The glue factory

The great egalitarian myth of our age is that the elite classes who mould our lives will put our aspirations on a par with their own and those of their cronies and paymasters.

In daily life, this myth is surely not something any sane person would entertain. Certainly there is such a thing as altruism, but viciously ambitious people are not generally known for their altruism. Yet we tend to elect viciously ambitious people.

We do it even when so many of us seem to know perfectly well that egalitarian doctrine owes far more to the manipulative obsessions of control freaks than it ever could to altruism.

If the twentieth century taught us anything, it taught us about our fellow creatures and the fatal lure of power to which some of them always succumb. It also taught us about the politics of coercion hiding under the tattered flag of egalitarian mantras.

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

George Orwell – Animal Farm

Orwell warned us, yet still we elect pigs.

We elect them under their meaningless party banners and slogans and although it’s been said over and over again, the pig metaphor is still worth another airing before we all end up at the glue factory.

Of course the voters of Eastleigh have the power to change everything by decisively rejecting the three main parties. After all they know perfectly well why the previous incumbent lost his job.

But they won’t - they’ll vote glue factory - again.