Pompous Prig

Via Tim W and Tim at the Conservative Party Reptile, I am now (unfortunately) aware of Richard Murphy. I wish I wasn’t, but, I am. Tim (CPR) accuses Murphy of being lazy when defining people with whom he disagrees and cites this:

He moved out of the political mainstream and into the Neo-Con, libertarian hinterlands.

Ah, yes, another of the recent misrepresentations I’ve observed of the libertarian philosophy. I can’t help wondering sometimes if these people realise just how stupid such statements make them appear to the casual reader – not to mention, petty, spiteful and narrow minded.

However, let’s look at that inane comment of Murphy’s, shall we? And, while we are at it, let’s remind ourselves of one of the nastiest politicians of recent history; the truly egregious David Blunkett. This is a man who, despite being a public servant, thinks that it is his place to tell us how to live our lives, who wishes to catalogue us like common criminals and decide for us what our identities are. This man is an extreme authoritarian. So, too, are the Neo Cons, so derided by Richard Murphy. This simple example highlights the absurdity of labelling ones opponents as “left” or “right” – as Blunkett is a man of the left. This left/right axis, however, is merely an economic scale. The other axis is the authoritarian/libertarian scale. Libertarians, those who follow the philosophy of Locke, Mill and Paine have nothing specifically to say on economics. That many are of the right economically is simply that they follow the same laissez faire approach to economics as they do with personal liberty. They believe in a lack of coercion. Kay Tie sums it up well:

The life of a libertarian is mixed. One can have common ground with anyone on the political spectrum but one is destined also to disagree with everyone.

I know the feeling…

One cannot assume that you will find them on the extreme right – and, the NeoCons, being statists are as much an anathema to them as is David Blunkett. For myself, I am neither of the left nor the right. While I tend to have a laissez faire approach to economics, this is for no other reason than that I take such an attitude to just about everything else in my life – it is my natural style. That said, I dislike large corporations as much as I dislike the state – each is in the pocket of the other to the detriment of the common man. To suggest that as a libertarian, I am of the far right is not only ill-informed, it is patently absurd, demonstrates a lack of willingness to think beyond stereotypes and as such, is crass in the extreme.

DK points this out (albeit in a more condensed manner).

Your conflation of Neo-Con and Libertarian demonstrates your ignorance of political theory: a fundamental of libertarian thought is the non-aggression rule, which hardly sits with the expansionist Neo-Con agenda.

DK also highlights that Murphy is unable – or unwilling – to differentiate between tax avoidance and tax evasion. (Clue, Richard, one of them is illegal).  I would suggest that people avoid taking tax advice from this man – he is plainly ignorant of the subject matter he professes to have expertise in.

Murphy’s mean spirited response to DK sums up what I have been observing recently from the self-professed progressive “left” (and, given the above, I use the term loosely). That of spitefulness combined with ignorance and stupidity.

But how wrong you are! The far right are the far right – and if they wish to argue with each others defintions of ‘rightness’, so be it. The world will still ignore them.

Er, no, Richard, he is not wrong. He is factually correct; it is you who is wrong, it is you who has demonstrated ignorance of your subject matter. You may hold whatever opinion suits your personal prejudices, but the facts stand and the fact is, in this instance; you are wrong. Sorry, but no amount of bluster will alter that. The political spectrum is not divided between “left” and “right”, it is more subtle than that – it requires an ability to think in multi-dimensions and see the world in shades of grey. The NeoCons are as repugnant to the libertarian as are you.

This, though, takes the biscuit:

PS Please don’t bother to reply – as you know, I find your style so offensive I won’t be repeating this unusual exception of allowing you on here for a change

It is at this point that I realised something about this pompous prig, Murphy. He knows full well that DK is right. That is why he does not want any further discussion on the matter, so he closes it down. Whatever one thinks about DK’s abrasive style, on Richard’s Blog, he was polite, reasonable and correct. This mean-spirited response was uncalled for. And, as is the case with human nature, when one has behaved badly, one tends to justify it by digging in deeper – in this case with a “note to the far right”. Except that people who disagree with him – and I am one – are not necessarily right wing, let alone of the far right. See what he did there? He used the same language that the media use to describe such organisations as the BNP (this, despite the BNP being a socialist organisation). It is intended to demonise.

I note that the Far Right blog community are very upset with me tonight and are visiting this site in droves.

The want to defend their friends in the Tax Payer’s Alliance, about whom I have written.

As usual they’re doing so by offering abuse. You should see some of the stuff I’m deleting!

Well, I don’t know what he is deleting because I haven’t seen it. The only insulting behaviour that I have seen is that of Richard Murphy when responding to a correction offered by a commenter. I suspect that what we are seeing is Murphy deleting those comments that disagree with him. Of course, I cannot back this up with evidence, but the dismissive attitude and priggish response to DK tends to infer that this is what is happening. Murphy is factually wrong. He has been called on it and will truck no dissent. The last time I witnessed this type of behaviour was about thirty years ago in the school playground. Murphy displays a seam of self-righteous pretentiousness that could be mined for a millenium and still provide rich pickings for the enthusiastic prospector.

It seems they’re incredibly upset that I lumped some of them (the libertarians) with the Neo-Cons. The anguish is loud and long! How could I do such a thing?

The answer is simple. I care as little about the difference between these groups as I do about the difference between the Socialist Worker’s Party and the Socialist Party of Great Britain. Put simply, the far Right, the Tax Payer’s Alliance and the far Left are all irrelevant to the needs of the people of this country.

And in so doing, Richard, you confirm to anyone dropping in that you are a stupid, childish, narrow-minded, petty, pompous, priggish arsehole. If you wanted to announce to the world that you are an ill-informed jerk, you couldn’t have done a better job. Well done.

I’ll leave the final comment to Obnoxio the Clown

After reading more of his illogical twaddle, I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s a bit of a prig and a weapons-grade bell end.

Succinct. Accurate. Spot on.