Article by Fiona Fox (SMC) for the Revolutionary Communist Party (c. 1996)

R

Robert 1973

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Following the publication of the Forward-ME group letter to the Science Media Centre (SMC) to (http://www.meassociation.org.uk/201...place-your-factsheet-on-cfs-me-05-april-2018/) @JohnTheJack helped me to track down an old article written by the SMC director, Fiona Fox, which seemed to have gone missing from the Web archives.

The article, entitled "Contribution to OTAM" (Our Tasks and Methods), was originally published in an internal publication for the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) circa 1996. Written under the pseudonym Fiona Foster, it offers a fascinating insight into the mindset of Ms Fox, including her belief that Oxfam is a bigger threat to world peace than Iraq, and that her involvement with the RCP inoculates her against myalgic encephalomyelitis.

IFM stands for Irish Freedom Movement: http://powerbase.info/index.php/Irish_Freedom_Movement

PDF of the article:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1hxmo6muypcwkfx/fiona_fox_ME_RCP.pdf?dl=0

PDF with article + extra information and links to further reading:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jroffc18kizqzzn/fiona_fox_ME_RCP_with_links.pdf?dl=0

If anyone is able to update MEpedia, Wikipedia etc. to replace the old dead links to this article on SCRIBD that would be helpful.

[Edited to add link to S4ME thread on Forward-ME letter to SMC: https://www.s4me.info/threads/forward-me-group-letter-to-the-science-media-centre-april-2018.3365/]
 

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Robert 1973 said:
and that her involvement with the RCP inoculates her against myalgic encephalomyelitis.
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I knew I'd read her or Clare claim this, but then wasn't able to find it to cite. Thanks to both of you for posting.

I've always wondered if that was really a reference to her sister, who there are repeated references to having CFS, eg:

Fox has personal experience of the consequences of hype surrounding surprising but preliminary science. Her sister has chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a debilitating medical condition with no known test or cure.
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3492714/
 
I really love the end bit:

I do feel that being one of the few people in the world who can really understand imposes a certain burden and definite isolation. (I often feel that, yes.) ... quite frankly if it is a choice between carrying the burden of RCP politics and ending up like my old friend Carol there's no choice involved.

I guess there was no choice for Carol either!

The notebook is getting a bit full.
 
It reads as an early attempt at post truth politics. Basically saying that they need to create a framework for thinking that people will believe. Then dismiss everything that doesn't fit this 'framework' as wrong. But the framework needs to be attractive to pull in the punters.

There is no notion of examining evidence just a certainty in their beliefs.
 
Fiona Fox said:
I do feel that being one of the few people in the world who can really understand imposes a certain burden and definite isolation. (I often feel that, yes.) ... quite frankly if it is a choice between carrying the burden of RCP politics and ending up like my old friend Carol there's no choice involved.
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I think there is a worrying tone of someone who knows they are right in the face of all evidence and arguments and who intends to continue to preach their rightness to the world. I noticed another phrase used 'there but for the grace of RCP' that is replacing god with the RCP and I suspect in her mind she and her views are the RCP. Its basically an alternative form of religion,
 
So she stood in Covent Garden every Saturday for a year talking to people and thinks she may have given some people something to think about.

If she had conversations with that many people without any one of them giving her something to think about she must have a very closed mind indeed.

Breathtakingly arrogant.
 
Trish said:
What a bizarre article. How on earth did someone with such odd, inflexible and arrogant views manage to get herself in such a powerful position. Does she still believe herself to be infallible I wonder?
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Sometimes people with absolute certainty do very well. Until they run across people who know they are wrong or their certainty contradicts their usefulness.
 
Wow... that is... well.... disturbing

"I am convinced that out immediate task must be to go out there and save people from that kind of unhappiness, confusion and cynicism...... We need to get to young people before their outlook becomes infected...... "
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Eww

The article reads like an Amway rally without the saccharin & ra-ra.

The more i discover about the SMC the more disturbing it becomes.
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
I do feel that being one of the few people in the world who can really understand imposes a certain burden and definite isolation.
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The last time I read something by someone who was so unashamedly and heroically struggling with the burden of being completely right about everything it was Ayn Rand. Despite being at opposite ends of the political spectrum the two authors have so much in common. Wouldn't it be great to put them in a room together so they can decide which one of them is really right?
 
TiredSam said:
The last time I read something by someone who was so unashamedly and heroically struggling with the burden of being completely right about everything it was Ayn Rand. Despite being at opposite ends of the political spectrum the two authors have so much in common. Wouldn't it be great to put them in a room together so they can decide which one of them is really right?
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In the end, they ended up at the same end of the political spectrum :P

Save us from enlightened vanguards who hold the truth and must lead the ignorant whole into the glorious future. Commiserations on having read Rand. :hug:
 
strategist said:
What is/was Oxfam and why was it a threat to world peace?

Edit: nevermind. It's a group of charities that want to reduce famine and poverty.
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*RCP voice*

Oxfam is a perfect example of the Bourgeois authoritarian paternalism manifestested in the colonialist hegemony of the post colonial project visited upon the working classes disguised as saving poor people.

duh

*end RCP voice*
 
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