In Central Europe Men Are Marching

A PROLOGUE TO A SERIES.

The Frankfurt Parliament, Public Domain

In the same year of the publication of The Communist Manifesto the Western hemisphere experienced a wave of revolutionary upheaval akin to contemporary events in the Middle East. The 1848 revolutions were about many things to many people - democracy, nationalism, liberalism, socialism. As I draw my series of essays on my political outlook, in particular the evolution of my relationship with revolutionary socialism (ie, Marxism), to an eventual close after two years; on this national day I look to begin a new series on another of the major ideologies of 1848 - nationalism.

As the European Union appears to be unfurling and prominent independence movements are afoot in Scotland and Catalonia; it seems relevant to discuss ethnicity and nationalism. The primary aim of the series will be to identify the origin of national identity - the interplay of history, geography, culture, and language in binding populations together in shared character. In the same vein as my political series this set on nationalism will start with a republished college essay - in this case an essay on Bismarck's role in the unification of Germany from HND History. While it doesn't deal with issues of national identity, it does discuss the historical processes that led to the unification of one of Europe's last fractured lands into a great power.

The Masses Against The Classes

PART ONE OF A PROLOGUE TO A SERIES.

The following was written for the Marxism module of Politics A class in the HNC Social Sciences course. I was up until 6AM writing this five years ago. In fact, this was the only paper I bothered to hand-in before failing/dropping out of the course by early 2006.

Where Do I Start, Where Do I Begin?

Part One of Three.

The Flag of The Polity of Star City

Since I last wrote about NationStates four years ago, I've noticed that the governments of many regions ceased to function and slid into informal gerontocracy as the numbers of residents declined. Well, as I write this on January 30th, my nation Star City is just over seven years old. When this is published my home region The Proletariat Coalition will also be seven years old - though the exact date in March is long-forgotten, it was contemporary with the invasion of Iraq; as such I tend to set the anniversary on the 20th. To mark this, I'm republishing my memoirs from five years ago. You can read the currently outdated history of TPC at NSwiki.

Education and Conflict

When people like McIndoe said that my activities and the GA-Slag were creating conflict and polarisation in the school, they were patently wrong. I did not create this conflict, I was not the cause, I was a symptom of the perpetual disharmony between authority and the authorised.

Copy and Paste Threatens Our Way of Life

Originally, Pirates were sea-going persons who stole other people's merchandise and sold it (or for some reason, buried it, allowing someone else to get it via an elaborate story).

Today, the only people who can accurately be described as pirates are those in certain street markets selling dodgy videos and CD-Rs. Those internet users who upload music are not making a profit - remember that it is only the capitalists (eg, major music labels) who would use the internet to make money.

The corporations talk of [internet] piracy as the reason prices must rise. Firstly, the internet drives prices down (to the maximum of free). Secondly, prices will stay high for as long as that product is scarce. Digital media has made scarcity unthinkable; thus, through taking downloaders to court and raiding pirate server locations ; artificial scarcity is enforced. Imposing restrictions on legally downloaded music has the same effect.

An extract from my Holiday Diary, Written in Albufeira, Portugal - 22/07/05
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