Parody of 1984

It was a wet day in April and for Winston Smith the clocks had just stopped. He sat in a cell with a massive poster ‘Big Donald is watching you’.
His lover, Julia, was in the women’s wing of the Ministry of Love.
A guard interrupted his reverie.
‘Smith. Room 101.’
Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.
‘Either surrender or you will be sentenced to lunch with Richard Branson forever.’
‘Do it to Julia,’ said Winston wearily.

The end. 

Corporate Severance

"Forget about everything else and concentrate on your job." This has been the mantra of bullying bosses right back to Egyptian slavedrivers.

The Sci Fi black comedy "Severance" imagines a world in which this has been taken one step further by corporate America.

Employees are surgically prevented from thinking about the outside world by the implantation of chips. You can imagine the likes of Elon Musk salivating about the very idea.

The TV series explores many of the implications of this. The "innies" have completely separate lives from their "outies" and the conflicts between the two are sometimes tragic. sometimes comic and sometimes both. In one episode an "outie" is tempted back to working as an "innie" with a pineapple!

The lives of the innies are Hell. Any deviation is punished in the "break room" where employees are "broken" by psychological torture.

The break room also makes use of the discredited "science" of the lie-detector. The Sci Fi author Frank Herbert explained fifty years ago that a lie-detector can be circumvented by anyone who genuinely believes the lie to be the truth!

The founder of the company is worshipped as a God. You can imagine that Bezos and Gates would love that idea.

The acting is superb and has won awards for all the main characters.

Socialists will enjoy this series.

Smiert spionam

Smiert spionam "Death to spies" is referred to as SMERSH in the James Bond novels. Mick Herron has more characters with interesting backgrounds and 100% more humour than Ian Fleming.

Jackson Lamb is a nightmare boss or a nightmare teacher for that matter but his character is portrayed with humour.

The Rodster, Roddy Ho is everybody's least favourite nerd.

River Cartwright has an interesting family background and ended up in the Slough of Despond because a friend stabbed him metaphorically in the back.

There is a thoroughly corrupt politician and any resemblance to Boris Johnson is purely for satirical purposes.

Other characters are quirky and oddly sympathetic.

The books provide more background than the TV series which is also excellent.

Pack of Lies

Findon Amateur Dramatic Society have produced a play about events in 1961 which is eerily topical since it deals with Russian spies.

The story concerns the Russian spy Gordon Lonsdale. Londsdale always insisted that his collaborators who went by the names Helen and Peter Kroger were innocent dupes. This does not explain why they had a short-wave radio and code books. Helen Kroger, real name Lona Cohen was a major in the KGB.

The story focuses on the Jackson family who were friends and neighbours of the Krogers for five years and never suspected their secret life. Barbara Jackson (played brilliantly by Sue Borroughs) is a close friend of Helen (played equally brilliantly by Lena Grinsted) and is forced to lie to her.

The MI5 officer (played by Simon Weston) gives Barbara too much information. It is probable that MI5 would have had a cover story to encourage the surveillance of the neighbours but in the play, the truth is revealed bit by bit.

Overall this is an excellent play and the Findon Dramatic Society do not look like Amateurs at all.

Mobile Phones in Schools

I worked for years at a school which banned mobile phones. Schools do not have to wait for the pusillanimous politicians to catch up. They can ban mobile phones and put the politicians to shame.

Personally, I think they should.

It would reduce the hours students spend on social media. It would put a stop to bullying by text (at least during school hours). It would enable pupils to concentrate and - God forbid - actually talk to each other!

Today on eBay

433 items sold means slightly more than 433 books because memory sticks can hold more than one book

Click here

Death Agony of Capitalism

 "The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International is also known as "The Transitional Program". The purpose of an audio version is to make it accessible to a wider audience. It has been tested with Windows and Linux.

In exile from Stalin's Russia, Trotsky sought to create a worldwide socialist organisation. This founding statement explains why and explains the concept of a transitional program to take the movement forward.

Trotsky's supporters were hounded and murdered by Stalin's agents. Yet thousands of communists left Stalinist parties to rally behind Trotsky and his ideas.

Various organisations claim to continue the tradition on the Fourth International.

A good test would be to compare their program with the transitional program. Do they slavishly copy each detail whether appropriate or not; have they abandoned it altogether; or do they follow the method and the spirit of the Transitional Program adapted properly to the current century? The Committee for a Workers International I can be contacted at the website https://www.socialistworld.net/

Click here