I have been reading a very interesting book, Max Hastings’ “All Hell Let Loose” The World at War 1939-1945, as seen and lived by people rather than strategists and generals. A fascinating read and an eye opener.
However, what really struck me was this quote: page 102 from the William Collins paper back edition, towards the end of the Chapter “Britain Alone”: “Lancashire housewife Nella Last groped movingly towards an expression of her compatriots’ hopes when she wrote that summer of 1940 : ‘Sometimes I get caught up in a kind of puzzled wonder at things and think of all the work and effort and all the unlimited money that is used today to “destroy” and not so long ago there was no money or work and it seems so wrong somehow….[that] money and effort could always be found to pull down and destroy rather than build up.”
Exactly seventy five years later, this sentiment rings eerily relevant yet again. Nella Last had the Great Depression in mind when she referred to “Not so long ago”. For us this is Now. No money can be found and we have to cut down on welfare, reduce jobs and all that is included under the TINA doctrine of destructive, debilitating austerity.
Of course mind boggling billions upon billions can be and are found for propping up banks which of course must NOT be nationalised, (even though the taxpayer is funding these billions) so that financiers and banksters can keep playing and winning on the roulette wheel of our destitution.
As Varoufakis has put it aptly, today it is banks that wreak destruction instead of tanks.