Mocking an Eton boy's death is the worst politics of envy - Owen Jones

[editor]

I rather enjoyed this piece by Owen Jones in the Graniud:

Whoever wrote that Socialist Worker column thought they were being oh-so-revolutionary, so courageously and provocatively sticking it to the man. But all they were doing is laughing at a dead teenager, whose last moments were no less painful or terrifying because of his cosseted childhood. It is socialism with the heart cut out, devoid of the humanity and compassion that must surely underpin it. That might be their socialism. It certainly isn't mine.

http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...t-worker-article-polar-bear-attack?CMP=twt_gu

 

[JHE]

The Social Worker piece was in really crap taste. That's all.

"The politics of envy" is largely fiction. Leftists, would-be revolutionaries and the like are prone to certain faults, some of them serious, but in my experience of reading and talking to them over more than 30 years, they are not much prone to envy the rich. They may be angry at the rich, they may be outraged by the existence of the rich and the excesses of the rich, but they don't envy them.

I suspect someone else wrote the headline for Owen Jones' piece.

 

[Bakunin]

I suspect someone else wrote the headline for Owen Jones' piece.

Writers don't often get to choose their own titles. That's usually done by either an editor or sub-editor and, to boost it's chances of being read, they'll usually try and make it topical and link it to something that's happening on publication day. A writer might have a working title for a piece, but the final choice of the title that's used is generally out of their hands.

 

[JHE]

Writers don't often get to choose their own titles. That's usually done by either an editor or sub-editor and, to boost it's [<---a good sub-editor would change that to its] chances of being read, they'll usually try and make it topical and link it to something that's happening on publication day. A writer might have a working title for a piece, but the final choice of the title that's used is generally out of their hands.

Sure - and in some cases the sub-editor may write the headline without reading the article very carefully.

 

[Wilf]

Alex Callinicos' mum - "the Hon. Ædgyth Bertha Milburg Mary Antonia Frances Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, was the daughter of the 2nd Lord Acton"

 

[Bakunin]

Sure - and in some cases the sub-editor may write the headline without reading the article very carefully.

Yes, quite possibly. After all, aren't bungling sub-editors the bane of Penny Dreadful's existence. She seems to encounter them so regularly, after all.

 

[el-ahrairah]

I pointed out to Owen Jones on his facebook thread shilling this piece that he told me that real socialists don't criticise other socialists, and he accused me of being a rape apologist.

so there you go people.

 

[Ax^]

i thought the bear just ate the child

 

[JHE]

I pointed out to Owen Jones on his facebook thread shilling this piece that he told me that real socialists don't criticise other socialists, and he accused me of being a rape apologist.

so there you go people.

I expect that, among the cognoscenti, calling someone a "rape apologist" is just a fashionable way of accusing that person of being in the SWP.

 

[Awesome Wells]

I pointed out to Owen Jones on his facebook thread shilling this piece that he told me that real socialists don't criticise other socialists, and he accused me of being a rape apologist.

so there you go people.

why?

 

[DotCommunist]

we did far funnier on the thread about Horatio Chapples death when it happened ages ago. Also we had interesting bear talk.

 

[Bakunin]

we did far funnier on the thread about Horatio Chapples death when it happened ages ago. Also we had interesting bear talk.

I'll have to up my game as far as tacky tabloid'friendly headlines go, then:

'All Aboard The Chew-Chew Train.'

 

[JHE]

'All Aboard The Chew-Chew Train.'

I can't bear any more bad jokes.

 

[DotCommunist]

'Winter is coming'

 

[Balbi]

Grin and bear it: Vote Labour.

 

[Pickman's model]

i thought the bear just ate the child

no porridge was involved

 

[el-ahrairah]

why?

i am unclear on this matter.

 

[Ax^]

This is why you always keep a loaded shot gun handy on the frozen tundra...

Just Incase anyone goes bear happy..

 

[Citizen66]

It was a grizzly end.

 

[Balbi]

We should have a minutes silence. Or at least a large paws.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

Stop it you lot...that's fur enough.

 

[Citizen66]

The company can't be held liable due to a claws in the contract.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

real socialists don't criticise other socialists.

Does that mean no one on the left is a real socialist then?

 

[DotCommunist]

this is snow laughing matter

 

[Blagsta]

That sort of bear.

 

[The Pale King]

They've panda'd to the lowest common denominator here

 

[Wilf]

That sort of bear.

Polar opposites. Anyway, I better stop, skating on thin ice...

 

[bolshiebhoy]

I thought his twitter reaction was fair enough, I didn't much like the SW item either, but a whole column in the Guardian just seems gratuitous and sectarian.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Alex Callinicos' mum - "the Hon. Ædgyth Bertha Milburg Mary Antonia Frances Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, was the daughter of the 2nd Lord Acton"

Poor bloody woman, fancy being saddled with a name like that.

 

[Wilf]

Poor bloody woman, fancy being saddled with a name like that.

At home it was usually shortened to 'Come in our Ædgyth Bertha Milburg Mary Antonia Frances! Yer tea's ready!'