when
the BBC admitted to spending millions on the evening
news’ opening graphics. These 10 second bursts of
visual expensiveness were apparently intended to convey
a sense of importance, authority and restrained urgency,
so the viewers at home would sit up and pay attention.
Judging from this ultra-high spending, TV bosses are
anxious to have their news programmes taken seriously.
This has led to a presentation of the news which, in its
fanfare and gloss, is similar to professionally staged
business seminars and political conferences. Unlike
those events, however, TV news isn’t meant to be about
persuading, hypnotising or dazzling an audience – so
why spend millions on its presentation?
Well, for one thing it costs money to create a convincing
illusion. The news presents one of the most impressive
magic tricks since the Emperor’s New Clothes. The illu-
sion is of a serious, businesslike, adult world – econom-
ics, politics, stock market indexes and inflation rates –
full of “experts” and presided over by “The Authorities”.
Naturally we feel powerless as individuals to influence
this world since it can be accessed only on TV. The slick
presentation of the illusion – immaculate suits, gleaming
studios, intimidating presenters and those costly visuals
– has the effect of reducing most (relatively shabby)
viewers to a state of infantile awe and low self-esteem.
This news world is built on “conventional wisdom” – ie
“adult” assumptions and clichés which can’t be ques-
tioned, because to do so would be an admission of fool-
ishness or childlike innocence. Presenters and pundits
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RIGHT TO MOAN
Office work brings out the complainer in me. The point-
less meetings, the unrealistic deadlines, the team-bond-
ing horseshit, the long hours and lack of time off – all
fuel for my endless carping and growing resentment.
Most company managers, unfortunately, are prejudiced
against complainers – they think we should be more
grateful. Their prejudice is due to a fear of what we rep-
resent: the inevitable collapse of the corporate manage-
ment worldview. The complainers, you see, represent the
future, whereas those favoured by management – the
grateful and obedient – belong to a sinking past. Com-
pany executives are fond of talk about “vision”, but the
real vision is in employee disgruntlement. Deep down,
the managers know this – that’s why they’re afraid.
Complaining is taboo in backward societies, authoritar-
ian regimes and modern corporations. Most well-in-
formed people understand that complaints have a
positive social function, and that dissent should not be
buried. Employee discontent should be treated as a
valuable resource. Instead, it’s automatically dismissed
or frowned upon. The reflex management response to
staff disgruntlement is: “you should be glad you have a
job”. This is the medieval logic of “lower expectations”:
no complaint is valid, since things can always be worse
than they are, and we should always be grateful.
The “lower expectations” culture – working longer, for
less pay, and being grateful, etc – though encouraged in
every corporate slave galley, is conspicuously absent
from corporate PR. The PR imagery, in fact, communi-
cates utopian “higher expectations”, as expressed in
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DEBT CULT
A shortened, edited version of this article was published
in Sleaze magazine (formerly Sleaze Nation), June 2004.
The average debt per UK household is around £7,000,
excluding mortgages.1 Politicians want us to believe this
is due to irresponsible spendthrifts abusing easy credit,
but according to recent research at least one in five
people in Britain resorts to debt to cover basic living
costs.2
Of course, some people do use credit to fund greedy
lifestyles, but overall spiralling debt has more to do with
Britain’s low-wage culture and high poverty level. The
government doesn’t want you to think about this, with
politically sensitive issues such as student loans in the
news.
Britons spend nearly three times more on their credit
cards than the rest of the EU put together. The nation’s
credit card bill has increased by 76 percent since 1998.3
Part of this increase is due to highly seductive, but often
misleading, credit card advertising. According to the
Office of Fair Trading, one in five credit card ads breaks
the law – usually involving misleading information on
interest charges.4
While banks and credit companies make record profits
from criminally misleading promotions, they’re quick to
lecture us on responsibility. Their PR dovetails with that
of lying politicians, painting a picture of an economy
compromised only by feckless consumers who exploit
and abuse the system. In other words, the problem is
you, not them.
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References:
(1) Bank of England, Quarterly Bulletin, Autumn 2003;
(2) KPMG survey, quoted by Press Association, 2/9/03;
(3) Evening News, Edinburgh, 17/3/04; (4) Ibid;
(5) Guardian Money, 11/8/03; (6) National Consumer
Council report, September 2003; (7) Joseph Rowntree
Foundation report, December 2003 (2001/2002 figures);
(8) creditaction.org.uk, 30/3/04; (9) Ibid; (10) US Congres-
sional testimony, 26/2/1997; (11) Private Eye, 19/3/04;
(12) The Guardian, 12/4/02.
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ANXIETY ATTACK
Recently, after resting for a year, I prepared myself to
return to work for a large bureaucratic company. The
prospect of going back into the corporate world filled me
with dread, but my money had run out so it looked like I
had no choice. I got the job after a successful act of
deception at the job interview. This involved hiding all
my real motivations and feelings, and over-using words
like “opportunity” and “challenge.” The interviewer
seemed convinced that I was there out of free choice and
enthusiasm, rather than financial dilemma and survival
anxiety.
Financial anxiety turns most of us into “useful idiots”, a
term used by the intelligence community, meaning those
who unwittingly end up serving the purposes of others,
while still believing in their own freedom and autonomy.
In the everyday world of tedious wage-slavery, useful
idiots can be identified by their claim to like their jobs.
When so many people seem to enjoy being economic
slaves, or at least pretend to, one begins to suspect
something beyond deluded sentimentality – something
sinister and pathological.
We’re living in an anxiety culture and we’re driven by
fear. If that sounds like an exaggeration, take a look at
some figures. According to a recent major survey com-
missioned by the government, more than 10 percent of
the population suffer from a neurotic anxiety disorder1.
The most common problem is a mixed anxiety and de-
pressive disorder, affecting 7 percent of people. Vast
quantities of tranquillisers and anti-depressants are
prescribed in the UK – eighty million prescriptions in
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OBSOLETE FREE-MARKET
METAPHORS
“There is no such thing as society”.
So said Mrs Thatcher. She apparently meant that “soci-
ety” can be seen only as an abstraction or cultural meta-
phor. Adherents of free-market economics have often
expressed a dislike of terms like “society” and “social
concern”. The market system has traditionally had an
individualistic bias – its central premise is that the mar-
ket registers choices made by separate, sovereign indi-
viduals who freely consume for themselves.
If every economic effect is seen to result from the free
choices of autonomous, atomistic consumers and entre-
preneurs, then “society” will be viewed as a nebulous
metaphor with little economic relevance. Those who
blame their financial problems on an aspect of “society”
are unlikely to receive any sympathy from free-
marketeers.
Ironically, critics of the competitive market system
would argue that “free market” is itself a metaphor, an
idealised abstraction whose central premise fails to take
into account the vast array of social factors affecting
human motivation and behaviour. For instance, social
phenomena such as advertising, state education and the
mass media inevitably tend to influence the value sys-
tems which determine what individual consumers will
buy. The notion of a ‘totally rational’ individual, com-
pletely immune from ‘social’ influences, seems naive.
And contrary to free-market thinking, ‘society’ has as-
pects which can’t be explained or predicted in terms of
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THE BEGINNING OF
THE END OF WORK
The workerless society may be much closer than we
think. 75% of the work force, in most developed coun-
tries, engage in work that is little more than simple re-
petitive tasks. Most of these jobs are vulnerable to
replacement by automation. But that’s not all – technol-
ogy is increasingly taking over tasks previously thought
to require human intelligence. Office workers and man-
agers are now under threat as corporations restructure
to take advantage of the huge productivity gains made
possible by the new technologies.
Economists have traditionally argued against the likeli-
hood of the decline of work, believing that productivity
gains produce wealth, which is used to expand markets,
thereby creating new jobs. Admittedly, this has been the
case in the past. For example, when technology began to
displace agricultural workers, a new growing sector –
manufacturing – was able to absorb those displaced.
Then, between the mid fifties and the early eighties, as
manufacturing became increasingly automated, dis-
placed factory workers were absorbed into the growing
service sector (banking, insurance, accounting, law,
airlines, retail, etc). In most modern cities today, nine
out of ten jobs are in the service sector.
As we approach the millennium, however, service sector
jobs are increasingly falling to advanced technology –
without the emergence of any new growth areas of the
scale required to absorb the redundant office workers. It
has been estimated, for example, that human secretaries
currently spend more than 45% of their time filing pa-
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THE END
PLEASE PROCEED TO THE CHECKOUT
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