g6b Peoples Summit

Camp for Peace

I visited the amazing Faslane Peace Camp recently – one of the longest running and friendliest camps of that kind I’ve ever been to. You’d think that a bunch of people who have to shelter from the Scottish weather would be much grumpier, but in fact everyone has such a great attitude. They even seem to embrace the wind and rain! Not only are the aims of the camp truly inspiring but the scenery is spectacular too. That only makes the fact that the government’s decision to locate the nuclear submarines there, more of a tragedy.

I only spent a day at Faslane and felt a bit of a fraud. After all, once my day was done I left the hardcore protesters and went off for a slap-up meal and a night in a guest house! But the campers don’t make you feel like you’re not contributing. They’re happy to have your support and to have people spread the word, either to friends and colleagues or through blogs like this one…

I’d recommend everyone to visit the camp if you happen to be in the west of Scotland. You’ll be made to feel really welcome whenever you arrive and it’s not as hippy as you might expect. Yeah, there’s a few guys with dreds and a couple of second hand campervans parked around, swapping currys discount vouchers, but there are a lot of professionals who have become so disillusioned with regular life and regular attitudes that they’ve decided to abandon their old lives and take action. It made me feel a little ashamed that I don’t contribute as much as I could. I wish I could quit my job and sell up my house and move to Faslane. I loved all the people I met there and was so inspired by their aims and the way they’re going out about achieving them. Plus they make a fantastic vegetarian chilli!

Should fascism be resurrected!

A feature of fascism, I consider essential to discuss, is the role of the state in forming the nation. “The Fascist State, the highest and most powerful form of personality, is a force, but a spiritual force, which takes over all the forms of the moral and intellectual life of man.”[1] This suggests that the state in fascism has a much more important role than, for example, in liberalism. If we look at liberalism, the state is created by society to protect their safety and property. It has no other purpose than ensuring people’s rights are intact, ensuring everyone is given liberty to do whatever they please with their life. One can do whatever they want as long as they don’t break other people’s rights and liberties. On the other hand, for fascists, “the nation is created by the State, which gives to the people, conscious of its own moral unity, a will and therefore an effective existence.”[2] – A much more important role than just managing society. The state is the bearer of everything good, right and moral, of the meaning of life itself. It has therefore the duty to show to each individual what is right and wrong, what is worth living and dying for. Everything that keeps the nation together stems from the state. It carries the spirit of the nation and individuals can take that spirit from the state in order to be effective members of the nation. The state protects not only the property and the safety of the nation, but also its soul; its moral values. Everything that is within the state has meaning and purpose and everything that is outside the state has none of these.

Emergency fuel delivery is quite useful when you need it.

[1] Benito Mussolini, ‘The Doctrine of Fascism’ (1932), in Adrian Lyttelton (ed.) Italian Fascisms (London: Cape, 1973) p.43

[2] Benito Mussolini, ‘The Doctrine of Fascism’ (1932), in Adrian Lyttelton (ed.) Italian Fascisms (London: Cape, 1973) p.43