Saturday, 17 February 2018
Oops!
Watercolour, 20x18cm
After decades of postmodernist structuralism, cynical dishonesty practiced unabashed by certain political operators has become the norm. Is this the end result of Derrida's outrage at "the totalitarian arrogance implicit in the claims of reason"? Reason discarded? Derrida advocated the necessity of peeling away the layers of constructed meanings that Foucault saw as an alignment of knowledge and power to legitimise the symbolic order and its exclusion of "other".
And, over time, deconstruction of the symbolic order of patriarchy and colonialism has empowered the once excluded - third world activists, feminists, minorities, transgender, etc etc, underpinning argument and transforming political debate. If everything we believe is actually fiction, including the constructed narrative of 'self', then we are free to experiment with identities, explore alternatives.
But even so we must drill down vertically to examine or acknowledge the price, the sacrificed or denied, that enables each new construction. The 'enlightened' person should, presumably, hold his or her sense of self in a permeable relation to the 'out there', balancing the evidence of cause and effect against one's beliefs. It is a moral or intellectual discipline few can maintain. When it comes to one's own hopes and ambitions for status or affirmation, few are ready to expose 'the body hidden under the floorboard', as my brother Rupert's song goes. Our identities are fragile and we live in a socio-economic scenario that emphasises competitive individualism, not conscientious doubt.
There has been a negative to the good intentions of postmodernism. As Andre Gide narrated in La Symphonie Pastorale, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The authority of expert or professional analysis is easily dismissed in political debate as currently conducted by much of the media. It is all about identities now - tribes with different agendas set up in conflict against each other for maximum attention value. Media celebrities are frequently shown more respect than intellectuals, public servants, those with pragmatic experience, insight or skills. And, alarmingly, the deliberate telling of lies is accepted at the new 'norm'. People who challenge may be called treacherous, criminal, the no longer relevant 'entitled' elite, or whatever dismissive label suits purpose. And why not, if the symbolic order is to be defined as the voice of power?
It feels like the Englightenment era is over. But it might just be a hiccup. It might just signify the old symbolic order fighting for its life, with its deeply embedded patriarchy, its nationalism, racism, misogyny, climate change denial, and so on, showing its true and frightening colours.
It has been a disheartening time, but perhaps because the resistance has been so weak rather than surprise at the nastiness suddenly having the courage to openly declare itself.
And is the weakness perhaps because the 'liberal' left needs to do some deconstructing on itself? It has assumed a certain entitlement to virtue that probably needs some honest and courageous inspection. What lies denied beneath its own symbolic order? Just one example: there is proper outrage at the Russian cyber aggression to undermine the democratic process in the USA, but then it should be acknowledged that our governments on both the left and the right in USA and UK have long disrupted democratic process in many countries when it suited their economic interest to do so. Two wrongs don't make a right, but if we are to move towards cooperation rather than conflict, we surely need some introspection? The left assumes its entitlement to 'virtue, but it sits on many 'bodies' (for instance, the negative consequence materialism has had to the underprivileged under both left and right administrations). Surely this crisis is an opportunity to dig down to assess one's own taboos?
There are so many contradictions sitting on the horizon - the old Utopia of the left is clouded with dystopian apprehension. It is not that there is shortage of new ideas about how 'to be in the world', but with no cohesive political clout to support, develop and test, let alone apply them.
The application of reason was usefully questioned by postmodernism, but surely any resistance from the left requires more than its traditional assumptions to propose a fresh, rational and believable symbolic order?
Friday, 16 February 2018
Trumpower
watercolour, 20x18cm
It was hard working creatively over 2017 though I carried on in the studio and continued to exhibit new work. But it was a struggle. The usual spirit of resilience and regeneration which buoys up creative initiative was definitely at low ebb. I know that throughout the long march of history, the majority of people have just wanted to get on with their lives as best as possible, being neither remarkably good nor bad and it is they that survive from one devastation to the next - they are the link between us and the past, not the warlords. But it was hard last year not to feel a sense of despair, that the contradictions that support the narrative that holds us together in some sort of manageable order, of 'how to be in the world', have pressed too close. The edifice appears ominous and at breaking point. It doesn't feel like anything can be taken for granted at the moment.
Trump Tower is a good metaphor for the state of things - behind the glitter and show, dodgy financial transactions, Mafia connections, unethical practice, menace. And all the lies and lies and lies! Behind the glitter, a massive and soulless pile of concrete. No grace. Alienation.
Watercolour, 20x18cm
Thursday, 15 February 2018
Donald Trump and his Demons
"My button is bigger than yours"
It is as if I have been in a state of shock over the last year, as this new era unfolds where blatant lies, treachery and immoral acts are qualities awarded political gain where once they would have been career ending. All successful politicians are necessarily cunning, but the performance of people like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson escapes the expected and understood boundaries of the capitalist democracies we thought we knew. The buffoonery unashamedly acted out by Trump and Johnson is not an attempt to disguise ambition for power for it's own sake: that is plain for all to see. They have a different cunning. It is to "act in a way that is not immediately readable in order to gain an unfair advantage" - to quote Tim Parkes from Joe Queenan's subtle and compelling Radio 4 programme, A Brief History of Cunning, see www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09r37tz.
The fact that they hold no regard for any consequences to everybody else seems absolutely shocking to those of us who had perhaps become complacent about the checks and balances built into our democratic institutions. Such extreme personality malfunction would normally have been judged too unstable to be accommodated at any serious level. But it now seems to be approved by many as a sign of 'honesty'.
Perhaps that's the endgame of a long period in which individualism and materialism have been the most prominent factors and a culture of celebrity notoriety the prime signifier of success and affirmation. And of course, those whose employment prospects and well being have been so severely diminished by global capitalism are completely disenchanted with the traditional politicians, as they are with the entitled 'elite' who condoned austerity being imposed on the many to recoup financial losses incurred by the few in the 2008 banking crisis. Preferable to have a wolf you can see than one hiding in sheep's clothing?
Except the particular demons that drive our special narcissists are not subdued by gains in power. Surely a profound alienation and insecurity crouches deep within their essence, such that will drive even harder under the isolation of leadership? No doubt the ego comes to believe that only absolute dominion will quell the demons, believing them to have outer cause rather than inner motor. Everybody is viewed as hostile and a bullying divide and rule the only recourse. Historically, such characters often self-destruct, but only after having created havoc all around. Which is why Trump's boasting about the size of his nuclear button is chilling.
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