Okay, so you’ll have to forgive the fact that this video was made by a bunch of Communists, but it’s still a good vid! Credit where credit is due - it’s probably one of the best anti-prohibition pieces I’ve seen in a long time. Enjoy:
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Old Spice ads. In what has been one of the most clever marketing campaigns this year, sales of Old Spice products have sky rocketed from a prolonged lull. No longer the scent of your dad, or just old men in general, the adverts featuring ebony adonis Isaiah Mustafa have reinvigorated the Old Spice brand.
This advert is an egregious play on hyper-masculine stereotypes. The caption underneath this video on Youtube is as follows: “We’re not saying this body wash will make your man smell into a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it.
Surely, then, it is only a matter of time before Jo Swinson and Lynne Featherstone condemn these adverts? Afterall Old Spice openly mocks their consumers for not being able to ever look like Mustafa. Previously when criticising the “Real Women” campaign I was not over-inundated with adverts displaying the male equivalent. Some would interpret this as rendering my arguments invalid.
>
However, were a Victoria’s Secret model to star in an advert admitting she has a level of beauty unattainable to most of the female population I happily wager that Swinson and Featherstone would condemn it within hours.
If I apply the narrative that was used to defend the Real Woman campaign to the Old Spice ads it goes something like this: “The self esteem of young boys might be harmed when they realise they can’t swan dive into a hot tub which has a motorcycle in it. These adverts should contain a warning that Mustafa has only be able to accomplish these feats with the aid of computer alteration. What about our SONS?!?! Will no one think of the Children?!”
Obviously that’s completely ludicrous.
Luckily something tells me there won’t be a motion at Conference condemning the Old Spice ads. But sadly, I fear it won’t be because they’ve come to the conclusion that politicians shouldn’t be responsible for our self-esteem. I would pity the poor souls who open their mail if they were. Can you imagine:
Dear Michael Gove*,
This month’s Cosmo came out to day and I’m feeling a bit shit…
Kind Regards,
Sara Scarlett
[*My local MP. Aren't I lucky...]
The fact of the matter is there won’t be the same out-cry over the Old Spice ads because even if they’re making men all over the western world feel inferior - men don’t like to victimise themselves in the same way women do. The Real Woman campaign completely codified the collective self-pity of a fraction of women. It was wrapped in a bunch of other, more worthy, issues to shove it through conference. It sent out the message that it was okay to absolve yourself of responsibility for your own self-esteem; a message that does women no favours.
Having seen candids (un-airbrushed paparazzi pics) of Isaiah Mustafa - I can attest to the fact that he is as lovely without the aid of computer wizardry as he is in the Old Spice ads. In the same way that Elle MacPherson is stunning in candids too. So until good looks can be redistibuted equally there’s no escaping the reality that some people are just better looking than others. No amount of nannying from busy-body politicians is going change that.
Check out this fascinating interview with the Cato Institute’s Brink Lindsey:
I think the typical view of politics from inside a partisan mindset is to see politics as a battle of the good guys versus the bad guys. Maybe the good guys are on the left, maybe the good guys are on the right, but it’s this Manichean struggle and the way to get progress is for the good side to win and impose their will. Mill sees through that and sees that, in fact, politics is a dialectical process. At any given time truth is partly on one side and partly on the other. It’s more a battle of half-truths and incomplete truths than of good versus bad. The excesses of each side ultimately create opportunities for the other to come in and correct those excesses. Liberalism, in Mill’s view and in mine, provides the basic motive force of political change and progress. It will go astray, it will have excesses, it will make terrible mistakes – and a conservatism that is focused on preserving good things that exist now will be a necessary counterweight to that liberalism.
Brink also talks about the great books that influence modern classical liberalism in a very thoughtful and considered manner. Excellent stuff.
As Sunder Katwala would like to point out “It’s not easy being Libertarian..” :
Owing to the persistent unpopularity of the ‘whoever governs least governs best’ philosophy.
But sometimes you might get a chance to catch the national mood.
Take today’s killings in Cumbria.
For most people, a difficult to understand tragedy.
But, for the Libertarian Alliance, the ideal opportunity to dash out a press release arguing that it would never happen if only we were to repeal all firearms restrictions:
“The Libertarian Alliance believes that all the Firearms Acts from 1920 onwards should be repealed. The largely ineffective laws of 1870 and 1902 should also be repealed. It should once again be possible for adults to walk into a gun shop and, without showing any permit or proof of identity, buy as many guns and as much ammunition as they can afford”.
After all, as the LA points out , in the US, “at least one campus shooting was brought to a premature end by armed civilians”.
Evidence-based policymaking!
The ‘whoever governs least governs best’ philosophy’ is not widely popular philosophy indeed, however, at the risk of sounding like my school teachers - what is popular is not always right & what is right is not always popular.
But Sunder is right. This is evidence-based from the LA. Sunder just doesn’t think it is because he hasn’t taken all the evidence into account which I have pointed out in the comments section of his post:
I would like to suggest that you look at Switzerland. Gun ownership is widespread in Switzerland owing to Switzerland’s military culture being primarily militia based. Recreational gun sport is also very high as is the prevalence of privately owned firearms amongst civilians.
Gun crime in Switzerland is very low in respect of how widespread gun ownership is. This suggests that the link between gun crime and gun ownership is more tenuous than knee-jerk reactions take for granted. On the contrary due to the fact that guns are so prevalent in Switzerland firearm training and education is very high.
You are, of course, right in one respect. It is not easy being a libertarian at all. Most of our opinions seem to be the opposite of the most obvious knee-jerk reactions but since knee-jerk reactions are overwhelmingly proven incorrect I’d say it’s burden worth carrying.
When left-wingers proclaim they have all the evidence, count the spoons…
From the fabulous Jennie Rigg on my facebook page:
“Why is there this assumption that we want a deal with Labour? None of us have forgotten 1997. They shafted us then, and they want to shaft us now. Labour and the Tories suck equally. Most Lib Dems think so, including, and I have asked him this in person, Clegg.”
Discussions continue - pound crashes in reaction to Brown statement.
Negotiating teams taking their proposals to their respective parties this afternoon.
If you’re not as big a fan of Marmite as I am you may not have noticed the truly inspired advertising campaign they’re currently running. It centres around the phoney “Marmite election” and there are some complete gems on their Youtube Channel. This spoof of the ‘Hate Party PEB’ struck a particular chord with me, however, as it completely sums up the bigotted narrative of authoritarians everywhere. You could substitute Marmite for practically any vice and it’d work. Take a peak:
Love Marmite, love liberty!
Our Best Policies:
The £10k tax threshold - easily the best policy in any of the three manifestos and certainly the most radical. Would vote LibDem for this policy alone.
Constitutional change: The power to sack corrupt MPs, reform of the voting system, an elected House of Lords and a Freedom Bill to restore civil liberties etc. Would also vote LibDem for this policy alone…
Passing a new Mutuals, Co-operatives and Social Enterprises Bill - Hallelujah! Not quite sure this needs a specific minister though…
Rule out the like-for-like replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system - Good!!
Our Worst Policies:
General wetness on public sector bureaucracy - it’s not liberal to have government micromanage our lives so we should be getting rid of a lot more.
Investing £400 million to refurbish shipyards in the North of England and Scotland - those shipyards need investment but it shouldn’t come from the government. Turning them into industrial economic free zones (areas where Corporation tax, Capital Gains tax and Stamp duty do not apply) would do the trick instead…
The entire international development section - it’s one big massive facepalm.
Tags: Economics, International Development, tax
Ranked no. 56 in the UK
Ranked no.6 in the UK
Elsewhere on Lib Dem Blogs...