Martin Buber and Momday political thoughts I it and I Thou..

Monday political thoughts .. In Brazil the Far Right Candidate for President gets 46% to 29% for the Workers Party . There will be a run off in three weeks. In the USA Kavanaugh is confirmed 50 to 48 after a Senate vote the closest vote for the Supreme Court yet. It occurs on the of the #MeToo movement. We near the Mid Term elections and we experience the formation of the alt right and far right position and outlook throughout the world.

Over the weekend I read an exchange between Mark Britton and Robert Francis. Both call themselves moderates and yet one Mark moans about East Europe's lorry drivers forcing down wages ..yet makes no mention of the large companies treating both him and his fellow drivers the same. There is no mention of the large companies oppressing both. Mark's problem is a lack of joined up thinking and awareness. Robert Francis error the assumption that there actually is middle ground. There is at least hope for Robert.

We near Samhain and we see the divide. In Eastern Europe far right parties openly talk about the Roma and use the word vermin. The same is done in Italy. In The Czech Republic an elderly woman of the Roma talks in an interview about her memories of the Fascist persecution of the 1930s that led to the Gas Ovens for over 200,000 Roma.

And yet as these vile policies and people parade their hate. There also grows those who are inclusive outward looking and tolerant. There are more and more who understand feminism, socialism, ecology and liberation. These too grow rapidly. These two groups are reflections of Martin Buber's I~Thou and I-it relationships. The I-it belongs to Trump, Bannon, Erdogan and Kavanaugh.. I - Thou to the reformers.. I-it is instrumental creates objects and leads to the slaughter house and the Gas Chambers. I- Thou is empowering respectful and liberating. In one group my words will strike an empathic chord the other will provoke a predictable abusive language . How apt .. yet true.

There are mirrors here in Wales too. The moans of elderly males frightened by change and authoritarian insecure men frightened by strong women and suffering from Transphobia too mirror Buber's categories. The difference simply comes down to knowing who we are and being secure in that knowing. Wales is not a socially conservative place but it has many men within it who are.one could consider aspects of both Ein Gwlad and 'Propel' as could the inane comments of the Neath blogger ' the Layman' or indeed the Burkean. in these terms As Leanne Wood commented there are no niche issues in Wales.. all we need to celebrate is our diversity and difference. To defeat the alt right we must both deal with the ontologocical insecurity that feeds the instrumentalists and fascists.. To do that we must have economic and social justice. Only socialism can do that which is a natural form of Buber's concept of I ~ Thou relationships. It's getting late but we are getting there and our liberators are both epistemological and ontological..but mostly about economics ..