The inexorable journey

"History is written by the victors," said Winston Churchill (n.d).  Indeed it is a recurring theme throughout time.  Rome's great empire, Christianity usurping pagan traditions, Europeans conquering the New World.  Civilisation itself is a palimpsest, written over and over by those who can bring force to bear (Van Luyn, 2013), whether that force be spiritual, cultural, economic or martial.  It grants the power to name the common vernacular, the prevailing school of thought and geographic location. In essence, reality.

Steve Wallis: Pro-active Revolutionary

We use language to call things into being (Tuan, p.686, 1991) and rhetoric to persuade the masses (Van Luyn, 2013).  In order to popularise an idea, the majority need to be persuaded of it.  We have seen it many times.  The American, French and Russian revolutions exemplify this.  These events convince me of the natural progression toward a pre-dominantly Socialist society after the inevitable failure of Capitalism as we know it (Marx, Engels, 1848).


Fellow travellers on this journey are the members of Facebook open group Very Democratic Socialism.  They are, for the most part, like-minded bloggers using Facebook to showcase their work.  Unfortunately I couldn't find a local group dedicated to democratic socialism so I've outsourced to the United Kingdom.

Being among such a talented group I have, to date, taken Mark Twain's viewpoint that "it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak out and remove all doubt" (n.d.).  I am, for now, content to observe and gain an international perspective.  Steve Wallis, the chief administrator and most prolific contributor of this group, is championing Left Unity, a platform for British leftists.  Mr Wallis is using language to aid the emergence of a more effective form of socialism.  His blog 'ThatcheroftheLeft', seeks to empower the common people against the glaring inequities of contemporary Capitalism.  However, Kevin Higgins, another regular contributor, says of Left Unity's website in his blog 'Mentioning The War' (2013), and as Tuan alludes to at the end of his article (p.695), the use of hackneyed or ineffectual language may actually turn more people from your cause than to it: Possibly the worst poem I've ever read. 


Reference List

Churchill, W. (n.d.)

Marx, K. Engels, F. (1848). The Communist Manifesto, (Das Kommunistische Manifest). Germany.

Higgins, K. (2013) Possibly The Worst Poem I've Ever Read: Culture & Ken Loach's Left Unity  Retrieved from http://www.mentioningthewar.blogspot.ie/2013/08/possibly-worst-poem-ive-ever-read.html

Twain, M. (n.d.)

Tuan, Y.F. (1991) Language and the Making of Place: A Narrative-Descriptive Approach. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 81, No. 4, 684-696
Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/

Van Luyn, A. (2013) BA1002, Week 5, Part 1,  Narratives and Place. Retrieved from http://flashstream1.jcu.edu.au/camrelay/Ariella%20van%20Luyn/

Image Credits

Ramsay, T. (2013) Steve Wallis: Pro-active Revolutionary. Screenshot retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/groups/verydemocraticsocialism/