la_marquise (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
la_marquise) wrote2019-08-28 12:08 pm
la_marquise) wrote2019-08-28 12:08 pm
Entry tags:
Not with a bang but a whimper
So, the oligarchs have what they wanted. Congratulations, white, male, southern, over-70-year-old members of the British Conservative Party. You have done your masters' bidding, following the klaxon call of Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacres, who pretended they were just like you. You have your right-wing coup. You have the suspension of Parliament so a Prime Minister selected by 0.01% of the population, can act like a dictator.
This isn't 'strong leadership', whatever the Scum, the Excess and the Fail may screech. This is the first stage of absolutism. And you are not safe. You are not victorious. You've been played by the billionaires and the extremists who want to rip up human rights and re-instate feudalism. You think you'll be the lords of the manor. They told you you will be.
They lie. They're the only lords. The rest of us are nothing. Maybe you're old enough that you won't pay the price. But your children and grandchildren will, when they lose jobs because the boss wants more money, because they become pregnant, become ill, are injured. They'll die in childbirth, of heart disease, of job-related illnesses, of injuries, all untreated because treatment costs too much, or is only available to the few.
Those of them who live with learning difficulties or with disabilities will be excluded even further, institutionalised, maybe even legally put down. Those of them who are people of colour or people of other religions will face even more prejudice, persecution and injustice.
The environment will pay.
The country you claim to love will become an international disgrace, and a poodle of Trump's America. That's not sovereignty. That's subservience.
Here's the thing: the hard right make a lot of noise about democracy and 'will of the people', but in their mouths, those words always mean everyone else doing what they want. The 'people' are a lump to them, to be used and then ignored. They are not actual people. Actual people are complicated, varied, diverse, confusing, contradictory, and, yes, they change their minds. 'Will of the people' in the mouths of Boris and Trump doesn't mean the people they rule, it means the people that matter to them, the rich. That isn't Tory members. That's Tory donors and cronies, many of whom are tax exiles or not British. 'Democracy' does not mean that once voted on, a thing is set forever. It means the complete opposite. Otherwise, we'd have had one election ever and the same people in power ever after (which is absolutist totalitarianism).
Democracy means that the people are sovereign, and are allowed to express their opinions through protest (which Trump and Boris and May all tried to prevent). It means they can change their minds and be listened to. And in times of crisis, it means they need to be given a chance to express their views too. (What happened when WW2 broke out? Despite popular belief, it was not Hero Churchill and his Hero Tories saving the day. All the parties formed a government of national unity. And that's what we should be doing now. Giving power to one segment of one party is not democracy, and it is not sovereignty. It's a coup.)
#Everyone will pay apart from those who already sit on the top of the global heap. Trump isn't funny or strong, he's a facist, racist, sexist dictator. Boris isn't a clown, he's a venal, self-seeking, narcissist. Rees-Mogg isn't amusing: he's the whip hand of the gang-master, the mine-owner, the mill-owner, every capitalist murderer you've shuddered over in books.
Welcome back to the nineteenth century. It's not what you think it is. It's not Downton Abbey or Victoria, and you aren't the aristocracy.
(NB when I say white, male, over 70 Tory members, I mean precisely that. I do not mean those of my friends who are fiscal conservatives or who voted leave for considered, thoughtful reasons. I respect you and your views, and I do not blame you at all for Boris or any of this other nonsense. You aren't neo-feudalists, I know, and you aren't No Deal Ideologues in it for the money.)
I'll be on the barricades.
This isn't 'strong leadership', whatever the Scum, the Excess and the Fail may screech. This is the first stage of absolutism. And you are not safe. You are not victorious. You've been played by the billionaires and the extremists who want to rip up human rights and re-instate feudalism. You think you'll be the lords of the manor. They told you you will be.
They lie. They're the only lords. The rest of us are nothing. Maybe you're old enough that you won't pay the price. But your children and grandchildren will, when they lose jobs because the boss wants more money, because they become pregnant, become ill, are injured. They'll die in childbirth, of heart disease, of job-related illnesses, of injuries, all untreated because treatment costs too much, or is only available to the few.
Those of them who live with learning difficulties or with disabilities will be excluded even further, institutionalised, maybe even legally put down. Those of them who are people of colour or people of other religions will face even more prejudice, persecution and injustice.
The environment will pay.
The country you claim to love will become an international disgrace, and a poodle of Trump's America. That's not sovereignty. That's subservience.
Here's the thing: the hard right make a lot of noise about democracy and 'will of the people', but in their mouths, those words always mean everyone else doing what they want. The 'people' are a lump to them, to be used and then ignored. They are not actual people. Actual people are complicated, varied, diverse, confusing, contradictory, and, yes, they change their minds. 'Will of the people' in the mouths of Boris and Trump doesn't mean the people they rule, it means the people that matter to them, the rich. That isn't Tory members. That's Tory donors and cronies, many of whom are tax exiles or not British. 'Democracy' does not mean that once voted on, a thing is set forever. It means the complete opposite. Otherwise, we'd have had one election ever and the same people in power ever after (which is absolutist totalitarianism).
Democracy means that the people are sovereign, and are allowed to express their opinions through protest (which Trump and Boris and May all tried to prevent). It means they can change their minds and be listened to. And in times of crisis, it means they need to be given a chance to express their views too. (What happened when WW2 broke out? Despite popular belief, it was not Hero Churchill and his Hero Tories saving the day. All the parties formed a government of national unity. And that's what we should be doing now. Giving power to one segment of one party is not democracy, and it is not sovereignty. It's a coup.)
#Everyone will pay apart from those who already sit on the top of the global heap. Trump isn't funny or strong, he's a facist, racist, sexist dictator. Boris isn't a clown, he's a venal, self-seeking, narcissist. Rees-Mogg isn't amusing: he's the whip hand of the gang-master, the mine-owner, the mill-owner, every capitalist murderer you've shuddered over in books.
Welcome back to the nineteenth century. It's not what you think it is. It's not Downton Abbey or Victoria, and you aren't the aristocracy.
(NB when I say white, male, over 70 Tory members, I mean precisely that. I do not mean those of my friends who are fiscal conservatives or who voted leave for considered, thoughtful reasons. I respect you and your views, and I do not blame you at all for Boris or any of this other nonsense. You aren't neo-feudalists, I know, and you aren't No Deal Ideologues in it for the money.)
I'll be on the barricades.
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