Re: NDP’s problems go much deeper (B.C. Views, Jan. 26)
May I point out Tom Fletcher’s obsolete ideology deserves to be thrown on the scrap heap far more than the ideas contained in the NDP constitution, though he was being disingenuous when he squeezed out his nasty little column.
He knows many a constitution is ignored in the contemporary world. The current governing parties in B.C. and Canada insist that they remain true to their democratic principles but between elections they function as oligarchies, which govern at the behest of the plutocracies whose dollar votes trump the casting of ballots.
Apparently, Fletcher expects all right-thinking persons to be sufficiently ethically challenged and morally desensitized that they too can ignore the suffering that this increasing gap has caused. Instead, we are invited to supplicate ourselves to profit-seeking capitalism. Here, Fletcher’s antediluvian ideas turn out to be more obsolete than the NDP’s constitution.
Fletcher does not realize the self-regulating capitalist market lost control of economic life in 1929 and that capitalism was never subsequently revived.
Rather, the wealthy in North America today are parasitic rent seekers who get richer by playing speculative money games.
I suggest you send Fletcher back to school for some intellectual retooling. In the meantime I’ll do his job for less and will offend fewer people. It’s a tough world for those who work for a wage. Hope he did not think he owned that job.
John R. Bell
Victoria