POLITICS CAN BE HARD on friendships. Radically diverging views on the nature and worth of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Greece’s Syriza-led government recently ended a relationship of more than 20 years. What student politics and the Labour-Alliance split could not break, was destroyed by my friend’s extraordinary, and, from a distance of 18,000 kilometres, utterly inexplicable, animosity towards any left-wing iteration more exciting than Gordon Brown’s warmed-over Blairism. Ending the friendship was made easier, I suppose, by the fact that he has, for many years, lived in Scotland, while I’ve been here in New Zealand. Had I been there, or he here, I suspect things would have come to a head a lot sooner – and it would have been a lot nastier.
My own personal setback has, however, made it a lot easier to understand the rapidly rising level of aggro afflicting the British Labour Party’s leadership election.
The rise and rise of Jeremy Corbyn is threatening to split the party asunder. The Blairite Right, like my former pal, simply cannot understand the 60-year-old backbench MP for the London suburb of Islington North’s burgeoning popularity. After all, the man is openly and unashamedly left-wing – an affliction which should have ruled him out of serious contention immediately. Even worse, Corbyn’s clothes look like they were bought at a jumble sale – and he has a beard! So why have upwards of 20,000 people joined the Labour Party on the strength of his candidacy? Why have his younger followers taken to chanting “Jez we can!”? And why, oh why, do people insist on abbreviating his name to “JC”?
The simple answer is that the Corbyn Campaign is offering people hope. It’s what the SNP offered the Scots, and Syriza the Greeks: a sense that, actually, something can be done; a better tomorrow is possible. Significantly, hope was the attribute most conspicuous by its absence from Ed Miliband’s appeal to the British electorate. That’s because, if my ex-mate is anything to go by, the Labour Right treats hope as the political equivalent of nitro-glycerine – useful in small amounts, and in strictly-controlled settings, but potentially devastating if tossed about all over the place. Labour must be very careful not to raise people’s hopes too high. Why? Because then they’d have to fulfil them!
The so-called “left-wing” British commentariat are, for the most part, marching in lock-step with the Blairite Right. Their argument against Corbyn boils down to: He’s going to win, therefore he must not win.
That the MP for Islington North is filling halls from Manchester to Luton is, according to the pundits, the best reason for not voting for him. The people turning out for Corbyn, they insist, are nothing like the rest of Britain. The latter know nothing about him, and care even less. Apparently, the only sort of person who can lead Labour to victory, is the sort of person who knows how to woo these know-nothing/care-even-less voters.
That sort of leader will, of course, be given his lines by professional political consultants, who will, in turn, have plucked them out of focus groups – filled with, you guessed it, know-nothing/care-even-less voters. The idea that a candidate like Corbyn might, if elected, be able to generate the same sort of hope and enthusiasm among know-nothing/care-even-less voters as he is currently generating among Labour’s rank-and-file, is dismissed out of hand. And yet, all that really distinguishes the people who are turning out in the hundreds to hear Corbyn, from the know-nothing/care-even-less voters, is that somewhere along the line someone gave them enough knowledge to make them care.
It’s what lay at the heart of the falling-out between me and my old friend: how we viewed the electorate.
To him, the voting public are nothing more than an abstract electoral resource – something to be tapped. They cannot be entrusted with important decisions because they lack the knowledge and experience required to make them. Political power properly belongs to those with the best understanding of how the game is played. The rest of us are merely punters to be convinced.
To me, there is always much more that unites the voting public than divides them. This is because, when all is said and done, they are human-beings with human needs. Left-wing politics is all about uniting the electorate around these most basic needs, and then allowing the resulting political energy to change society in ways that allow them to be met.
Corbyn’s speeches are not examples of great oratory, but they are peppered with collective pronouns. He talks about “we”, and “us”, and the things that are “ours”. And in the surge of solidarity such language inevitably generates, his listeners catch a glimpse of an alternative future. In Luton, it brought them to their feet. The youngsters chanted “Jez we can!” And their parents reached for Labour Party membership forms.
Such is the contagion of hope.
“Apparently, the only sort of person who can lead Labour to victory, is the sort of person who knows how to woo these know-nothing/care-even-less voters.” – sounds familiar!
May-be, hopefully, something is starting to bring hope to democratic socialists, Corbyn in Britain and Saunders in the states. Was disappointed with Greece’s Syriza party sell-out though.
Chris, I would be interested in your thought’s about Bernie Saunders?
Bernie Sanders (sp).
Sorry, I must get his name right, he is the only beacon of light we have. Bernie Sanders
If you are disappointed by the capitulation of the Syriza Party perhaps you should read the following:-
http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/guerrilla_warfare_against_a_hegemonic_power_the_challenge_20150710
a blog from Ellen Brown a well respected writer, Then you will see that in the European Union the Central Bank holds all the cards.
Thanks for linking Dennis. Required reading!
I’ve found the present Government has separated me from a lot of acquaintances (but not my closest friends). I cannot fathom people who support this government, given all it has done, and if they happen to be people I know I end up feeling like it says a lot about who they are as people in a way that I don’t find very appealing.
esoteric pineapples I found your remark depressing. Maybe because I come from a political divided family, I’m more sympathetic to the other-side. I don’t agree with them, but I have nothing but sympathy.
Also can I point out, that propaganda is incredibly effective tool – if it was not, people would not use it. And this government and it’s supporters have used every propaganda trick in the book against the population. It means people are backed into a corner sometimes, agreeing with things they don’t agree with, because the propagandist lie makes the alternative feel worse.
Even with the warning of 1984, we still have that system.
We are better informed that we have it and what it is, and yet we STILL subscribe to it.
It’s [like] living in the world of 1984 with the novel 1984 promoted by Big Brother.
There’s a philosophy thesis for someone!
Chris probably wouldn’t agree with my economic analysis but my article “Loss of Hope” shares many themes he details here.
http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/74229/brendon-harre-wonders-what-global-collapse-interest-rates-and-spectre-deflation-tell
commiserations Chris, no more bitter relationship than that with a former comrade or political colleague in my experience
whatever some might think from this distance, along the lines of–yeah stick it to the man Jeremy!–Mr Corbyn will be of most use to the extent he can assist some unity of action on the UK and international left; he is in for one hell of a life if he wins the leadership job
“To him, the voting public are nothing more than an abstract electoral resource – something to be tapped…… ”
I surprised he was ever your friend Chris.
Yes and re nationalise all British industry again as Britain began the industrial revolution do you recall?
Make the Bulldog great again and make the workers the part owners as they did with several Industries already like the triumph motorcycle factory.
They did this in Germany after the war so why not Britain in it’s next “darkest Hour”.
Perhaps this contagion with spread to NZ when key has been banished.
To start with, what politicians call the centre usually refers to the concessions necessary to keeping the middle class on the same side as the elite. The whole system depends on a narrow conception of aspiration – to escape the working class by becoming middle class, or to escape the middle class by becoming an elite. Identify with those ahead of you on the food chain who may deign to give you a leg up, not those behind you or even those beside you. It’s rational self-interest or else – anything less base might leave room for alternatives to evolve. Hope in the hearts of the masses is not the only thing that frightens them about Jeremy Corbyn’s rise – it also the reminder of the baseness to which they feel they must subscribe if they are to get on, or at least not lose ground.
Here’s a wee song written some time ago and sung by Billy Joel among others…
………………………………………………………………………………………..
You talk like Marlene Dietrich
And you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire
Your clothes are all made by Balmain
And there’s diamonds and pearls in your hair, yes there are.
You live in a fancy apartment
Off the Boulevard of St. Michel
Where you keep your Rolling Stones records
And a friend of Sacha Distel, yes you do.
You go to the embassy parties
Where you talk in Russian and Greek
And the young men who move in your circles
They hang on every word you speak, yes they do.
But where do you go to my lovely
When you’re alone in your bed
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes i do.
I’ve seen all your qualifications
You got from the Sorbonne
And the painting you stole from Picasso
Your loveliness goes on and on, yes it does.
When you go on your summer vacation
You go to Juan-les-Pines
With your carefully designed topless swimsuit
You get an even suntan, on your back and on your legs.
And when the snow falls you’re found in St. Moritz
With the others of the jet-set
And you sip your Napoleon Brandy
But you never get your lips wet, no you don’t.
But where do you go to my lovely
When you’re alone in your bed
would you Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes I do.
You’re in between 20 and 30
A very desirable age
Your body is firm and inviting
But you live on a glittering stage, yes you do, yes you do.
Your name is heard in high places
You know the Aga Khan
He sent you a racehorse for Christmas
And you keep it just for fun, for a laugh ha-ha-ha
They say that when you get married
It’ll be to a millionaire
But they don’t realize where you came from
And I wonder if they really care, or give a damn
But where do you go to my lovely
When you’re alone in your bed
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes i do.
I remember the back streets of Naples
Two children begging in rags
Both touched with a burning ambition
To shake off their lowly-borne tags, they try
So look into my face Marie-Claire
And remember just who you are
Then go and forget me forever
But I know you still bear
the scar, deep inside, yes you do
I know where you go to my lovely
When you’re alone in your bed
I know the thoughts that surround you
‘Cause I can look inside your head.
Just thought that might help sum it up a bit…..
Good song that Wild Katipo.
Thanks for that Wild Katipo – it does sum things up in a lovely moving song.
If he becomes Prime Minister he will be the first international leader (who isn’t African, Muslim or Sikh) in two generations to have a beard!
Now that’s something to get excited about!
/jk
After the transformation of British Labour when Blair and the third way thing succeeded in winning power after a real long time failing at elections, the centrist approach has become received wisdom among those politicos who lived through those times.
We have exactly the same thing here where often younger, less patient or more doctrinaire members of the Left become more and more irritated by those they style rightists among the “realist” Left for endlessly banging on about cultivating middle New Zealand.
It is part of a broader discussion about the nature of voting motivation on one side and the correct balance in the Market-State dichotomy that should be sought should progressive parties ever luck into power.
Experience tells us the pure Socialist model is a wipe, as it ignores motivation and is just as hard on the individual as a pure market approach, but that does not mean the State doesn’t have a pivotal role to play. This is especially true in a small community like New Zealand where laissez faire capitalism works very badly indeed as it inevitably mutates into a stultifying crony capitalism.
Nevertheless, Chris, I wouldn’t be quite so quick to ditch your mate, (excuse me for saying it, but you brought it up), chances are you are still both battling to find the way to do the best for as many as possible.
We are all still trying to nut out a way that really works, while none of us have a monopoly on infallibility, (except the Greens, if course).
Let us not go half ways, thanks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGip5kfcz0E
The days of dirty politics (with their pedophile overtones) and quick buck under the table business deals are over.
Financial markets are about to plunge as the Illuminati en mass declare bankruptcy, and some will be charged with crimes against humanity (actually the charges will be more serious than that, I’m told). For the first time in all our histories, we are about to be introduced to democracy and I don’t think we have any models for how that operates, do we?
Maybe a socialist will be closest to the mark.
The days for treating politics as a game are over.
The days of dirty politics (with their pedophile overtones) and quick buck under the table business deals are over.
Financial markets are about to plunge as the Illuminati en mass declare bankruptcy, and some will be charged with crimes against humanity (actually the charges will be more serious than that, I’m told). For the first time in all our histories, we are about to be introduced to democracy and I don’t think we have any models for how that operates, do we?
Maybe a socialist will be closest to the mark.
The days for treating politics as a game are over.
Good friendships can never die, I believe.
We can’t get too excited. Who really holds the power in this world? Syria is a case in point.
Jeremy Corbyn also offers hope to British voters, that Britain have an independent foreign policy committed to justice.
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