Society of the Spectacle
Americans and British people are sensitive to a spectacle. An expression of empty outrage trespassing the corridors of government interrupted everyone’s workday yesterday. Those without real jobs took to cable news and social media to gawp at the pornographic violence all day.
Everyone had an opinion. You could both equate it to the events of a third world country, while simultaneously asserting the exceptional circumstances of it happening in the US. A contradiction, yes, but we’ve long been exhausted to the pundit mind thinking two opposite things at the same time.
And it was all for what? There was no meaningful occupation. It’s not the apotheosis of a mass movement, but the lashing out of a final despair. A humiliated group is preparing itself for banal opposition as the Republican establishment junk the embarrassing Donald Trump. The reality TV star is no longer useful, sentenced now to the solipsism of his Twitter feed forever whining that he actually won.
The right is in incapable of a mass movement. There are no material demands it can make to fire up a population. It has no inroads with labour. All they have is a fascist vanguard making pointless threats. Individuals may make their own paths, but it will not overthrow the government.
Democracy in both the UK and US is approaching a death spiral. It long predates Brexit and Trump but has been accelerated by both. In those four years centrist liberalism has created the environment that allowed people to think they can reverse democratic decisions.
Since the 2016 vote, liberals campaigned to reverse Brexit. People didn’t know what they voted for. The old people who voted for it have died out. The decision needs to be further affirmed. Russia did it.
In the US, it was Russian involvement that helped Trump win the presidency. Disinformation on Facebook held more sway the billion-dollar corporate media sector. Liberals anticipated with fervour that Mueller’s inquiry would overturn the election result. Trump was impeached on the flimsiest grounds.
There was a growing sentiment that a voting population had to have a minimum level of intelligence to vote. Book deals were done. Articles were published. Careers have flourished.
All of this was spearheaded by a political, business, and media elite that market themselves as the protectors of democracy. While the conservatives took to the streets, liberals sought answers in legalese and technical jargon.
But they themselves have proven to be a threat to democratic decisions as well and their attempts have resulted in their ideological opponents now wanting to do the same on claims without evidence of electoral fraud.
Those in high positions are paid not to learn. Both sides need the outrage dialectic to seesaw in each other’s favour. It’s the reason for their being, to justify to themselves that their life does have meaning as they stare at uploaded footage and get angry at photographs of trashed Senate offices. They can tweet all day because they don’t do anything.
Meanwhile, the rest of us just want healthcare.