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| Perhaps the clever thing to do is just give up on politics | |
| (6 days later) | |
| Respectable opinion has always deplored slackers who give up on politics. Our word “idiot” comes from the ancient Greek idiōtēs – a citizen who took no part in the civic life of classical Athens. Aaron Sorkin picked up a quote variously attributed to Harry Truman and Woody Allen, and believed by everyone who demands a commitment to public affairs. “Decisions are made by those who show up,” says Sorkin’s creation, Jed Bartlet, a liberal president who seems even more of a fantasy figure now Donald Trump is in the actual West Wing. | Respectable opinion has always deplored slackers who give up on politics. Our word “idiot” comes from the ancient Greek idiōtēs – a citizen who took no part in the civic life of classical Athens. Aaron Sorkin picked up a quote variously attributed to Harry Truman and Woody Allen, and believed by everyone who demands a commitment to public affairs. “Decisions are made by those who show up,” says Sorkin’s creation, Jed Bartlet, a liberal president who seems even more of a fantasy figure now Donald Trump is in the actual West Wing. |
| The sentiment remains undeniable. If you don’t vote, you must be content to be governed by those who do. The public-spirited go further. We are meant to campaign to reform our society, not just for selfish reasons, but for the sake of the greater good. I still believe that, but only just. It is a sign of the depth of Britain’s crisis that millions cannot. | The sentiment remains undeniable. If you don’t vote, you must be content to be governed by those who do. The public-spirited go further. We are meant to campaign to reform our society, not just for selfish reasons, but for the sake of the greater good. I still believe that, but only just. It is a sign of the depth of Britain’s crisis that millions cannot. |
| To understand why, imagine trying to explain modern Britain to a curious foreigner. In the EU referendum, 17.4 million voted to leave, you might begin. The men who led them on did not mention the monstrous complexity of extracting Britain from the EU, and dismissed warnings of threats to jobs and living standards as lies. “It will be win-win for us,” cried Michael Gove with typical bombast. Billions in savings and controlled borders would be ours. Just like that. | To understand why, imagine trying to explain modern Britain to a curious foreigner. In the EU referendum, 17.4 million voted to leave, you might begin. The men who led them on did not mention the monstrous complexity of extracting Britain from the EU, and dismissed warnings of threats to jobs and living standards as lies. “It will be win-win for us,” cried Michael Gove with typical bombast. Billions in savings and controlled borders would be ours. Just like that. |
| Theresa May promised to drive through Brexit, even though she had voted to keep Britain in the EU. (As I said, this is a hard country to explain.) She asked for a mandate in a “Brexit election” during which she never talked about what kind of Brexit she wanted. The electorate, which had backed Brexit, promptly removed her mandate to govern effectively and maybe at all. | Theresa May promised to drive through Brexit, even though she had voted to keep Britain in the EU. (As I said, this is a hard country to explain.) She asked for a mandate in a “Brexit election” during which she never talked about what kind of Brexit she wanted. The electorate, which had backed Brexit, promptly removed her mandate to govern effectively and maybe at all. |
| Who but a fool could have fallen for the land of make-believe that the leave campaign offered? | Who but a fool could have fallen for the land of make-believe that the leave campaign offered? |
| Voters who want to keep Britain in the EU swung to Labour. They did not notice that Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell are instinctively anti-European because the union’s rules block their dream of building socialism in one country. Pro-EU Labour voters can’t have read the Labour manifesto either. It committed the party to the hard Brexit of taking Britain out of the single market and ending the freedom of Europeans (the British included) to move, work, live and love where we pleased. | Voters who want to keep Britain in the EU swung to Labour. They did not notice that Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell are instinctively anti-European because the union’s rules block their dream of building socialism in one country. Pro-EU Labour voters can’t have read the Labour manifesto either. It committed the party to the hard Brexit of taking Britain out of the single market and ending the freedom of Europeans (the British included) to move, work, live and love where we pleased. |
| In her brief moment of ascendancy, Theresa May said she wanted a conservatism that helped the working class. The Brexit-induced devaluation of the currency hits everyone’s living standards but is already cutting the real wages of those least able to cope the hardest. The Labour left claims to be against “Tory austerity”. As dissident Labour MPs say, the economic damage Corbyn’s policy of leaving the single market would bring would make Tory austerity look like a spending spree. | In her brief moment of ascendancy, Theresa May said she wanted a conservatism that helped the working class. The Brexit-induced devaluation of the currency hits everyone’s living standards but is already cutting the real wages of those least able to cope the hardest. The Labour left claims to be against “Tory austerity”. As dissident Labour MPs say, the economic damage Corbyn’s policy of leaving the single market would bring would make Tory austerity look like a spending spree. |
| Everywhere you turn, you see a dead end. In these dismal circumstances, why waste your time on commitment and protest? Why not shrug your shoulders and walk away from politics into a kind of internal exile? Remain politicians cannot. They must maintain a pretence. They will flatter the voters by saying that Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Michael Gove and the rightwing press lied to them, and took them for fools. | Everywhere you turn, you see a dead end. In these dismal circumstances, why waste your time on commitment and protest? Why not shrug your shoulders and walk away from politics into a kind of internal exile? Remain politicians cannot. They must maintain a pretence. They will flatter the voters by saying that Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Michael Gove and the rightwing press lied to them, and took them for fools. |
| Give up on politics, however, and you are free to say that voters who believed Johnson, Farage and Gove weren’t taken for fools, they were fools. For who but a fool could have fallen for the land of make-believe the leave campaign offered. There is already a distinct “I told you so” gleefulness as the depth of the trouble Brexit will bring emerges. I feel it myself. But this is the emotion of the internal exile, not the activist or practising politician. No politician seeking to win voters over can tell them they have been stupid. If they did, the people whose support they crave would reject them as patronising snobs. | Give up on politics, however, and you are free to say that voters who believed Johnson, Farage and Gove weren’t taken for fools, they were fools. For who but a fool could have fallen for the land of make-believe the leave campaign offered. There is already a distinct “I told you so” gleefulness as the depth of the trouble Brexit will bring emerges. I feel it myself. But this is the emotion of the internal exile, not the activist or practising politician. No politician seeking to win voters over can tell them they have been stupid. If they did, the people whose support they crave would reject them as patronising snobs. |
| Internal exiles are still agitated by political ideas. They have little in common with the apathetic citizen who takes no notice of the news. Internal exiles back away from public life because they see no chance of their ideas ever winning, however much energy they devote to the fight. They are not apolitical but anti-political. Their former campaigning energy has diminished to sitting in front of the television and swearing at the news. | Internal exiles are still agitated by political ideas. They have little in common with the apathetic citizen who takes no notice of the news. Internal exiles back away from public life because they see no chance of their ideas ever winning, however much energy they devote to the fight. They are not apolitical but anti-political. Their former campaigning energy has diminished to sitting in front of the television and swearing at the news. |
| For centrist supporters of the EU, exile is a novel experience. Unlike internationalists from the left, who have watched the electorate ignore what we say since we were old enough to say it, they could comfort themselves with the belief that the British got the big decisions right. When Thatcherism was exhausted, the British voted for New Labour. When “moderate” New Labour fell apart, the voters replaced it with “moderate” David Cameron. The belief in British moderation was the guiding ideology of the BBC, the Times and the civil service. Continentals may be excited by revolutionary theories but the commonsensical British knew better. | For centrist supporters of the EU, exile is a novel experience. Unlike internationalists from the left, who have watched the electorate ignore what we say since we were old enough to say it, they could comfort themselves with the belief that the British got the big decisions right. When Thatcherism was exhausted, the British voted for New Labour. When “moderate” New Labour fell apart, the voters replaced it with “moderate” David Cameron. The belief in British moderation was the guiding ideology of the BBC, the Times and the civil service. Continentals may be excited by revolutionary theories but the commonsensical British knew better. |
| When rightwing newspapers say 'the elite' thinks Brexit voters are stupid, they speak truer than they know | When rightwing newspapers say 'the elite' thinks Brexit voters are stupid, they speak truer than they know |
| Now that the British have taken a decision that defies common sense, you can already see people who were previously comfortable with their country turn to schadenfreude and rage: the consolations of the defeated. | Now that the British have taken a decision that defies common sense, you can already see people who were previously comfortable with their country turn to schadenfreude and rage: the consolations of the defeated. |
| Their retreat will have a profound effect on the national culture. When rightwing newspapers say that “the elite” thinks Brexit voters are stupid, they speak truer than they know. Not just north London intellectuals, but scientists, technicians, academics, managers, civil servants, doctors – those who keep Britain working – believe the country has made a dreadful mistake. As events justify their scorn, their attachment to their country will weaken. | Their retreat will have a profound effect on the national culture. When rightwing newspapers say that “the elite” thinks Brexit voters are stupid, they speak truer than they know. Not just north London intellectuals, but scientists, technicians, academics, managers, civil servants, doctors – those who keep Britain working – believe the country has made a dreadful mistake. As events justify their scorn, their attachment to their country will weaken. |
| I should end with a rousing call to fight. I could do it because with Brexit, radical Islam, Trump, Corbyn and Putin, I have never felt a more urgent need to write. But journalists are a special case. For us, the saying “may you live in interesting times” is a blessing. For everyone else, it remains a curse. Just as Brexit tears apart the old identities of EU migrants in Britain and British migrants on the continent, so the cross-party consensus on a hard Brexit is tearing up the belief that political activism is worthwhile. | I should end with a rousing call to fight. I could do it because with Brexit, radical Islam, Trump, Corbyn and Putin, I have never felt a more urgent need to write. But journalists are a special case. For us, the saying “may you live in interesting times” is a blessing. For everyone else, it remains a curse. Just as Brexit tears apart the old identities of EU migrants in Britain and British migrants on the continent, so the cross-party consensus on a hard Brexit is tearing up the belief that political activism is worthwhile. |
| “Why not give up?” is an uncomfortable question now. Most people put everyday loves, friendships and entertainments before politics. They don’t believe they can change the world so they enjoy what they can and endure what they must. | “Why not give up?” is an uncomfortable question now. Most people put everyday loves, friendships and entertainments before politics. They don’t believe they can change the world so they enjoy what they can and endure what they must. |
| Looking at the state of Britain, you would be hard-pressed to maintain that they are any more idiōtēs than an intellectual or activist vainly raging against a country caught in a spiral of self-harm. | Looking at the state of Britain, you would be hard-pressed to maintain that they are any more idiōtēs than an intellectual or activist vainly raging against a country caught in a spiral of self-harm. |
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