Feelgood factor

Quote from Guderian in a Spiked article:

People in the Third World have never had it so good and it's thanks to heroes like me. Every espresso I have at Costa Coffee makes Guatemalan children very happy, I have seen the pictures and they always smile. I drink water from some company that vaccinates (or is it fumigates?, I forget) children in some African country, they also smile in the picture. My bananas make peasants in some other loser country very happy because a nice lady in London tells them how lucky they are to be paid a fair price. I am very precious and all the brown people know it. My mum was right.

Get a grip

Some brilliant comments by Sinister-Dexter in an article about the comedian Russel Brand's call for a 'revolution of consciousness'. Here's S-D's take on modern trendy activism of the kind lauded by Brand:

Western activism over the past decade has descended into an ego stroking exercise. I often meet people who have flown into the country to attend a summit on climate change, when i question them on their usefulness I always get the same response: "We're raising awareness!" which is what people end up saying about Brand when it's pointed out he has no substance, no solutions, and his revolution doesn't even have an exit strategy! "Raising awareness" is for backslapping narcissists who want to believe they're saving the world but don't want to do any of the boring shit, like, actually saving the world. "I really care about the planet, y'know? That's why I've organised this Green event, we're going to have DJs, and people speaking about polar bears, and face painting, and it will all raise awareness!" No. You are useless, just like Brand, you're a distraction, a feel-good exercise. There are people doing hard work to actually solve such issues, intelligent, studious people working on solutions. Shitting on such people and shouting "let's burn it all down and rebuild it based on the principle of love, not money!" might make you feel good for an hour or so, but it draws attention away from the committed people who spend their entire lives working on solutions to these problems.

 And here he is on the 'disaffected youth' of today:

 And seriously, when has the youth not been disaffected? The youth aren't that fragile, disaffection is a phase, a natural part of growing up. I feel disaffected with the disaffected British youth, whereas the disaffected youth in other countries riot for political change, in the UK the disaffected youth riot for a new iPhone. Funny how you didn't see the disaffected youth in turkey or Egypt robbing JD Sports.