ed miliband
25th January 2013, 13:14
went to a talk about "steady state economics" or something because there was free wine and i saw a golden opportunity to irl, plus a friend had been given two tickets and i felt bad for them going on their own.
the guy gives his little talk and my friend and i are jotting down point after point about how ridiculous it is, so by the time the floor had opened for questions i had a pretty coherent argument ready. for some reason the chair chose me to speak first, and i questioned the speaker for not once talking of capitalism (e.g. showing a graph of levels economic growth going back to the dawn of recorded human history without mentioning changes in modes of production), i suggested this was because he had no structural analysis of capital but rather sought to identify "bad" elements to do away with (e.g. finance), and in turn this left with him "moralistic and puritanical" politics (e.g. using the state to intervene in cases of teenage pregnancy in order to limit population grwoth in the west). i wanted to go on an accuse him of being a utopian, but as soon as i said "moralistic and puritanical" the microphone was taken off me, and a few people gave me nasty glares.
at the end when i was grabbing some free wine a man came up to me and was like "yeah, you're one of those spiked people aren't you?" and started rambling on in a paranoid manner about my involvement with them. this guy had also asked a question, and began by stating that more women should be allowed to ask questions as three men had spoken already (which would be a very apt point if women were volunteering questions and being ignored - this wasn't happening). i asked him how he could possibly be such a defender of women's rights if he wishes to allow the state to tell women when, where and at what age they can reproduce, and he didn't have any response.
coincidentally, the promotional material for this event had support from mr. noam chomsky. does he just support anything people ask him to?
the guy gives his little talk and my friend and i are jotting down point after point about how ridiculous it is, so by the time the floor had opened for questions i had a pretty coherent argument ready. for some reason the chair chose me to speak first, and i questioned the speaker for not once talking of capitalism (e.g. showing a graph of levels economic growth going back to the dawn of recorded human history without mentioning changes in modes of production), i suggested this was because he had no structural analysis of capital but rather sought to identify "bad" elements to do away with (e.g. finance), and in turn this left with him "moralistic and puritanical" politics (e.g. using the state to intervene in cases of teenage pregnancy in order to limit population grwoth in the west). i wanted to go on an accuse him of being a utopian, but as soon as i said "moralistic and puritanical" the microphone was taken off me, and a few people gave me nasty glares.
at the end when i was grabbing some free wine a man came up to me and was like "yeah, you're one of those spiked people aren't you?" and started rambling on in a paranoid manner about my involvement with them. this guy had also asked a question, and began by stating that more women should be allowed to ask questions as three men had spoken already (which would be a very apt point if women were volunteering questions and being ignored - this wasn't happening). i asked him how he could possibly be such a defender of women's rights if he wishes to allow the state to tell women when, where and at what age they can reproduce, and he didn't have any response.
coincidentally, the promotional material for this event had support from mr. noam chomsky. does he just support anything people ask him to?