Viewing posts tagged the state
Posted by:
Jack Graham
5 years, 2 months ago
Off out to vote today on who runs the civil service... oh, no, hang about, we're not allowed to do that are we?
Off out to vote today on who runs the police... oh, no, hang about, we're not allowed to do that are we?
Off out to vote today on who runs the army... oh, no, hang about, we're not allowed to do that are we?
Off out to vote today on who runs the corporations... oh, no, hang about, we're not allowed to do that are we?
Posted by:
Jack Graham
6 years, 7 months ago
Wow. Single figures. Okay, time for some fun.
"I'm asking you to help yourselves," says the Doctor.
Revolution isn't about everyone suddenly becoming altruistic and angelic. It is, as Marx saw it, "
the movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority".
"Nothing will change round here unless you change it," says the Doctor. Here is '
freedom and necessity'. It must be done, but they can choose to do it or not to do it.
"What will we do with two guns against all those guards?" asks Veet.
"You can't do anything, but there are fifty million people in this city. Think how the guards will react to that number."
"It's crazy talk," says Goudry, "Rebellion? No one would support you." Capitalist realism.
"Given the chance to breathe clean air for a few hours, they might. Have you thought of that?"
The Company pumps a chemical fug into the air that makes people anxious and weak. That's how it works on Pluto. Here we call it ideology, or hegemony.
The Doctor and Bisham discuss ways of knocking out the gas pumps.
"I was ...
Posted by:
Jack Graham
8 years, 1 month ago
Before the Skulltopus series moves on to the Baker years (and beyond), I feel the need to settle accounts with the Pertwee era, particularly with Peladon. Also, I need to clarify something about the way capitalism is portrayed and perceived in - and by - Doctor Who
.The maggots in '
The Green Death' are the Pertwee era's last gasp of the Weirdesque. 'Green Death' is also the last Pertwee story to properly notice capitalism.
Admittedly, there is some riffing on 'greed' in 'Invasion of the Dinosaurs'; and 'Monster of Peladon' regurgitates (in a reduced form) the political semiotics of its parent story. However, in these stories, while class is in evidence... class struggle even!... there is no tracing it back to anything recognisable as capitalist social relations.
I'll get to this, but first I want to loop back to address something about 'Carnival of Monsters' that I should've mentioned previously: Vorg as an entrepreneur and how this relates to the society in which he finds himself. Firstly, Inter-Minor isn't recognisably capitalist. The latent revolution in 'Carnival' - the imminent revolt of the Functionaries that President Zarb (the panicky social democrat) is trying to placate and Kalik (the fascist ...
