Despotism: Your view of your surroundings.

[tisonlyi]

YouTube - Despotism

YouTube - Despotism

I saw this through reddit.com, and wondered - as the narrator asks - where would I place a few of the places I've lived... then wondered what some of you people would think of the places you've lived and how you'd rate them.

Over the four factors mentioned (Respect, Power, Information and Economic Distribution), with values of 1-10 on them, where would you put yourselves?

I've lived for significant time in The UK, Finland and Poland.

The UK:

Respect - Superficially 7/8, Really 4/5

Power - 5, Concentrated into two major parties, who have concentrated power centrally over the past 30-35 years, both funded by corporate interests. You can choose between the two! Yay!

Information - 4, critical thinking discouraged (even among friends and family *sigh*), media controlled by 3/4 major corporations - BBC (which is nowhere near as independent and balanced as it was prior to '99/2000 reforms), Trinity Mirror, Murdoch, The major private radio station holders.

Economic Distribution - The Gini rating is 30-something, but IMHO, outside of London, that's nowhere near right. 4

Poland: (Krakow)

Respect - Unless you toe the standard line, you're white and catholic, there is very little respect - even amongst the young. 3

Power - Not particularly sure. The government is very centralised though, and the 'choice' in their political system is between hard right and crypto-fascist. The recent flight of Poles to the UK and Ireland was mostly to do with economics, but a lot to do with their crazed leaders also. (After the recent change back to Hard Catholic Right, there were posters put up in the UK - "You can come home now, it's ok.") 4

Information - I really can't judge, though the education system is founded on rote, cheating, compliance and toadying to your teachers/professors. (3)

Economic Distribution - Poor, but getting better. Largely through the enormous amounts of money Britain and Germany are throwing at the country through EU aid. 3

Finland:

Respect - Generally, people have their opinions, but don't hold them against anyone... Privately and publicly... Outward looking people as a whole, contrary to stereotype. 7/8 (yes, i know they have their nazis, every country does.)

Power - Single transferable vote, powerful unions, lots of civil participation in community organising, strong labour laws, reasonable balance between the rights of workers and employers - in normal times. 8

Information - The world's No. 1 education system, near 100% UN standard literacy, multi-lingualism as standard, critical thinking as standard, cooperative anti-authoritarianism as standard, outward looking people as a whole. Media is small, but pretty free and flexible as far as I could tell. Most people look to sources outside of the country now also. 9

Economic Distribution - Decent. There are few excessively rich people in Finland, despite Nokia and the 'green gold' paper industry. There are very few extremely poor people. The state bears responsibility for housing of last resort, _reasonable_ income of last resort and communities are organised for the necessary heating etc... mostly. 8

Guess which country I miss?

Pity I can't live there anymore... The winters drive me crazy.