It has long been the conventional wisdom of politicians that Homo economicus - Economic Man - is the best and a sufficient description of modern people. In other words, that the masses are solely concerned with money.
This in turn means that the most effective bribe is presumed to be more money, and the most effective threat is presumed to be a decline in the 'standard of living' (defined economically). And, since the future is uncertain; the most effective carrots and sticks were presumed to be immediate, short-term - money-in-the-pocket incentives.
Thus were Western populations controlled.
The vote to Leave the European Union overturned this assumption - with millions of people voting against their short-medium term economic interests - which meant that the Ruling Class suddenly lost confidence in their ability to manipulated the masses with monetary bribes and threats.
Hence the air of panic; and hence the instantaneous use of vilification. By projection of their own motivations; the ruling class automatically assume that:
1. The masses are almost-entirely motivated by money; and 2. that the only motivation even-more powerful than money is hatred.
This is how it is for the Establishment, and they naturally assume it is the same for everyone else. They are mostly motivated by financial greed; but this can be overcome by their loathing for the mass majority of British people - for example exemplified their core strategic policy of open-ended mass immigration to destroy the lives of, then replace, the native population.
For the British rulers, crushing the native masses is a moral crusade.
However, mass immigration will destroy the long-term prosperity of the nationa, hence the Establishment - but they support it anyway because their hatred is even stronger than their greed.
Therefore - for the Establishment, the Only comprehensible and plausible reason that the mass of British people would overcome their greed is hatred: hatred of foreigners - racism.
It is literally off-the-map and incomprehensible to the Ruling Class that people might want to leave the European Union from love - such as love nation and place, deep attachment to a way of life, loyalty to a sense of history and ancestry.
Our rulers cannot believe this because they themselves do not experience such emotions.
As Walter Scott wrote:
Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand!
Yes indeed, breathes exactly such many a man and woman; breathes such the entirety of our ruling Establishment including almost the entirety of the Houses of Parliament; and breathes such the controllers of the apparatus of government and law.
And what shall become of them?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung.
I live in a country whose rulers have, thus far, defended their people to some extent. Of course, the erection of a fence to block the illegal mass migration was immediately condemned as a massive display of racism and xenophobia by other Western rulers.
ReplyDeleteI concur with your view that the Establishment in the West is incapable (or willfully neglectful) of comprehending these sorts of actions through any other lens but hatred. It fits their mantra of inverted values perfectly.
I wonder if the hatred of our political classes that you speak of is not predominantly self hatred. An unconscious desire to destroy themselves and everything around them.
ReplyDeletePerhaps hitler on some level actually wished to reduce Europe to a pile of burning rubble and then, finally blow his own head off in a bunker?
@whitestone - At the highest level, I think the motivation is a very pure form of evil - loathing of God and all that is Good. Often to the point of demonic possession. There may not be much 'self' to loathe-with.
ReplyDeleteThat about sums it up.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, the allegation that the Brexit vote was motivated by 'hatred' relies on the media's ability to stoke real actual hatred against the Noel Appleby Hobbit types who voted for Brexit but who understandably may not be able to deliver an eloquent philosophical analysis as to why.
Trying to see how the EU explains itself and why the voters who googled "what is the EU" on referendum day may have been unimpressed, I found myself reading "Europe in 12 Lessons" on the EU website. It's even odds that Noel Appleby Hobbit would be bored to tears well before clicking through to this document, but being a philosophical masochist I made it halfway through. The following note in the intro was telling, however:
> During the most recent economic and social crisis, Europe has seen the rise of populist, extremist and nationalistic tendencies that threaten democracy and the process of European integration. Many movements are skeptical of existing institutions, both at national and European levels. It remains to be seen whether new economic growth based on common solutions can ease these tensions.
In other words, the great hope expressed here is that Feed is stronger than Hate, and that populism can be made to go away by throwing prosperity at it. That economies are cyclical and the moral fiber of nations is shown by what happens to them during times of disaster and contraction, escapes the author. So does the fact that economic growth measures are easily gamed and often measure activities that waste resources and effort, or actively contribute to human misery.
Therefore...
Schooled by cynicism and vice
Alas! The Satanist profers advice:
"If your subjects fighting be
Then drown them in prosperity.
Only fools fight while they're eating,
So feed them with a GDP.
Man or Fairy, all the same,
Are Serpents by another name,
And will devour in mutual strife
Unless ensured a pleasant life.
Of course, there is no Meaning deep
In whether Serpents fight or sleep,
But I'll say, with Satanic tact,
That if a man seeks too much Meaning
Thank Hell, there are pills for that!"
@Seijio - That, at least, was the strategy until about 15-20 years ago, when the policy of encouraging permanent inward immigration and cultural destruction began.
ReplyDeleteThis is clearly economically lethal, and prevents the policy of mass bribery (elite bribery, of course, continue unabated) - and the age of mass European prosperity is finished; starting with Greece, where it seems the average standard of living has perhaps halved - at least, that's what it sounds like from personal reports.
For the past 15-20 years, the UK has needed to sustain, house and school (etc) something between a third and half a million new, (mostly) permanent economic dependents per year - a whole medium sized city's worth.
In the fake-negotiations - EU leadership were absolutely inflexible about the necessity to continue the process of cultural and economic destruction by mass immigration; and no nationals are to be allowed to exempt themselves. Some nations such as the UK were permitted to stay out of the single currency; but not the mandatory mass immigration.
Of all aspects, population movement is the one that the Eurocrats insist remains under centralised 'control'.
Thus the demonic conspiracy reveals itself: it now feels strong enough to do so.