Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus Speaking Rational Humanism

Hi, it’s Grey Greyvara, social conscience at the Greenygrey. When Marc Latham was studying for his PhD from 2000-2005 he was considered a Jew in a derogatory Islamo-fascist-liberal way for daring to say the Middle-East was a cycle of violence; mostly influenced by the work of media analyst with a cool surname Gadi Wolfsfeld.

Islamo-fascism continued in the area Marc lived, and that persecution of anything criticising Islam probably helped inspire some of those involved in the 7/7 bombings of 2005.

British Left-Wing Support of Islamism 

Nazi Wandering Jew propaganda at Yad Vashem (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Marc was still quite a radical socialist during that time, so was critical of Islam for its social inequality and human rights abuses. But criticism of Islam at university was decoded and demonised as being pro-West, pro-Israeli and right-wing.

Marc understands this is the way the world is divided between east and west; highlighted in the Syrian conflict recently. Marc doesn’t like the U.S. blockade of Cuba, but also doesn’t like Cuba’s alliance with countries such as Syria and Iran; although the West’s ally in the Middle-East Saudi Arabia also has a terrible human rights record.

While that might sound Islamophobic, Marc enjoyed his time in Islamic countries when travelling through them in the 1980s. It’s not Islamic people on the whole that Marc criticises, it is their rulers and ideologies.

BEWARE GEORGE GALLOWAY IS THE NEXT HITLER (Photo credit: pixelhut)

Unfortunately, Islamism has risen since the 1980s, inspiring more people to become extremists. This has had a knock-on effect in other countries and religions, with more Christian and Jewish extremists, as well as more radical atheists.

As a focus on Islamism took over the left in the U.K.; originally through New Labour, and now epitomised by George Galloway; and 7/7 happened; Marc moved to the political centre, and out of academic life, leading to Greenygrey theory on this here websitey.

From Marxism to Scandinavian Democracy 

Green field & green person (Photo credit: Let Ideas Compete)

Marc moved from being a bit of a British Marxist, common in 1980s Britain, to a Scandinavian style democratic socialist; although Scandinavia has also changed politically since the Utopian post-World War II era, and many parts have become more capitalist.

However, it still scores highly in most standard-of-living and democratic ideals ratings: equality, press freedom, freedom of speech, environmental innovation etc.

Abba‘s Bjorn Ulvaeus on religion 

Cover of Björn Ulvaeus

So I was interested to hear Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus express similar views to Marc on religion recently, published on the British Rationalist Association website; and in particular on the negativity and threat of Islamism.

Moreover, our ol’ pal Marc Latham replied on September 18th, before the latest explosion of Islamism in Kenya (and Pakistan, where dozens of Christians were killed in a Taliban suicide bombing attack):

‘Israel has some responsibility in the Middle-East, because of its expansionism, but it is only Islam that is still spreading religious war around the region, and out into the rest of the world.

And even then, Judaism was around for about 1000 years before Islam, and Christianity for about 500 years before Islam, and they are both trying desperately to hold on to some land/a foothold in their Middle-East homes.’

Marc hopes that Iran’s election of the more moderate Rouhani and his recent peaceful overtones to the ‘West’ can bring a new era of hope to the Middle-East.

Bjorn Ulvaeus Swedish Humanist 

I didn’t know that Bjorn Ulvaeus was a Swedish humanist until I read that interview, or that he’d had a similar religious journey to Marc Latham until watching the following interview.

Bjorn Ulvaeus was also a secular freedom of speech advocate who didn’t take much interest in religion until the rise of Islamism and 9/11:

Politics in the U.K. and World: Labour’s Saviour

Hi, it’s Grey Greyvara, the Greenygrey’s political conscience, and werewolf parallel to the human Che Guevara. Today, we start to round off working-class week with a summary of how and why we view the current U.K. and world political situation.

When Marc Latham was in university he felt prejudiced against, like a microcosm of the British situation told in Chavs: The Demonising of the Working-Class, with an international emphasis on everything, and the old working-class being framed as backward; being blamed for holding Britain back.

University Life During New Labour 

Britains Floral Garden ~ memories from my childhood (Photo credit: shrinkin’violet)

Marc started his PhD in line with the far left of Noam Chomsky and the Glasgow Media Group; socialist criticism of the British and ‘Western’ establishment; hoping for a more equal Britain and less international conflict. At the time he thought he was quite rare in his outlook.

But under New Labour’s revisionist internationalism, criticising Britain seemed to become the norm, while criticising other cultures was ‘racist’, and risked social exclusion. Islamism replaced socialism as the likely successor to Western capitalism in British and world hegemony.

New Labour and the Working-Class 

Che guevara (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

While Marc’s hopes for hegemonic theory supported all races and genders gaining more equality under a more socialist Britain, like Che Guevara’s philosophy, New Labour’s multiculturalism seemed to be supporting other cultures while neglecting or persecuting the traditional British working-class; and women under Islamism.

Gordon Brown seemed to confirm this when he called Gillian Duffy a bigot in Rochdale for asking about immigration near the end of the New Labour tenure. Rochdale later emerged in a related infamous story, with a Muslim paedophile ring having been targeting poor and vulnerable children for years during the New Labour government.

Current Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has now admitted New Labour got it wrong on immigration and multiculturalism.

Tony Blair, Christianity and Islam

Tony Blair and New Labour’s policy on Islam and war seems naive at best, and perhaps criminal:

1. Allowed mass immigration of Muslims.
2. Gave safe haven to known Islamist terrorists.
3. Allowed hate preachers to radicalise ordinary Muslims.
4. Went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq against Muslims.

I think Tony Blair was naive, and as a Christian thought he could work with his fellow monotheist Muslims; preferring them to the pagan communist Slav Russians and allies.

Fuhrer Tony Blair (Photo credit: acidrabbi)

This was shown by New Labour’s first war; supporting Muslim Kosovars against Communist Serbs. Blair was also the only Allied leader not to attend the Russians’ VE Day 60th anniversary celebration.

Tony Blair has now stressed that Islamism is the big threat to world peace.

British Post-Modern Political System 

Marc had wondered why some working-class people supported the Conservatives, as he grew up under Thatcher, but the New Labour government showed him why!

The British political system is no longer like the one Marc grew up under in the 1980s anyway, and is now more post-modern issues based.

Che Guevara mural (Photo credit: Contrabland)

While Marc had called for a wider hegemony in his PhD thesis, hoping for more access for the old socialism, politics in the U.K. and the world overtook him; especially as he was held up (both time-wise and financially!) by his department.

The rise of the extreme right-wing Islamic hate preachers in Britain (and I include George Galloway!), and extreme right-wing fascists in southern Europe showed him that a wider access to the political debate has as many negatives as positives.

The old communist systems were full of poor treatment of people as well, and even Che Guevara didn’t do as well in peacetime as he did in war.

So Marc is now in the Greenygrey middle, reacting to policies as much as political ideologies and traditions, and a little disillusioned with it all really. Funnily enough, that might be in line with the ‘Third Way‘ policy supported by New Labour!!!