poemranker ::Truths by Nicholas Jones

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Free verse № 18731

Truths

by Nicholas Jones

Member since 2002 · Posted 4 Oct 2002 · Edited 4 Oct 2002 · 26 comments

Sometimes I can be honest with myself And look for explanations in my past - No socialist commitments can destroy My guilt at being of the middle class. Some people dig for coal far underground While I write footnotes that are thesis bound I contribute no economic gain, Secure nothing for the workers by hand or brain - I know the fourth clause always was the best But joined the party after it was lost.

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26 comments

[9] Christof 4-Oct-02/7:07 AM Reply
Very good - the dilemma of the socialist faced with New Labour. What a middle-class and furtive party it is now. Which is why I always vote Liberal Democrat - as if that's any great alternative.
[9] Christof 4-Oct-02/7:08 AM Reply
Oh, a typo - 'ecomic'
[n/a] Nicholas Jones › Christof 4-Oct-02/7:09 AM Reply
I've fixed that now.
[6] horus8 4-Oct-02/12:48 PM Reply
Long live the reads, the hammer, and cabbage soup? well the thinkers and the drinkers at least.
[4] limonade 4-Oct-02/8:46 PM Reply
The essence of the poem is good, but the expression could use some work.
[n/a] darren67 6-Oct-02/9:26 PM Reply
Ryn: No I'm not Darren Day, whoever that fellow might be.

Champagne socialists have always been rather laughable, on both sides of the fence. / :
[5] Blue Magpie 9-Oct-02/7:24 AM Reply
I think there should be a comma, if not a semi colon after "thesis bound"

Politics always seemed a lose - lose game to me.

[5] cleverdevice 23-Oct-02/4:10 AM Reply
This irritates me as a subject. There is nothing wrong with being middle class. You find we run many of the businesses and companies employing the worker. Without middle class financial investment the economy would completely collapse. Now the aristocracy, they contribute nothing to economy. Yet we must preserve them as it part of (my) culture. Other than that it is sound.
[n/a] Nicholas Jones › cleverdevice 23-Oct-02/7:35 AM Reply
I'm glad you can appreciate the poem without agreeing with the politics. But you still sound like a Tory to me.
[5] cleverdevice › Nicholas Jones 25-Oct-02/2:34 AM Reply
I am a Tory actually, but only with regard to the countryside, other than that the tories are just as useless as the lib dems and labour.
[n/a] god'swife › cleverdevice 23-Oct-02/7:56 AM Reply
Yeah, you just keep convincing yourself of that. The average car costs $30,000 but I can still by a head of lettuce for $.69, gee I wonder how that works out. 100's of billions of dollars dedicated to instruments of war, but little angel maria can't go to school cause there's not enough room. They've shut down more then 50% of the county clinics here, and a doctors visit cost $90.00. Fuck you, I'm praying for the day the economy collapses.
[5] cleverdevice › god'swife 25-Oct-02/2:40 AM Reply
Society has based itself around cirrency and gains, everything must cost something. You can't keep pulling money out of thin air. Besides, with regards to instruments of war, how can you say that protecting yourself against attack isn't important, Hasn't 9/11 taught you anything?
[n/a] -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. › cleverdevice 26-Oct-02/10:12 AM Reply
It has taught me that Nazi stooges like yourself should try reading books instead of burning them! There is more in the Grail Diary than just the map, Dr Jones.
[n/a] Nicholas Jones › -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. 28-Oct-02/3:16 AM Reply
Nye Bevan said Tories were lower than vermin. He was right. It's amazing how a mild bit of left wing thought can frighten people like you.
[5] cleverdevice 23-Oct-02/4:17 AM Reply
Also, socialism only works in heavan where it's not needed and hell where it's already working. Obvioulsy the awful 60 years of communism in Russia and the Eastern Bloc and the slow return to captitalism by China, Vietnam and Cuba mean nothing? Socialism just leads to oppression because with evryone being the same, the need to be better is only intensified.
[n/a] Nicholas Jones › cleverdevice 23-Oct-02/7:33 AM Reply
That's all right wing nonsense. Do you use the NHS? Receive any social security benefits? Do you fancy having a pension when you get old? All those things are tangible benefits of socialist thinking. Never forget it was Nye Bevan, finest Labour politician in history, who created the health service.

As it goes, I do feel guilty for having been born middle class, when my grandfather was a coal miner for fifty years.

By the way, do you appreciate the reference to the Labour Party constitution at the end? It's probably a bit obscure, really.
[0] -=SeTTle=- 26-Oct-02/9:23 AM Reply
Garbage
[n/a] Nicholas Jones › -=SeTTle=- 28-Oct-02/3:18 AM Reply
Of course, you say that having understood my subtle reference to Clause IV of the Labour Party constitution, don't you?
[n/a] Nicholas Jones › Nicholas Jones 30-Oct-02/2:11 AM Reply
Nobody asked, but it'll please me to explain it. The original Clause IV of the Labour Party constitution read:

'To secure for the producers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry, and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible, upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry and service.'

Now, in 1994 Tony Blair chose to entirely change this clause, because he did not want the party to be committed to public ownership - in other words, this was symbolic of the abandonment of traditional left wing thinking in the party. However, I joined the Labour Party after this - either Clause IV was lost, oor the party itself was lost through jettisoning its principles. I know nobody cares about this, but I wanted to say it. And I love the bit about by hand or brain.
[n/a] -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. 26-Oct-02/9:48 AM Reply
Yes. Yes. Peasants are important too, aren't they?

This is socialism: "Look at those people. They're wealthy and splendid. They have butlers. Look at me. I have straw in my hair and dung in my slippers. I've got a great idea! Let's make everyone's life as shitty as mine! Then at least it's fair!"

Nice one!!
[n/a] Nicholas Jones › -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. 28-Oct-02/3:20 AM Reply
I do have dung in my slippers, but that's a lifestyle choice. I've got a special wall set aside for you when the revolution happens.
[n/a] ==Doylum › Nicholas Jones 28-Oct-02/6:26 AM Reply
Has it got special little holes in it for mouth buggery? Like the doors of my favorite public lava tory. Orange conservatories glass houses special glass walls pressed with naked flesh oh hurah when will your revolution be?
[n/a] Bachus 26-Oct-02/10:04 AM Reply
see what happens when you spray pina colada car scents to fast while on the freeway.overdosed on fruitiness.6.
[n/a] ==Doylum 29-Nov-02/4:32 AM Reply
It comes around again!

How completley and utterly ridiculous. why would anyone be guilty because they're middle class. Its like hanging ones head in shame because your cock hangs on the left hand side of ye gots. So long as you give it to us with conviction....
[n/a] Nicholas Jones › ==Doylum 29-Nov-02/5:25 AM Reply
We should all feel guilty. I feel guilty I have enough money and live a comfortable lifestyle, while people in my own country, through no fault of their own, live in grinding poverty, and millions are starving across the world, all through an accident of birth. Isn't that enough?
[n/a] -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. › Nicholas Jones 29-Nov-02/6:18 AM Reply
I am upper class, and do not feel in the slightest bit guilty. I'm proud of my wealth, though I am a little concerned that I occasionally spoil my servants by allowing them to enter the house through the *front* door. Tell me, kind Sir -- What is the title of your thesis? Judging by your work, I imagine it to be SPS related. If so, your guilt is not misplaced. I too would feel guilty about leeching off the state when all I had to show for it was a thesis in the most useless, bullshit subject known to mankind. It is no coincidence that whenever people fuck up their degrees, they switch to SPS. Good day to you, Sir.