There needs to be some kind of national anti-hero treasure award starting with Will Self. As a young guy in the 90's from a UK post-industrial town, i went to holland to work on flower/bulb farms as couldn't get a job. The nearest dutch bookshop to me only had Scale in English, I read it 4 or 5 times and have been a fan ever since. His musings on history and politics are outstanding, delivered in his humorous and uniquely UK cultural viewpoint. Even when he tells him 'You know we are f@@ked' he makes me smile, and here we are... Lucky, lucky students.

Champagne socialists or cocain socialists

Self, like Peter Hitchens, was a lefty riiiiiight up to the point where he started to make some proper money. He says that socialism wasn't necessarily the fillip that led to a better life for workers, but does he genuinely disagree with Chomsky et al on this? Does he really think that factory owners benevolently decided to grant their employees more time off because they felt they needed a bit more rest?! He gave up the fight; luckily, we're not all so fickle. We are the 99%.

He looks like an Ugly deskbound mid level Party autocrat from 1930s Peoples Commisariat of Internal Affairs desperately clinging on to his waining power before he himself is liquidated by his replacement appointed by Comrade Nikolai Yezhov.

Not aged well, this one.

I thought Tom Paulin was as bad as it gets. I was wrong.

I think Brexit was necessary. Enough with Brussels pseudo experts.

When an idiot gets a good education - Will self happens.

This is fantastic. Will has managed to pose two entirely opposing scenarios in which all hope appears lost. I wouldn't disagree that indeed we are in some pretty shit - and from the filming of this interview, things are far worse than even he imagined they could possibly be. What has it all been for? I'm talking about several thousand years, totalitarianism experimented with time and time again, rule by divine right, renaissance, parliamentary democracy, the enlightenment, another stab at fascism.....now of course we face the possibilty of deciding just how much we are prepared to lose in order to be free. All that sturm und drang ending in a flash of unimaginable heat. I think Lou Reed summed it up best, 'aw white light I said now, goodness knows, do it!'

Well done Will Self. Thank you Will.

this man should be in hollywood...

Wtf is this obsession with the "Flat screen telly" As the epitome of greed and excessive consumerism? Is the Cathode Ray Tube the end goal of socialism?

aufulnoise:If Corbin used algorithm science as idea base as redistribution of simple ideas as a small embryo of better equality to agree to?Especially now the world will HAVE to change? READ THIS MR.SELF.Thanks.Mac.HNYEAR.2021.

Interesting in Brexit and the rise of the far-right, to see literal elites, alongside fascists label the intellectual class as elite, and the so-called enemy. Something of a paradox, and also utterly untrue!

Fuck Will Self

I'm a fan of Self's commentaries, but I think there's some conflation of disparate information and honest mistakes in his critique of socialist ideology. Of course socialism is not predicated on equal immiseration, and proving your loyalty through self-imposed poverty would benefit no one. His take on nationalizing industry seems rather antiquated -- that all socialist societies are carbon copies of the soviet union and so on. Corbyn, Sanders, Morales, Da Silva, and others around the world have all advocated for international class solidarity that goes against the old "socialism-in-one-country" cudgel proffered by Self. This is different from globalization, which sees the free movement of capital throughout the world at the expense of dislocating the working class.

Self#s analysis is flawed from the beginning but seems compelling if you accept the initial mistaken premise. He is essentially deeply dishonest bceuase he pretends that he's disclosing deeply held beliefs when his communication is a calulated piece of theatre merely to support his view, and as such is persuasion only. He's not aided by the fact that he has the face of an ORK out of Lord of the Rings.

The idea that you have to give up your individual spirit to embrace socialism is not his best thought to date but I do enjoy listening to him.

Near clarity. Although Mr. Self assumes that once we subtract racists and anti-semites from the brexit vote equation, we're just left with nationalists. Don't forget bankers and tax-avoiders! Or people like me, that think Europe can do better than being governed by a bunch of neo-liberal austerity pushers. Unfortunately, remainers pigeonholed half the county and have managed to self-actualise most of the fears they've been peddling so hard. That and an evil and incompetent Tory government.

even if i were a hardline pro or anti brexit person, i couldn't help being impressed - okay, hit with a sense of pure admiration - for the sheer capacity of this guy. it's not even that he's so erudite, which he quite palpably is: it's the sense of sanity in the man. a wonderful listen. thank you for posting.

11:16 pedagogue is greek, not latin

I absolutely love his brute unnerved honesty - I feel exactly the same as him. I have this left leaning inclination towards Corbyn and a more socialist ideology for the country, and yet my personal life is completely paradoxical to this. I do not obsess over money, but I cant claim I don't want it. I c am just your typical middle class kid who has middle class problems and doesn't really do anything for the collective society. So how can I really call myself a socialist. Or even think i want that. What are the real downsides to a socialist agenda. Like what could go wrong if we turned towards a socialist political and economic policy. We don't really address these on the left. We all know whats wrong with Neoliberalism and happy to talk about that for 10 hours as thats the popular thing today but do we ever analyse and address what could go wrong if we were in government?

I find this very interesting

1) Michael Gove is Booji Boy - not sure why it's taken me so long to notice. 2) Well done all you terrified dingbats engaging with the fact of Will Self not being a pipe-fitter from Peckham rather than anything he actually says. Let the bad times roll! :)

Peter Sloterdijk published 1983 a book called Critique of Cynical Reason, wherein he defines modern cynicism as enlightened false consciousness. Meaning that it (the modern cynical subjekt) is fully aware of its (and the worlds) wrongness, but is unwilling or unable to alter itself acourding to its own acquired knowledge. Such a consciousness is deeply unhappy, resigned but well situated in the world it is living in. The projekt of enlightenment at the same time failed and succeeded in this subjectivity. When it has to justify itself, it presents the truth in such a way that this "naked thruth" itself becomes (in its function) a lie. From what Will Self is stating here, he is the perfect example of this kind of consciousness. Hence he is the personification of todays capitalist ideology.

Ok, He's great, lucid, clear, and honest about Brexit, socialism, the difficulties of effecting change, and his own failures to get some form of scoio-political change, and his conclusion is somewhat pessimistic; he was unable to get the kind of change he wanted even as an influential thinker/writer in 80s-90s, so the younger generation, given a different set of circumstances, should not even try...but strangely, as a student, I do see an alternative to what he is saying. We do need a collective of impoverished students who are smart enough to never pay £10k/year on university courses (and instead utilize the colleges in the rest of Europe), even if we do miss out on what Self has to say on something which is closer to our daily reality than his...

all this time i thought will self was a novelist. why is youtube always telling me that i'm supposed to be interested in what he thinks?

Too bad you lost Will.

Socialism from one perspective may not work; but then neo - liberalism that promotes individual self will almost certainly self -destruct? Socialism meaning that everybody should be the same, means that we should think the same regarding social conscience and the well - being of others. It's called progress? Surely as a species this will greater our chance of survival? It doesn't mean people cannot no be inspired into acheiving their personal potential? Simply put : they should care for themselves as well as others and our environment. Neo - liberal self- interest cannot ever be allowed to continue. If Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, have adopted successful versions of socialist democratic societys? Then why the hell - can the rest of the world?? This guy is pessimistic at best?

In the interests of concision and to sum up quickly, one can only say, "what a twat".

will self charlie watts seperated at birth

Will Self, stick with fiction.

sad, upper middle class people like Self have no idea how much regular people suffer under the the tyranny of "experts", they don't lose their kids to legal experts, they don't lose their jobs to low wage illegal immigrants, their kids are not vulnerable to grooming gangs, their kids are not indoctrinated by cultural marxists in government schools, they don't live in crime riddled neighbourhoods, their taxes wasted on expert studies don't break them, on and on.

Thing is with Gove and Johnson - they generally believe the 'experts' when it comes to the inevitable progress of globalization. Their whole reason for wanting out of the EU - is to secure trade deals with China, India and America, and to abolish 'uncompetitive' EU regulations. So their criticism of the IMF, the World Bank, Carney, Obama etc is highly cynical. Once out of the EU they will gladly concur with such expert orthodoxy. But the truth is, there is a kernel of truth in the Brexiteers' critique of the experts, however, it is a truth stated with dubious motives. A truth told in the service of a lie Which you might say is the opposite of what Self is doing here, cynically coming to the defence of experts he otherwise despises. Maybe Self is stating a noble lie in concurring with the global capitalist plutocrats in the cause of staying in the EU - but that's why the general public is so confused by the whole EU schism. Noble Lies of remainers vs the ignoble truths of the Brexiteers.

I am having a laughable debate with a EU lovey dovetail, who says the EU I'd only an economic block, that's hilarious, why then need to have a EU parliament, a flag an army, and telling each nation who they can and cannot bring into there nations, and also dictating foreign policy of each nation and let's not forget the euro, if it's just friends trading together and not a EU superstate in the making, can some apparently, smarter less racist and more wiser pro EU leftie please explain why we need all of the above I just mentioned?

Lose the annoying clips.

Excellent

This is the last guy I expected to be a vaper.

I wonder if he's made himself a badge! 'I am an Intellectual' I feel he needs a badge so people who meet him are made aware of this.

Who gives a fuck what a self harmer and Drug addict thinks The man is Scum blah blah blah Imagine his poor wife, fucking hell its true women will do and go with anything to get near a pound note oohhh im so clever blah blah

So we dropped the ball then to quote McKenna?

Will Self's observations on the 'Snowflake generation' are spot on and only serve as an indictment of his own generation. After all, who's children are these?

Its bloody scary that this drivel has been absorbed by some 🤤

Junkie

Very true point made at the end

I used to have much respect for Will Self, till he with many started crying when the vote did not go there way!! Hypocrisy and believing that because he went to University, free from charge of course, that he and the so called enlightened elite, know more than the ignorant Brexiteers, who do not know what we have done.. I say bollocks to the all remainers, that are trying to stop the will of the people.

Ask ALL of your close friends and associates if they can name the British Prime Minister or the President of France or the Chancellor of Germany. They are always able to name the President of The USA. Now ask them to name the president of the EU and not one single respondent will have the slightest clue. This is because The EU doesn't have a president... It has FIVE presidents and none of them were elected to office. Just before the UK's EU referendum these Five un-elected EU presidents published 'The Five Presidents Report' (Google the PDF and read it for yourself). To my utter astonishment this sinister report was never mentioned or discussed in any of the TV or Radio debates. Not one Journalist focused on this critical publication which set out the future vision of these five un-elected, appointees. Now we have to watch as our 'Elected' Prime Minister' negotiates our political future with the five un-elected presidents of this European political tyranny and not a mention is made of this in the media. Not one person you ask will know that their 'Elected' MEP cannot propose a law, stop a law, alter a law, hinder a law or do anything more than simply Implement the Laws (or Directives) that are created by The EU Commission. The EU Commission is entirely made up of un-elected appointees from each of the member nations who make up the EU. That means that not one of the 500 million EU citizens has the democratic mechanism to be able to vote for the people who create the laws that effect every one of us. So ask your friends and associates if they can name the five un-elected EU Presidents or the five institutions over which they preside.... I promise you not a single one will know who there EU leaders are. I voted for the UK to leave the European Political Union because continued membership puts an end to the hard won democratic values our people claim to cherish and hold in high esteem. My one reason for leaving (the maintenance of our democratic right to choose our legislature) is better than the best one hundred reasons I've been given for remaining.

Mr manic depressive. God you would want to put your head in a vice if you spent more than a week with this guy. I don't think I have ever heard him say something positive about anything or anybody, he just moans about everything It's not that he says anything particularly bad it's just he always comes across as no hope

@8:47 :how on Earth does the "satisfaction" of the "people at the bottom of the heap" factor in to anything....? Further: is the Will who is clever enough to understand that "experts" are going to be more effective decision-makers also so naive as to believe that these expert decisions will be made with the best interests of "the people at the bottom of the heap" in mind? An "expert's" education is expensive, and comes with years of mind-shaping doses of *knowing-all-too-well-which-side-of-the-bread-the-butter-is-on* . Brexit is a bait-and-switch, and a fantasy, but can you blame avid Brexiteers for wanting to fuck with a system that isn't *for them* , however things end up? The bottom 2/3rds of the pyramid rarely, if ever, get to see experts from their ranks doing much more than providing local color on the telly. Will has an okay job and he hates the notion of being locked in the barn with the cattle... he's a Continental Metrosexual survivor of Cool Britannia. I feel his pain. But it's not as though he's speaking in any other than a self-serving way here.

Brexit is a wank fantasy. And the sooner the wankers find gratification in reality the better. Bring on the second referendum.