Saturday, 15 May 2021
Tipping point
Time for a small dose of optimism. Keeps me going anyhow. To begin with, here’s a question. Has the word ‘woke’ evolved into a term of ridicule?
For many people it certainly has, as if the speed of the internet is beginning to root out the worst facets of progressive silliness. With that in mind, suppose we add a few things together.
Woke culture, Joe Biden, gender politics, obvious loons in the public arena, the antics of Prince Harry, Greta Doomberg, the ethical decline of television, the ethical decline of news media, the coronavirus debacle. There are many others but these will do.
All these features of the public arena are clues, so it may be worth considering how many people are so completely oblivious that they fail to see any of them as pointers to a major malaise. Possibly not many people are that obtuse. Not as many we might cynically assume and possibly not as many people as the mass media appear to assume.
In that case here’s the optimism.
It is possible that some kind of tipping point lurks just below the progressive horizon. This could be a far more positive tipping point that we might suppose, given the lunacy so prevalent in the public arena. The blatant nature of that lunacy may be a reason for optimism. Maybe it has simply become too obvious and too accessible.
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I have the same theory about the NHS. Political orthodoxy says that nothing can be done to the NHS to reform it, to make it more like the healthcare systems we see operate very well on the Continent for example, because public support for it is so widespread and deep that anyone attempting to stand on such a platform would be virtually crucified. There definitely is a strand of public opinion that holds such a pro-NHS view, though I suspect its magnified by the antics of vested interests (the unions and the Left in general) and the biased MSM (who support the Left reflexively). But I also suspect there is a strong seam of public opinion that would support a political party that proposed NHS reform, especially upon the lines of a Continental social insurance model. But it never gets to be seen, because there is literally no-one in the public sphere prepared to argue in favour of it. I think we are seeing the first slight signs of such a hidden bloc of public opinion over the current issue of GPs refusing to go back to face to face appointments. It could be something like this issue that causes the political fault lines to shift and expose what has currently been long hidden.
I think you have a very realistic hope there. We all need to keep up the pressure, however, in as many ways as possible. Every little word and gesture helps to show people that it is OK to ridicule the inherently ridiculous.
Because they will fight against that tipping point. I expect them to take a slightly more "moderate" tone, and claim that they never really used the word "woke" at all, and it was all confected by the media. Do you remember how people did something similar with "political correctness"? "It's a meaningless term, of course, and I've never really liked it, but I think we should all value basic politeness..."
People will need help in joining up the dots.
Sobers: Yes, I agree entirely. There is now a big gap between politicians who keep praising our marvellous NHS, and a sizeable minority who know what it's really like.
There's an assumption contained within the phrase 'Tipping Point'.
If we said that there was a Bucket Of Woke a 'tipping point' suggests that the Bucket tips over suddenly and all the Woke runs out. Yet many changes in life are more gentle. The Bucket tilts slowly and gradually and the contents run out in a steady stream until only a few droplets are left, and those might be the useful drops.
I suspect that there is a very big Bucket of Progressive Thought (including Woke, the Labour Party, and Intersectionality) which is slowly being tilted and beginning to run over. I'll be quite happy if acceptance of the LBQT+ Alphabet people remains - as long as I don't have to put their individual expectations on a pedestal, above my own. I'll not be sad to see the Labour Party wither away, although a Green Opposition is a worry. But the Woke endlessly seeking new victims should drain away.
The risk with tipping the Bucket in one swell foop is that you are left with an empty bucket to fill up with some new nonsense.
Part of the problem is the 'idealogs'' takeover of nearly all the media. We want a British based Breitbart as an alternative to the wretched BBC.
'A tipping point', is a transition; so long as the centre of gravity doesn't stray to far things may wobble but balance is restored, push it too far and then you discover the catastrophic point of no return. The result is bound to be messy.
I think 'tipping point' is the wrong name for what the post alludes to. Its more that there can be massive undercurrents of political thought within a society that are totally hidden because of the biases within the political class and MSM. And that can through one small event be suddenly exposed and create massive change. Brexit was just such an event. OK, anti-EU sentiment wasn't completely hidden prior to 2016, but it was massively under represented and derided in public life. The idea that the UK could leave the EU was for 'fruitcakes and racists' remember? It just took one event for that entire hidden mass of public opinion to be exposed for all to see. And it is still having massive effects on political life today, 5 years later, with Brexit views being the major driver of the loss of the Red Wall of Labour seats to the Tories. Absent Brexit to crystallise the fault lines in Labour between the metropolitans in charge of the party and the socially conservative voters in northern seats those seats could still have Labour MPs.
So its entirely possible, indeed probable, that there is a massive strand of anti-woke feeling within the country that is not being granted an outlet, because all the political and media classes are onboard with wokeness and refuse to allow any opposition to it to enter public life. All it may take is one random event to expose that strand of opinion and make it undeniable.
One can but hope.......
Sobers - our GP surgery already has problems caused by refusing to go back to face to face appointments. Trying to blame the patients at the moment which doesn't look good.
Sam - yes we all need to keep up the pressure, but it isn't easy to tell what effect it has, if any. Yet the drip, drip, drip may still wear away the stone.
DJ - 'tipping point' was partly a sarcastic reference to claimed climate tipping points, although fashions can shift quite suddenly. For example, the coronavirus mess could shift us quite rapidly towards a deeper obsession with health and that could have all kinds of unpredictable offshoots.
Tammly - a British based Breitbart would be good. It could happen too.
djc - to my mind the centre of gravity is already straying too far. Too much has already been invested in an imaginary green future for example.
Sobers - what puzzles me is that those massive undercurrents of political thought are certainly there because Brexit showed us one of them, but the establishment appears to be unaware of their size. No more than ordinary human weakness perhaps.
My brother today told me that although I may have heard of the 15 thousand parading through London on Sat in support of the Palestinians, thousands more were demonstrating outside the BBC some shouting 'shame on you' No BBC reports on that of course as we are all saying. And he estimates upward of a million demonstrated against lockdown also in London a few weeks back (he was with them), zero reports on that either.
Tammly - interesting. So often first-hand info differs from what the BBC tells us if it would spoil their narrative.
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