In Part 1 of a special double-header today, The Slog argues that, because our Establishments no longer fear the voter – whom they think to be an idiot – a movement peaceably engaged in nonParty organised tactical voting, making life difficult for élites and cutting off their blood supply is the best way to avoid “revolutionary” demagogues in the future, and deliver ground-up reform in the medium term. Part 2 will be published tomorrow.
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I can’t believe many visitors to this site have failed to catch onto the fact that, in recent weeks, I have taken the decision to move beyond a narrow topic called Brexit, and onto a far bigger one. The problem I have been having is how to define this Bigger Picture. Bear with me please while I take you through the thinking process.
Rudy Giuliani was the first Western politician to employ the phrase “zero tolerance” during his election campaign to become Mayor of New York City in 1993. By doing so, he was latching onto two massive trends pioneered by President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from the mid 1970s onwards: first, the establishment of the quintissentially ideological principle of There Is No Alternative (TINA); and second, the recognition that – in a media-explosive world – the Soundbite is the winner.
The hardening of ideological positions (alongside the hardening of creative arteries) has been the dominant feature of Western socio-economic and political policy for over forty years now. In this it has been first matched and then exceeded by the rise and rise of fundamentalist Islam, and an acceptance of ‘political correctness’ (PC) – in and of itself a blatantly fascist concept – by Establishments throughout the First World.
As I have written numerous times before today, ideology is the creative and social cancer of my lifetime to date. It uses words like ‘correct’, ‘settled’ and ‘accepted’ to present passing social mores as if they might be absolutes. As such, it is the very antithesis of science and empirical measurement. Ultimately, it brings open-minded philosophy to a grinding halt, and is forced to deny reality while demanding obedience from its followers. In doing so, it automatically enslaves the human individual.
Our education systems now openly discourage new ideas and contrarian philosophy, preferring “right not wrong” conformity to genuinely useful creative interpretation.
Equally, the unprecedented media expansion of the last thirty years has, ironically, cemented rigid assertion into the fabric of our cultural foundations. This is because the ownership of media diversity has fallen into fewer and fewer hands, almost all of whom put profits and propaganda way ahead of challenging information and investigative revelations of either malfeasance or hypocritical cognitive dissonance by the ideologues in the Establishment.
That the fertility of this soil greatly aids the germination of passive slavery seems to me self-evident. Worse still, it inhibits the development of genuine Oppositions to the status quo, and eventually forces its followers into the idea-free ideology or catechism of its priests.
If one looks at the soi-disant ‘progressive’ Parties in the UK, for example – Green, LibDem and Labour – the former is controlling big-State conformist, the second is controlling big-bloc neocon conformist, and the third is internationally controlling Marxist. None of them are open to reinterpretations of their outlooks: they are thus frozen in amber, unwilling to analyse new data, solidly anti-democratic, rigidly illiberal on the subject of new thinking, but above all miles away from the mindset of their traditional supporters.
They all want, if you like, to stay as they are. That is, in the Brexit context, to Remain.
The great majority of the Conservative Party is the same, its only difference being that it has always attracted (and indulged) the privileged man-on-the-make. Whereas, for example, SWP and Momentum Labour are solid-gold screaming ideological Nazis, one often gets the feeling with the Tories that they’d say and do anything to get power. The exception to that rule is the neoliberal monetarism introduced by Mrs Thatcher: I suspect global events are about to nobble that one, and I believe it would do nothing but good for the Conservative Party.
Perhaps more than anything else more specific, Tories tend to go with the flow: if the current mores are to appease Islam, call females Chairs, boff on about cultural appropriation, pretend to be multicultural and say ‘LGBT’ a lot, they’ll do it. What they don’t do enough right now is to ask themselves searching questions about the validity of it all, and whether acceptance of such élite concepts (be they trickle down wealth or gender definition) are felt at all by the majority of the electorate. One clue, however, is that on average, at General Elections two in five adult citizens abstain. That is a scythe on a pendulum just inches away from the body politic.
If I seem to be driving the reader towards the “frighteningly out of touch” conclusion, this is entirely intentional. The lack of appeal of our Parties (in that none of them truly reflects a contemporary opinion trend or direction) has had two appalling results for elective democracy where a sovereign Parliament is held accountable by a franchised citizenry. The first is that they all have to find big donations, and these are only going to come from successful capitalist individuals, large pressure groups, corporate multinational interests, media owners, banking and huge trade agreements.
[Unfortunately, the one ‘populist’ Party (Fargage’s TBP) operates on the basis that once real Brexit has been achieved, it should wither away and its organisers return to civvy street. Further, its leader is quite happy with the donations opportunities that turn up to be utilised. Its appeal is therefore narrow, accepting, and temporary.]
As 95+% of the electorate don’t fit into any of the accepted categories outined above, they – we – come last. We are treated largely as opinion groups to be manipulated by those categories. This is risibly referred to as ‘diversity’. Diversity. Is. Good. Remember that. We don’t know why, but diversity exists, and we don’t want to take the blame for anything bad. So. Diversity. Is. Good.
Directly connected to that reality is that, for at least two Parties along the libleft dimension, it is in their existential interest that those minorities should grow in size and voting power. The Tories too cannot evade the need to bow occasionally to Me Too and Black Lives Matter, but the Conservative Party is, today, more than ever the home of people who see themselves as ‘reasonable’. And in that respect, they vastly outnumber any Front of minorities….because the vast majority of Brits (especially the English) don’t do activist.
To sum up, our Parties appeal to The People by getting money from the rich, hiring image management and communications consultancies, licking the nether parts of media owners, and appeasing every minority they can find more likely to vote leftlib than Conservative. (Jeremy Corbyn isn’t interested in the pension injustices faced by Waspi/2020 women, for instance, because the vast majority of them would normally vote Tory).
***
Diversity is the new black, and there is no racial pun intended there. As time goes on, the ‘evidence’ in favour of social diversity becomes more and more spurious, whereas the social consequences of it become increasingly obvious. The creative expression of minorities in everything from art and music to cuisine is accepted by most people for what it is: a contribution to our culture which, along with cheap air travel, has made most of us more cosmopolitan. But the consistent appeasement, encouragement and at times illegal protection of minorities has not created positive diversity at all; rather, it has created splits that cannot heal.
Part and parcel of this is the rise and rise of the ideological ‘ist’. If you’re not an ist Beleeever in 2019, you don’t belong any more in fractured Britannia. Socialists, Marxists, feminists, nationalists, Islamists, racists, misogynists, separatists, monetarists and federalists have taken the place of their evidential predecessors: scientists, psychologists, herbalists, geneticists, proctologists and biochemists. One could say that the learned empiricists have been replaced by the leaden polemicists who are, on the whole, fantasists. This cannot possibly represent a happy exchange. It must (and will) end in tears – whether the fantasies involve financialised fiat currency, transgender women being men, wealth trickling down, or the European Union as a hospice where life is beautiful because the staff are gentle and dedicated all the time.
It is why I suggest that ideological belief is a cancer that stops investigation. The great divide of our epoch is between the ideologues and zealots on the one hand, and the scientists and philosophers on the other.
Left and Right as socio-political designations are dead. Today, the Western world is a surreal place where demogogues like Guy Verhofstadt and John McDonnell claim that up is down and tomorrow is last Thursday week, and a terrifying proportion of highly intelligent (but conformity educated) people simply nod. The advance of science and rejection of doubt is on the back burner for the econo-fiscal political corporatocracy: and as long as there is monied donation and media support, the contrarian voice is shouted down by the Dictatorship of the Spinatariat.
In that context, diversity is profoundly unhealthy, in that it becomes a catalyst for inflexible and insoluble disagreement.
Diversity in 2019 is division. Unless there is a return to factual reality, by 2025 it will produce disintegration. It doesn’t matter whether the élites ignore bourses out of touch with economies, or the limited space for immigration into the UK, or the carehome time-bomb around the corner, or the realities of Italian debt and the exposure of Deutsche Bank to untwinned derivatives: the result will be a rake in the face.
Science suggests consequences. Blind belief ignores them. The ‘ist’ missing from almost all socio-economic ideology is the social anthropologist: the person trained in field research, observational psychology and behavioural cognition who can explain within minutes (were the élites motivated to listen) that in human society everything starts with the maximisation of the fulfilment of the responsible individual. Not with remote bureaucrats, red-carpet celebs, exhibitionist gays, Antifa demonstrators, lesbian feminists, activist black rioters, the greedy 3%…or, indeed, belief in the all-conquering power of systemic process to make more positive progress than the fertile creativity of free-thinking teams.
***
The idea that a realistic answer might be capturing the System and then reforming it from the top down has been, let’s be honest here, the cri de coeur of every dictator from Julius Caesar to Robert Mugabe.
Social media are replete with sofa-bound activists saying, “You just wait until there’s a General Election, then we’ll clear all of ’em out”. It’s an appealing idea, but it won’t get rid of electorally entrenched Remainers like Philip Hammond or leaders of the femino-Marxist cadres like Jess Phillips, John McDonnell and Diane Abbott: under FPTP voting (rigorously defended by its benificiaries) these obstacles to progress have huge majorities to protect them from reality until Hell freezes over.
The marching Demo-specialist chanters are in turn dotted with intellectual revolutionaries saying everyone in power must be shot, every institution abolished, and the social class system destroyed. These are the old clarion cries of The Left. Among liberals and the neoliberal/neoconcon Right, the general view is that technocrats, large trading blocs and neocolonial commerce can solve everything. Islamists say prayer, prostration in front of God and Sharia Law is the only answer.
In short, the various “Established” wannabe ideologues believe in Top Down Change. All the modern historical evidence, however, shows consistently – in France, Russia, Germany, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Vietnam, Venezuela and Turkey – that the outcome of TDC is loss of the rule of law, internment camps, executions, show trials, dictatorship, personality cult, war and ruin.
The things that fly out of the revolutionary window in short order are, of course, all the things the New Zealots say they want to restore: freedom of thought, equality, justice, meritocracy, sound governance, lively arts, stable families free of debt, and responsible personal liberty.
The only viable (and safe) alternative to systemic top-down change is one where the accent is on The decent people among The People taking ownership of the project, and accepting that what they’re doing is medium-term acorn-to-oak management, not instant-gratification ‘smashing’ of the sort favoured by Owen Jones, Tommy Robinson, David Lammy, Jihadists, Guy Verhofstadt and even Jo Swinson.
That is to say, Ground Up. It’s what the Poles and the Czechs used to weaken the USSR. But in a digital, more viral age, four extra things are required: skills in and familiarity with ground level electoral tactics; ways to form communications and solidarity free from heavy-handed State surveillance; building new forms of fiscal and economic exchange beyond the reach of the ideological squids; and above all, generally (but peaceably) making life difficult for those who run and bankroll the technocracy….primarily by reducing their sources of money.
This is what the Gilets Jaunes have done in France to create serious problems for Macron and his banker buddies. In the end, fiscal bankruptcy and lack of foreign exchange helped collapse the USSR. Real Brexit by Britain, continued determination to resist in Italy and insoluble debt/liquidity/growth problems in the eurozone will eventually combine to make the European Union history.
The point I’m making is simply this: if you, as a wise, thoughtful and decent person, find the intolerant demagogues intolerable, being equally intolerant and obnoxious is never going to solve anything.
Believe me, the evidence is on my side: this is how positive change with minimal disruption takes place. Only Establishment arrogance meeting ideological impatience head-on gets in the way of it. That, and the willingness of good people to do nothing.
Part 2 will follow tomorow
Other related posts at The Slog:
The death of independent competence
This 2001 piece by Sean Gabb is worth a read. I used to think his solution was wildly excessive but now I am not so sure.
https://www.seangabb.co.uk/flc047-how-to-destroy-the-enemy-class-a-manifesto-for-the-right-22nd-january-2001/
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I find this paragraph quite confusing.
“It always starts innocuously enough , we will legalise abortion , then homosexuality , then we will introduce little laws at first to curtail free speech and laws to compel affirmative actions, be nice to women , blacks , welcome coloured immigration , be nice to Islam , allow our towns to build mosques everywhere, destroy the grammar schools, slant the school curriculum to favour girls.”
History and present day has shown-Morality has been dished out by the immoral IMO. Who should have the last say over a womans body and who should dictate what intimacy between two people is right or wrong? should women not be educated?
be nice to women is so offensive? could this be written by an ISIS crew member- if not then it reads very much like oppression to me.
The church brough fear and death to this country as history showed and the Monarchy is a cost not worth having. All pampered, spoilt nit wits IMO. (Although I do have resect for the queen in situ). The rest of the post I do agree with.
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Whilst UKIP and to a great extent TBP are one trick ponies, after all, what is the point of these two after we (eventually) achieve our Independence from the EUSSR, in that UKIP can’t put together a manifesto that isn’t torn down in short order, refuse to address ‘awkward’ issues for fear of being castigated by the usual suspects and TBP refuse to publish one at all. Perhaps as John posits above, it IS time for a smaller party to rise up and demolish the ideologues at the top of the shitpile in Parliament.
I have twice stood in the locals as a ”For Britain Movement” candidate. And I intend to stand again in any future elections. I was of course accused of being all sorts of ‘ist’ … water off a duck’s back, couldn’t care less what hackneyed ‘insults’ they chose to tar us with, but we do have a complete manifesto published and voted on by the members. Some of the votes even had Anne Marie Waters raising her eyebrows! So, if you will bear with me, I ask you to check out our online manifesto and if anyone can find any sort of ‘ist’ to charge us with please get back to me. We as a party are entirely funded by members contributions and will not accept large donors as we wish to retain our independence and our integrity.
https://assets.nationbuilder.com/forbritain/pages/113/attachments/original/1551271293/MANIFESTO.pdf?1551271293
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Manor Farm *sigh*
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As so often you and your readers identify the truth. This is when we have to tread very carefully. Make no mistake, the debate is being closely monitored.
Only people over a certain age can identify the changes that have been made over a lifetime. They are the ones most likely to act because they do not have a lifetime of captivity to lose. I am not one of those, but a small secretive well led group of even four people could change the direction forever, but that’s for my newly started blockbuster novel. ( censors permitting of course)
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I think you are right about real change only coming from the bottom up. For this to be effective a real leader is required. Whatever you may think of him the only current candidate capable of filling that role is Nigel Farage – he is the only politician who speaks plainly in words and phrases that everyone can understand. You hear what he says and you know what he means. Unfortunately I don’t think he is inclined to be that leader; he is not a revolutionary.
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The Memsahib and I trundled round to the Brexit Party rally at Exeter Westpoint this afternoon and a most enlightening couple of hours it was too. I fear we may have stood out a little when we didn’t spring to our feet every two minutes to join in the standing ovations, and my professional distraction by the well-ordered security detail around the sainted N. Farage as he made his triumphal entrance brought a warning kick from SWMBO, but all in all it was a pleasant afternoon. Ann Widdicombe was on top form, as too was Alexander Waugh, the PPC for Bridgwater, and Mr. Tice seems to be an agreeable fellow … but I kept thinking how the meetings organised by Mosley must have gone in the ’30s, and then of Snowball and Napolean presenting simple slogans for the animals of Major Farm and I resigned myself to thinking how little things have changed over the years – and how little they are likely to change in the future.
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Excellent Essay as always John.
I used to frerquent this site and enjoyed it,untill my posts were being bounced. I have no idea why, as I pretty much sing from the same hymsheet as you John.
Anyway, all what you say is a reliable truth of which we do not get to hear about in MSM. So thank you for that!
We do not get to challenge anything without the #me too and apologists twatters- which what they say never matters -to real people, about what they gripe about. The minorities not only have a voice, they are drowning out the majority in an aggressive,verbally violent atmopsphere. Vegans taking to the streets- wearing leather shoes- oh give me a break!
We have kids being used and abused by media savvie hunchbacks selling their wares. Global warning :we are all going to die today- erm maybe tomorrow. but very very soon! all this from a child who is being hailed as the new christ.
from actual grown ups who have a better idea with evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmtytPiTZAo
Is it any wonder that a huge increase in child mental health has increased- all this cr@p being fed to them.
Interesting…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_ylvc8Zj8
Food banks and poverty> not on my watch sir!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/sep/20/the-men-who-plundered-europe-city-of-london-practices-on-trial-in-bonn
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Afternoon John,
Very much enjoy The Slog and share it with many Brexit Party supporters and PPCs.
I’m writing to include two links to youtube videos which I think you’ll enjoy.
This one discusses Trump, Brexit and where the US Democrats got it wrong and compares that to what’s happening here.
https://youtu.be/afMofYie4Lc
This one is yesterday’s TBP Wales conference in Newport. What you’ll see is that TBP is far from being just a one-trick pony. I’m PPC for Cardiff South & Penarth (opposing the dreadful Stephen Doughty) and was stood directly behind the lectern during Nigel’s speech.
https://youtu.be/E5KpX4o1Ms0
Best regards
Tony
Sent from my iPhone
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underground up reform with a dose of roundup might just cut it.
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I can understand Alison’s experience of Twitter. I have no Twitter or Faceache account for that very reason. My only – very short experience on Facebook (non-political) was of show and tell, and defend against others who nit-picked. Got enough of that elsewhere.
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JW, what a terrific essay in the form of a profound analysis, concerning political matters here in the UK, and elsewhere today. I confess to being a man with the glass half empty, for I have, for the past 60yrs, witnessed the inexorable decline of my homeland. I have 13 grandchildren, the futures of them I fear for.
Keep up the excellent work, not all of your words are falling on stony ground, that I assure you of. I look forward to Part Two.
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There is without doubt an agenda being pushed through, but who is pushing it is the real question. In order to fight the agenda you really have to define who is pushing it. then finally decide what the end point of that agenda is. To me the end point is the destruction of western white civilisation and the installation of a world government tyranny .
The first trial was the Russian revolution , the monarchy and the church was destroyed , 60 million people were killed, and the country looted and destroyed. Through the 30’s Jewish-Bolshivism pushed revolution and destruction of Christian values first in Europe then further East. There has been an onslaught since the sixties of attacks on civilised values and the west. Most of us never even noticed, it’s only looking back we see the insidious erosions of both freedom and accountability.
It always starts innocuously enough , we will legalise abortion , then homosexuality , then we will introduce little laws at first to curtail free speech and laws to compel affirmative actions, be nice to women , blacks , welcome coloured immigration , be nice to Islam , allow our towns to build mosques everywhere, destroy the grammar schools, slant the school curriculum to favour girls. Then it ramps up, the cultural Marxists move into Education then higher Education , the media ( the BBC and Channel 4 ) especially where they are funded by compulsory taxation of the people and hence unaccountable to those people.
The aggressive pushing by these agencies of an anti-white agenda is constant.
Then after the failure of the 70’s limits to growth fake agenda the master stroke ,ramp it up and bring in climate change , then get the kids to skip school , to push this fake agenda. They have finally taken over your old industry John , namely advertising , is there an advert on TV now that does not include mixed race couples and children , all black ( well light brown) casts and a range of diverse ethnic groups selling Christmas to the Christians.
The legal enforcement of a collection of control words Racist, Homophobe, Islamophobe , Transphobe, climate change denier, Anti-Semite, Bigot, Holocaust denier and the wonderful phrase hate speech has all but stifled debate in the main stream and they are trying their best to silence alternate media.
I feel I’m to old now to undo all this which really happened on my watch, as a boomer and everyone under 30 is controlled by debt and fears of being burned as a Heretic for questioning the agenda or using being accused of using the control words. Some group has spent a lot of time and money to get us here John, they are not going to give it up easily.
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Very true and thought provoking. Thanks for that. John.
It’s surely highly relevant to the discussion that you felt obliged to add a disclaimer in the sentence “Diversity is the new black, and there is no racial pun intended there.”
This is the almighty mess we’re in. We’re all afraid that we might be misunderstood, thanks to the constant harping of the pc crowd.
Personallly I think that the sorely needed revolution will only come when we all individually change, when we stop running around like headless chickens trying to effect change “out there”. This doesn’t generally happen because self-awareness is the last thing people want, thank you very much (myself included some of the time). At bottom we welcome and tacitly let those who gain power make decisions for us because on some level we don’t want to forego the dependency we had on our parents. And just like then, we throw tantrums when we don’t get what we want.
Roll on the future when we all adults and participate in our government on a regular basis, via the internet, and politicians are simply there to effect whatever we decide.
https://tinyurl.com/yy2wknsr
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“…….everyone in power must be shot…”
Suitably encapsulates it all John. You could’ve stopped there and saved yourself much ink.
,
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I used to quite like the name Tina but this predilection for TINA stances in debates has quite put me off .
I’m quite new to Twitter & can see the attraction of standing on a giant soap box and spouting out your views to the world. But I was only thinking this morning, that many men (mostly) seem to go on it to spar with others, trading verbal punches until one of them has to go and pick up the laundry or mow the lawn.
Has anyone changed their mind from reading a tweet? A couple of media outlets have noticed my tweets on pensions and asked me to programmes. But their mind set is already set in stone. They’re not daft but they’re not able to see the nigger picture that you ( and I to a lesser amount), see.
But then they are BBC and ITV so what do you expect as they are part of the world you so accurately describe. John Humphrys said what we all know about the ‘institutional liberal bias’ at the BBC. I don’t need to look at Twitter to see the response he’ll get for that. Even the defence shield he erected by calling himself a ‘Remain voter’ won’t be enough to protect him from the barbs of ideologues.
I will post your quote re. Corbyn and the 1950/60s Womens Pensions. Some are still hoping he will act on the issue but reality must be setting in soon. Free prescriptions is his latest soundbite. Why not reduce the pension age for all? I don’t know why no party isn’t suggesting that but then I didn’t know why Blair supported Bush. I just know it’s wrong.
I like your optimism that the EU will dissolve in a few years and we can change from the bottom up.
We do need a leader though. Even the best bands with the most talented members fell part if nobody was in overall control. Perhaps somebody will emerge from the ranks of The Brexit Party or The SDP and campaign for electoral reform. Then things could swiftly change for the better.
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I notice people are talking of the possibility of the Supreme Court over-ruling Boris Johnson and it may be that they are trying to set a precedent as electorates across the EU try to oust the established political class.
The elites have been building this judicial machinery across the EU for such an eventuality. They knew that one day the people would wake up. As they duly are.
In order to close down the ballot box, they can use a corrupt judiciary, along with the rest of the Common Purpose army, to usurp the will of the people.
From a globalist point of view, why not set a precedent now so the proletariat know: don’t think electing new politicians will help. The judges will close them down.
This is a new template: rule by judicial activism.
Don’t think the uprising across the EU has not been thought through: close people’s bank accounts, over-rule elected leaders, thump them – as the French authorities do to the Gilet Jaunes every week, a ban on free speech. And so on and so on. They have a thousand different ways to cut off any backchat.
And laughing herself to sleep every night is the Queen of the Human Wrongs Act, the unelected Shameless Chakrabarti, Labour’s unelected chief legal officer.
God help us if she – unelected – gets more power from a Corbyn victory.
Desperate times.
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