America, England, Hippies, and Impirialism

this was originally posted on my myspace blog but i’ve moved it here since i’m deleting that.

So Ive been back in England for a few days now at this giant hippy festival in Somerset and its a bit of a trip I literally cant go half an hour without hearing somebody talk shit about Americans not just the American government, but Americans in general. Its a bit strange for me, Im not exactly the most patriotic person around, I dont even generally consider myself an American come to think of it a Californian or a Scottish/irish-american, but never an un-hyphenated capital A American! and yet I cant help feeling offended by the way people over here talk. To listen to them youd think that the British empire had never existed, that imperialism was invented in Washington DC, and that the British military wasnt in Iraq right now alongside the American military. Tony Blair sold the war over here by saying Britain had to stick by their American Ally, and even leftists over here bought it hook line and sinker, which is pretty surprising all things considered. Id expect people who call themselves anarchists to realize that the reason the U.K. has troops in Iraq is the same as the reason the US has troops there OIL. Its not about alliances any more then its about W.M.D.s or any of the other bullshit politicians in both countries spouted before the war. And frankly if I can be blunt for a second here – its a bit absurd for English people to bitch about American imperialism as if it was the root of all evil when theyre at the center of the largest empire in world history. Maybe when England gets the fuck out of North Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Mann, & Gibraltar, & pays reparations to all of the hundreds of nations its colonized over the last 800 years theyll have room to talk. Seriously.

Not that the fact that the English government did it first makes it ok for the bastards in Washington to run around the world massacring people, two wrongs dont make a right and all that, but the fact is that Americans as a group havent exactly been consulted. We had the largest protests in our nations history just a few years ago against the invasion of Iraq and George Bush went ahead and sent in the troops anyway without even consulting Congress, let alone the general population. There are a lot of issues here and I dont think Im really in the right state of mind to break them all down right now, but a good place to start would be recognizing our current political system for what it is the merger of the Corporation and the State that Mussolini described as the ideal form of Fascism. The key difference of course is that the corporations in question are Transnational McDonalds doesnt give a flying fuck about America except as a place to get money and neither does MacDonnell Douglass. The people who really benefit are the transnational capitalist elites – the CEOs and execs of the TNCs that dominate the entire planets economy. European elites get free military protection, working-class Europeans get to enjoy free healthcare and social democracy, transnational capitalists get access to the largest military-industrial complex in human history, and working-class Americans get to pay the bills, do the dying, and take the blame. Excuse me if I dont leap in excitement at what a great deal were getting!

Im not asking anyone to pity America or Americans, that would be absurd; at some level this government like every government exists because the people it dominates have failed to overthrow it. The point is that English people hating Americans because they object to the Imperialist policies of the American government is (a) racist since the people of a Nation are not synonymous with the government (b) incredibly hypocritical since their government is doing all the same things they object to our government doing and has been doing them for a hell of a lot longer and (c) just plain fucking stupid.

So basically, this is not a rant against English people (becase I’ve met many, many extraordinarily col english people) or hippies (cuz there are lots of cool hippies too) or even English hippies; that would also be stupid. Its a rant about hypocritical assholes who find it easier to blame other people then to actually organize themselves in their own communities and deal with the issues at hand, and there are plenty of those on both sides of the Atlantic.

Having said all of that, we’ve had a pretty damn good time at this festival. We sold a bunch of cds, did 7 sets in 5 days, got the music out to a ton of people, and are currently totally exhausted but generally satisfied (a huge shout-out to the Triban collective for letting us crash with them and making sure we had plenty of stage time!). Its just easier to write about things that bother me then to write about how great and wonderful everything is.

Besides, if I started being all positive and shit people would think Id turned into a hippy or something.

Comments (copied over from myspace)

Geo-abuser!

Just to pick up on a few points, as you know im deffinatly Cornish and not English just to start with. And I’m tottaly for the war in Iraq, I think anyone who is for a country being opressed by there own gorvernment or own people should be sorted out… Correct the English do it quite alot but then a country should not be alloud to turn into a riot zone and as we created we it can’t leave it for ruins. I’m not saying that going into Iraq was right, infact i think we should of finsihed Saddam of teh first time, but saddam should not be alloud to run a country, the taliban in Afghanistan aswell or even mugabi in Zimbabwe. Margret Thatcher when The falklands were invaded by argentina had the guts and power to stand up to them and althought 200 brave soldiers lost there life in a 60day (around) war it is what she was remember for as it was a success and something the british and many people in the falklands beleveid was right and this can eb resembled in iraq today, if all is done correctly then it will be a success. Mayb it is about oil but im sure democracy will come together soon even if it is a lengthy perpose, “Maybe when England gets the fuck out of North Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Mann, & Gibraltar, & pays reparations to all of the hundreds of nations its colonized over the last 800 years theyll have room to talk. Seriously.” On this comment the British empire was one of the first to hand back many of it’s nations and in many cases helps its wrongs withing the commonwealth. and it’s isnt England in wales, scotland, northen island, the isle of mann and deffinatly not gibralter infact it is the British. And in many cases there is a common feeling that they want to be british, Gibralter i beleive even had a vote, correct it was between the spanish or british government but they were aloyd to choose, and a majority of teh population chose the british. Even tho he British are doing this we can’t say we arn’t happy with out lives, to be honest at present there treating us quite well lol. Well yeh thats my opinion even if it is a bit biased and non-informed but hey if we have opinions why not let them speak. Posted by Geo-abuser! on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 at 4:07 AM

	Star Sailor Cat	I’m 1/4 Irish! LOL The rest of me is Cool Brit…dont you agree? LOL Black Sheep Rule! Posted by Star Sailor Cat on Thursday, July 06, 2006 at 2:41 PM

	emcee lynx	yeah for cool brits! woohoo! Posted by emcee lynx on Thursday, July 06, 2006 at 2:46 PM [Reply to this]

Insurrection

Well, people suprise you everywhere. Yeah, a proportion of Brits forget imperialistic pursuits of Britain’s history and present and omit that Britain has gone to Iraq not for anything noble as to ‘help’ in getting rid of evil dictator or to aleviate Iraqi suffering – after all it helped with supressing domestic insurrections that would have got rid of Saddam well before. I can’t believe that even here on your blog somebody is buying the line of it not being what it is – a pursuit of imperialistic greed and control over Middle East – who controls Iraq controls the rest – there’s no FUCKING other reason but that. With the End of the British empire, marching along the USA who consolidated it its role, its meddling in Iraq is its own ensurement of its slice of profit and the top dog position. Not a march of self-appointed world police comradely duo of nations. I’m not sure if to laugh or to cry when people don’t look back and realise that Taliban in Afganistan rose to power thanks to the Western Imperialistic support, be it monetary or military. They had a role in overthrowing its secular government in favour of Taliban, capitalistic wheels of profit run off military spend and why not have policies and support those that will make those wheels well oiled and the bourgeoisie well rich and empowered. I mean not long ago, I’ve read comments from trade unionist crying out against the Polish immigration ‘wave’…. – they’ve attacked the immigrants rather than the Capital and its hypocricy on feeding nationalism and hate of immigrants to keep the working class divided and at the same time sucking cheap labour from anywhere it could do so. Also in response to previous long comment (not by Lynx) – while Thatcher marched to Falklands to save 2000 British citizens from Argentinian invastion, not a thought spared for 2000 British citizens in Diego Marcia in the American invasion to secure a military base there, on top of it, British government arranged for the inhabitans’ expulsion, dispossession and forced exile in poverty in Mauritius. What’s the fucking difference? Both communities had British passport and thus supposed ‘protection’ by HM government. The community in Falklands was WHITE, while the Chagossians were not.

Posted: June 22nd, 2006 under culture war, personal.
Comments: none