Donald Trump’s victory marks the end of an era when a self-confident Establishment preached the end of history, the end of passion and the supremacy of a technocracy working on behalf of the 1%. But the era it ushers in is not new. It is a new variant of the 1930s, featuring deflationary economics, xenophobia and divide-and-rule politics.
Passion has returned to politics but not in a way that will help the 80% left behind since the 1970s. Passion is now fuelling misanthropy. Passion is exploiting the anger of the 80% to re-arrange power at the top, while leaving the 80% moribund, betrayed and divided. And it is our job to stop this. It is ourjob to harness passion in the cause of humanism.
The Establishment’s folly is causing its demise. Unable to come to terms with the economic crisis they created, they crushed the Greek Spring because they could. They pushed the majority of British families into austerity-induced hopelessness. They committed millions of Germans to mini-jobs. They conspired to keep Bernie Sanders at bay. And when Golden Dawn, Brexit, the Alternative für Deutschland and Donald Trump were the result, they responded with a mixture of condescension, denial and panic.
Politics is undergoing a shake-up that the world has not seen since the 1930s. A Great Deflation is now gripping both sides of the Atlantic, re-kindling political forces that had been dormant since the 1930s. President Trump’s use of Mussolini-like tactics and narratives is a mere symptom of the rendition of that bleak era.
What should we do?
The spectre of a Nationalist International that is upon us (from Trump and the Brexiteers to Poland’s and Hungary’s governments, the Alternative für Deutschland, Austria’s next president, Marine Le Pen) can only be defeated by the Progressive International that the Democracy in Europe Movement, DiEM25, is building in Europe.
But, clearly, Europe is not enough. Progressives in the United States, those who supported Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein, must band together with progressives in Canada and Latin America, to build a Democracy in the Americas Movement. Progressives in the Middle East, those who are shedding their blood against ISIS, against tyranny as well as against the West’s puppet regimes, must band together with progressive Palestinians and Israelis to build a Democracy in the Middle East Movement.
In 1930, our ancestors failed to reach out to other democrats across borders and political party lines to stop the rot. We must succeed where the others failed.
Today, on a day of victory for the politics of fear, loathing and division, we pledge to take the fight to the Nationalist International, to form an effective Progressive International and to bring passion back into the service of humanism.
Carpe DiEM25!
1 comment:
Sir!
We respectfully must tease this out.
The return is to the 1920s era of deregulation when the right in the US controlled all the branches of government. Trump essentially wants to deregulate all restrictions upon private property -- ie a return to 1929 -- which will effectively undue the vestiges of the welfare state that never fully happened. This is not the 1930s of Eric Hobsbawn but the 1920s of insane unfettered capitalism extracting returns hypothecated out of ever thinner air. One may hope for a bit of structural resistance against Trump -- the good old American trait for passive aggressive behavior -- but when the Roberts Supreme Court adds 2 members they may very well subordinate all rights to property rights and that is the future of humanism: a bad reality show from which one can not escape. Looking around me in NYC my friends foresee an end to rent control and welfare and suggest purchasing long options on Prison Corporation of America shares -- oh wait someone already did that -- at the time of this post they are up 43% which is as great an omen as Sicorax can provide: CXW (NYSE) $20.31 +6.12 (+43.13%) Neoliberalism on steroids. It is not unimaginable to foresee a future of Humanism where all Americans rent every aspect of material existence: sleep in dorms, be on call for the odd lecture on demand at all hours, elimination of Obamacare and other entitlements, etc.
As for the xenophobes at home and abroad, it is as understandable to see a reaction against globalism as it is to see an undercurrent of racism among many. The nationalist movements in the EU correctly want to reject neoliberal values (globalism, free movement of capital) but can not seem to do so without an affective identity of affinity. Perhaps it is better for the Left to reform in anticipation of the accelerationist future dystopia which is surely upon us.
Last post on Eighteenth Brummaire was great. Remnick part not as insightful.
J
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