You need look no further than the latest policy for pretending to tax land, while tacitly supporting taxation of earned incomes, for a perfect case history of incoherence. It has Mr. Andy Burnham's support as the president in waiting.
- The Highland Clearances. The Lowland Enclosures. And Today, the Global Exodus to Wealthy Cities Across the World.
But the blame always falls on wealth and power curiously?
Could it be the armies of normal people, activists and campaigners trying to save the world, saying:
"every little counts" and "save the world, slowly but surely"
"Yes, we know the same thing failed last time. That was because we did not do it hard enough. Or they did not do it properly and we know better".
"And the pain must be dished out slowly so that people cannot feel it as the policy proceeds to do its work".
They even accept this incoherence is happening in plain sight, or at least do not argue that it is not when you ask them. It is most curious.
Obviously an incoherent policy approach is a trump card - the proposers cannot be held accountable when the excess death toll rises and the people are looking for accountability when eventually they find out.
Remember covid? No one really disagrees with the scandalous actions of most of the people, against the people.
"We were just doing as we were told - looking for a fancy new language to help people escape from reality. It's not our fault".
Curiously this new policy proposal is supported widely - among the other usual suspects such as the NGO's, charity and so on, by the Georgist movement, listed in number on the policy website, who must surely have a hidden agenda too, given the history of this kind of policy - George would never have supported such a weak and historically failing kind of proposal because he was deadly serious about it in a way these movements and wonks are not.
George wanted to save people. The wonks don't want to kill people, but they do not check if people will die from their ideas. The indirect excess deaths of a million people are just a statistic evidently. Just like we saw with covid.
Having buried myself deep on the inside of the Georgist movement for many years, knowing all the big players very well, getting invited to the secret meetings, this much is clear from primary evidence - I saw hidden it happening in front of my face, the hidden agendas repeating everywhere I saw at the deepest levels of that religion.
For most the unconscious bias was one or more of the following combined usually:
- jealousy of those with more land than them not surprisingly - jealousy of wealth is a serious social disease
- more cynically it was an effort to undermine the credibility of economic reform - through policy which would be a widespread highly visible failure, to protect landed interests, the biggest of course being equally homeowners and finance
- for others it was simply the plain old marxism, socialism, greenery and libertarianism cults.
I was close to one fella who used to have private meetings with the now King. And another whose family were Hollywood royalty. Not to mention myriad captains of industry, MP's, party's, Professors, squatters, criminal gangs, CEO's of charity, trustees of philanthropy, anarchist movements, risked life living among people supporting violent protests and so on and so on. None of these, especially the Georgists, were found to be serious about it when push came to shove - the hidden agenda always came into the light when I placed them under proper scrutiny.
I even stood in 2 general elections on a platform of economic justice and was usually told
"you cannot win on a single issue platform"
...as if little me was even expecting to win. They did not want the issue they were pretending to support to be brought into the light, authentically - it might have actually worked and been adopted. I'm not looking for credit here. I am saying I did it all so that I could see it happening in front of my face and be in no doubt about it happening.
What a huge disappointment for Henry George, who was certainly serious and gave his life for it.
None of the biggest Georgists I met, except for one, were genuinely serious about justice when push came to shove and the hidden agenda was brought into the light. It's not that they were bad or good people. It is that I saw it happening and confessed to it happening instead of being yet another lost soul trying to hide it.
Our think tank work developed a trojan horse policy we used to employ each time we came across this pathology to test if the planet savers were truly serious about justice or were promoting an agenda under a veil. They passed the test if:
- our policy was rejected out of hand
- in spite of it having identical goals to theirs
- without having bothered to read, understand it or ask for clarifications if they did not understand
- and a closing of ranks between people who normally hated each other
- followed up by attempts to discredit my person and our policy, ad hominem
A clear signal psychologically. A useful tool politically - the Location Value Covenant.
I still use it today fairly regularly and the test was passed again yesterday by the man marketing this new pretend land value tax policy.
Why are this new agency inadvertently proposing a policy which they must know will set back - through its own systemic failure once again, the advent of economic justice for the world I wonder?
All we can say is that the real agenda is concealed. And then the concealment is concealed. This concealment tactic is where most of the work and funding and energy always gets soaked up. Else the hidden agenda would emerge.
- The Highland Clearances. The Lowland Enclosures. And Today, the Global Exodus to Wealthy Cities Across the World.
Compassion. I'm not saying these wonks are good or bad people. I am simply observing it happening once again. All of us are equally caught up in this shared human condition of cosmic exile, it's nobody's personal fault. None of us asked to be born into a broken world. We are all trying our best.
Such is the collective unconscious and its overwhelming power. Such is the plight of anxious souls in exile from their true home. So, compassion.