In Michael Reuel’s book, Robin Hood Existed, he formulates an interesting analysis of ancient Robin Hood ballads by what he calls primary, secondary and tertiary keys within the ballads. The primary keys are a few common but essential features without which the ballads would dissolve into disconnected stories.
In the case of Robin Hood, the primary keys are that he is a woodland outlaw with a band of men, a skilled bowman and an enemy of the sheriff of Nottingham. Secondary and tertiary keys distinguish the ballads from each other and make them entertaining, but are less obviously essential for a clear view of the main character – Robin Hood. The primary keys tie the ballads together around him.
We may easily use the same approach for political movements. For example, we could suggest that communism, fascism and socialism have a common primary key.
Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.
Benito Mussolini
This approach makes it easy enough to escape misleading political language by classifying it as secondary or tertiary. It is equally easy to see how political language commonly seeks to focus on secondary or tertiary keys, on the difference between movements rather than similarities. Perhaps political language does that to avoid primary keys.
To my mind, the use of Mussolini’s dictum as a totalitarian primary key is particularly useful when we consider the political nature of the climate change movement. Looked at in this way, the climate change movement clearly shares the same primary key as communism, fascism and socialism. For example, we could reformulate the whole movement in this way –
Everything in the Planet, nothing outside the Planet, nothing against the Planet.
Yet it could be made more general such as –
Everything in the Schema, nothing outside the Schema, nothing against the Schema.
Where Schema could be anything from a political movement to the planet to political correctness generally. It highlights how political correctness shares the primary key derived from Mussolini but in a more general sense.
A useful aspect of this approach is that the Schema itself becomes a series of political secondary keys, but the essential primary key is still there. The primary key says there is to be no political escape route. You are ours it says and the message is unmistakably totalitarian.
And COP26 is a totalitarian political rally.
3 comments:
Quoting from another article at
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/mayhem_madness_authoritarian_monsters_wreak_havoc_on_our_freedoms
"From the moment we are born until we die, we are indoctrinated into believing that those who rule us do it for our own good. The truth is far different."
Perhaps "Everything for the elite, nothing outside the elite, nothing against the elite"
The Green movement might be the final and definitive totalitarianism. The basic tenet is that nothing in nature must be destroyed, everything must be left as it is. That's why it appeals to soppy middle class liberals, who don't like confronting or breaking anything or standing up for their own interests. The only thing which is to be opposed is "denial", which is anyone who disagrees with them. And all their repressed anger will be directed at the deniers and dissidents because it has nowhere else to go.
DJ - that's a good quote. Altruism only goes so far and there is no reason to suppose that those who govern us also respect us. Or even like us for that matter.
Sam - it certainly seems to be going that way. Something else could emerge of course, but working out what that might be is not at all easy.
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