the big society

the big society of cameron... apparently your average conservative can't understand it but it seems quite clear to me...hmm, nice idea but cannot it possibly work? ... a society brought together by a sense of social goodness, a community mindedness... yet it seems to be expecting a lot of goodwill from a british people who aren't just as brimming with goodwill as cameron might hope... and not necessarily willing to help him achieve his ideals

...

and one wonders if it will fail like gorbachev's perestroika failed... because gorbachev wasn't just after an openness, he was after, a-think-for-yourselfness, a way out of classically bad Soviet Russian ways of doing things, fresh ways of thinking and acting... a hitherto-unknown independent-minded-ness... which was very hard, nay impossible, to instill in a people who had had all any any adventurousness ground out of them by 70 years of numbheaded communism... meaning all the people he needed to change their thinking to change russian society did not change at all... and in fact probably didn't want to stick their necks out in case, as happened in a few countries, [Mao's infamous liberal-tempter let a hundred flowers blossom] the political pendulum swung back the other way ...

meaning Gorbachev swiftly became a political failure in his own country [while much much more liked abroad] ...because perestroika failed when people wouldn't change from that old, play by the rules, play it safe., don't stick your neck out, way of doing things... and maybe the big society will fail for just that reason

...
another thought
if it succeeds will it actually be paving the way to a more socialist kind of society?

...
is cameron's big society a pathway to socialism?...
its a thought

...