Published On: Sat, May 26th, 2018

The change starts with you

FBEL needs your support, and there are good reasons for it.

The only thing most alternative media asks of its audience is to give it money. That might even be in return for a product, and that’s fine (if the product is not a crypto-currency pyramid scheme, or snake-oil, or in any way leading its buyer up the garden path), but in the scheme offered by that media producer, the contributor always remains a consumer. And so, the model encourages learned helplessness, with the consumer believing that all he has to do is supply the producer with the means, and all the problems that the media producer has bombarded the consumer with (which is therefore a marketing device) will somehow be dealt with. Surprisingly, this relationship survives even when the media producer is not involved in any activism at all.

On the other hand, we know of other media producers whose activism is extreme. But there is nothing to be gained by getting arrested and being in breach of a suspended sentence, for example, except to excite an audience to part with its lucre.

FBEL tells its visitors that they have to work in order to solve the problems. There are quiet things to do to weaken a corrupt government, and then there will be things to do, later, to bring it to justice (see So, the British Government is entirely corrupt. What happens next? – here). Most of all, FBEL expects its users to get hold of the texts and the data for themselves, and do the research. FBEL expects to be a hub of quiet activism, reporting back on the experiments that it has conducted for use by FBEL readers (e.g. a legal suit against FBEL’s local authority is planned, and is waiting for funds to cover the anticipated allocation fee. It is related to the council’s activity in collecting Council Tax, and so highly relevant to our activism). Additionally, a report on a long defensive fight against certain utilities providers is overdue. The main idea is to have people empower themselves.

Speaking of research, there aren’t many in UK alternative media that reference the important body of work by William Cooper (see here) to make sense of the world, and none like FBEL that incorporate it so closely into analysis of significant writings that have formed the modern political climate, or of the mechanics and motivations of the contemporary ruling class. It’s not unfair to say that such material is definitely marginalised, and thus here is another good reason to support FBEL.

For above all, the FBEL visitor is asked to satisfy the requirements of the basic real capitalist system that should be at the root of his or her relationship with this site: produced material that has worth also has value. The real capitalist system, which is one where as many people as possible produce, is the one to which we must return in order to roll back socialism, which is a system where only a very few possess capital (socialism is crony-capitalism, and corporatism). If the reader of FBEL can’t appreciate that the content of this site represents capital expended, and thinks that it can always be consumed without remuneration, then this would be a sign that people just don’t have the right stuff in them to make crucial fundamental transition away from socialism. Cooper used to say if you want to blame anyone for all the ills you see, look in the mirror.

Admittedly, it’s not helpful that, as the case seems to be, alternative-media audiences can’t understand the difference between a producer reasonably expecting remuneration for work done, and asking for support for costs of production. When you make something expressly for people to buy, you can charge for costs. When what you produce is voluntarily done, and made on the understanding that it is not to be billed for, then you can’t expect people to pay for the means of the production. Neither will FBEL appeal on the grounds of any basic welfare need, because frankly that is none of the readers’ business (P W Laurie could be homeless, and the FBEL reader wouldn’t know of it).

As it happens, (because there is no interest in the audience for paper-based content) I have found a way to provide on-line paid-for-material to a subscription audience that won’t increase overheads (so the cost of production is not passed on). The facility will revolve around donations – please find out more at

www.frombehindenemylines.co.uk

Thanks.

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