Many thanks Brian and Patrice… When Johnson came on TV as head of state and did
not advise but ‘instructed’ me, my family and the rest of the country to ‘lock
down’ I experienced the actual fact and reality of state power as never before.
Much as I despise Johnson and all his works I supported this use of state power
as a uniquely powerful means of supporting the value of mutual dependency over
the value of individual freedom, (this was very difficult for Johnson as a
libertarian Tory as we now realise in the wake of partygate). A new and intense
awareness of mutual dependency and the collective agency of which we are
capable was the great revelation of the pandemic and our only hope of survival.
But the debate over state power and where we might seek to draw the line goes
well beyond traji/comic Johnson sideshow. Anyone claiming, as Patrice, does
that the state is merely an impotent “conveyer belt” steered by corporate
forces has to explain the effectiveness of Xi Jinping’s Hobbesian Chinese state
in reigning in their own corporate giants. The last 18 months has seen Xi
cracking the whip and imprisoning (and doing anything else required) to
re-assert state sovereignty over corporate hubris. This even extends to
legislating time allowed to kids for gaming not to mention tinkering with the
education policy as Xi has decided that the tech and finance sectors are
sucking too many talented graduates away from more tangible forms of
manufacturing.
Some European/western political actors are looking with envy at the perceived
effectiveness of the Chinese (and other proactive Sth East Asian states) in
their forthright nation-wide actions in containing Covid. The likelihood is
that this is just a foretaste of an increasingly loud debate over the limits
and role state power will play as the climate crunch really starts to bite.
This is when we will return to the earlier postings on this thread that spoke
about the science wars.
David Garcia
From: patrice riemens <patr...@xs4all.nl>
Date: Saturday, 12 February 2022 at 08:51
To: <bhcontinentaldr...@gmail.com>, David Garcia
<d.gar...@new-tactical-research.co.uk>
Cc: "nettim...@kein.org" <nettim...@kein.org>
Subject: Re: <nettime> The Meaning of Boris Johnson
Aloha,
Let me (allow me to) take Brian's rejoinder as an opportunity to address
David's and his argument in face of the (dangerous) shenanigans in 10, Clowning
Street (-Marina Hyde, TG) ... and beyond.
There is absolutely no doubt that Boris Johnson is a very 'special' character
and political animal (Rory Stewart too, btw - but then in a positive sense),
but as David says, his clowneries are froth while 'his administration is less
of an outlier than it appears' - and this with deadly consequences.
I however do differ with David where he ascribe the current
political-ideological imbroglio to the 'return of the state' as a consequence
of the pandemic. According to me, to put it bluntly, nothing of the such has
happened. The state has become more impotent than ever, and it are the
corporate forces which have and are steering the decision-making process, with
the state as mere conveyor belt. There is no confusion there, and even if it
appears to happen more by default than by design, it is still entirely
deliberate.We have truly and wholesomely entered the era of 'govcorp' where the
administrative apparatus is merely, albeit indispensable, exo-squeleton of
global corporate governance, with, in accordance with the spirit of the times,
'hyper' - and hyper rich - individuals at the helm. Welcome to neo-feudalism.
I am afraid that is such a dispensation, clowns like Boris Johnson, and his
exceptionally 'gifted' motley crew ('Jakey' Rees-Mogg, 'Mad Nad' -ine Dorries,
& the many such) are mere props (the extent to which they are conscious of it
is unclear) in the tragedy which are embroiled in for quite a while: that of
post-politics, that is a system where the powers are not what they look and are
not located where they seem to be, and the ongoings take, for the people at
large, every appearance of a puzzle palace. I think this is one of the reason
for populism: desperately trying to make sense where it has vanished from the
political scene (which has vanished too in the process) .
& With regard to Brian's derive of the unhappy pranksters towards a military
expedient: he is completely right, while at the same time, to parakeet Jean
Marie Le Pen's totally infame dismissal of the Shoah as a footnote, it is,
'ontologically speaking', a mere side-show. Even though, with a war in Europe
at our doorstep, we might very well die in it for real.
Yeah, it's a fine mess indeed.
Cheers all the same , and happy week-end
On 02/11/2022 9:17 PM Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldr...@gmail.com> wrote:
David, your second paragraph sums up a really complex situation in a few words,
thank you.
It's fairly easy to understand how right-wing populists raise the anger of the
people. They do it with fear, born largely of their own mismanagement. Fear of
the pandemic, of economic disruption, of war, of climate change - and maybe
most of all, fear of the "return of the state" that's more-or-less required by
all that. But you put your finger on something else, which is that these
populist (and yet usually upper class) politicians have to go on *pretending*
to believe in their old conservative lines about lowering taxes and shrinking
government. Where will the pretence lead them? Right now BoJo is trying to save
his political ass by exploiting the fear of war, and more, the nationalist
pride of militarism - which would be the logical supplement to the old
conservative lines. In fact he's pretty much openly claiming a military role
for post-Brexit "Global Britain."
How do you see this latest development? Is it going to work? Could warmongering
nationalism be the new rhetorical resource of the right, beyond Johnson? Or is
this just his last desperate gambit on the way out?
>From my viewpoint it is sickening to see this kind of political theater played
>in the face of genuinely dangerous situations.
best, Brian
Rory Stuart, one of the old-style Tories purged by Johnson and Cummings has
created a fabulous taxonomy to illustrate Johnson’s gifts “as the most
accomplished liar in British public life –perhaps the best liar ever to serve
as prime minister,”
“He has” according to Stuart ”mastered the use of error, omission,
exaggeration, diminution, equivocation and flat denial. He has perfected
casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy. He is equally
adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and the
half-truth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie, and the bullshit lie – which
may inadvertently be true.”
But despite all of this it is just about possible to argue that Johnson has
read the runes better than many other Tories and that much of the weirdness of
UK politics is to some extent froth. His administration is perhaps less of an
outlier than it appears. He is a man of few fixed ideological beliefs which is
how (like Merkle) he has held together a coalition with contradictory
ideologies.. The ‘greased piglet’ is hard to pin down.
Like many countries and regions, Johnson has had to respond to the biggest
change brought about by the pandemic which has been to accelerate a shift in
favour of a greater role for the state. Including the nation state in part
because of the pandemic pressure to close boarders. Unlike other Tories Johnson
is at ease with this along with other aspects of an interventionist state,
despite frequently pretending otherwise.. The return of the nation state is
part of what is becoming a more geo-politically charged world which includes a
new awareness of the entanglement of supply chain pressures with questions of
security and risk (e.g. Russian pipeline). The newly empowered state is also a
consequence of the eye-watering amount of borrowing required to keep our
economies from flat-lining. So even for Tories on the right of the party any
return to the old fiscal narrative will be pretty much impossible. And Johnson
has been quicker to recognise this than other Tories. Despite Thatcherite
nostalgia there can be no going back to the Cameron Osbourne response to the
2008 crisis. Johnson’s conservatism recognises that there can be no return to
small state with low taxes conservatism. His claims to NetZero ambitions means
that world has gone..(But of course he often has to pretend otherwise) The
post-covid mad Johnsonian UK has the appearance of a hyper-weird outlier. But
wipe the froth of the Johnson Cappuccino and he maybe less of an outlier than
it first appears.
David Garcia
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