Wednesday 13 April 2022
Isolated by an entourage
And for eighteen years now he had been shut up in the Vatican, isolated from the rest of mankind and communicating with the nations solely through his entourage, which was often most unintelligent, most mendacious, and most treacherous.
Emile Zola – Rome (1896)
Zola is referring to Pope Leo XIII, but this is an entirely familiar problem - leaders isolated from the outside world within a leadership clique. Common enough throughout history, but our political leaders try to persuade us that it isn’t a problem - that they listen to us. Suppose we highlight the issue of modern leadership isolation by taking an extreme example such as Kim Jong-un of North Korea.
Not easy because good information is not readily available, but we know enough to see Kim as a man completely surrounded by advisers, servants, guards and senior officials. Surrounded by his entourage all day, every day for as long as he remains in power.
Suppose we widen the focus from Kim himself to his immediate entourage then their entourages and so on down through the bureaucracy. This gives us Swamp(NK) as the wider ruling clique, the complex bureaucracy which serves and maintains the system. It projects Kim as a cult figure, a personification of the regime. Kim himself may be isolated from everything but Swamp(NK), but the system he represents is not his. He inherited it from his father and grandfather.
Moving on to actors on other political stages such as Joe Biden or Boris Johnson. Maybe they are less isolated by Swamp(US) or Swamp(UK), but part of that is due to their affiliation with Swamp(EU), Swamp(UN) and Swamp(Global). They too have no need to escape into the reality most voters know.
Kim Jong-un highlights the level of elite isolation which is possible, but even within democracies, elite isolation from real life is still a major feature of political life. It is impossible to vote against Swamp(NK), but hardly any easier to vote against Swamp(UK) or Swamp(US). Allowing the UK electorate to vote against Swamp(EU) was an aberration. It is unlikely to be repeated.
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7 comments:
The problem with Trump was that he had not spent his adult life as part of the political swamp. Washington DC really dislikes outsiders. That was probably part of the problem Carter had too, explaining the disproportionately bad press he got.
Looking back, how much of Watergate was Nixon's own fault, how much of it was a coup? Even though he'd been VP the swamp loathed him.
Yes, this is the "two faces of political power" outlined by academics Bachrach and Baratz. The first is decision-making: when you are able to take a decision which makes someone else do something differently. The second is non-decision making: when you are able to rig the agenda or otherwise control the process of what decisions get to be made.
Politicians like to pretend that most power consists of the first type. But in fact, most of what they do is ignoring protests and ensuring that contentious issues don't come anywhere near a vote. As you say, they fumbled Brexit. But there is still the evidential base for AGW, the lack of alternatives to fossil fuels, the complaints of white Brits that they feel like strangers in their own country, and the manifold failures of the NHS and the education system to suppress. It's a big job, and they are helped by legions of useful idiots who are happy to label concerned citizens as "climate change deniers", "unscientific", "racist", and whatever term describes someone who wonders why our NHS has not been copied by any other country.
Yes people have always been unable to vote against the 'swamp'. The only alternative is violent insurrection or when a cataclysmic event like a war or plague intervenes.
Zola and Kim Jong ... heady combination.
On the other hand the Kennedys were Washington insiders from a well established Democrat gangster family. Yet they were bumped off. By whom?
With JFK you have to suspect a conspiracy because (i) Oswald was assassinated too, and (ii) the man who gained was LBJ, one of the vilest men ever to be Prez. But who knows? Only people who are dead by now, I'd think.
With RFK: dunno. RFK's son believes it wasn't Sirhan Sirhan wot dunnit. LBJ again? But if so who did he have pull the trigger?
As it has borne in on me over the last few years just how malevolent The Swamp is I've wondered whether the assassination attempt on Reagan should be reinvestigated. Pointless, I suppose.
I've stumbled across an interesting bit of musical criticism.
There are three kinds of rocks, ingenious, sedentary and metaphoric.
dearieme - according to Conrad Black, not much of Watergate was Nixon's own fault. Washington DC seems to dislike outsiders but also seem to fear them.
Sam - I saw lots of non-decision making in the public sector. You are right, most of what politicians do is ignoring protests and ensuring that contentious issues don't come anywhere near a vote. They also hide the source of those decisions, as if their main task is to take the flak and ultimately be rewarded by the revolving door.
Tammly - a sudden and radical change in voting might have some effect, but it seems unlikely. Things would have to be very bad before serious unrest becomes likely, although these things can be triggered quite unexpectedly.
James - but only one is worth reading.
dearieme - over the past few years the malevolent nature of The Swamp has impressed itself on me too. Much worse than I previously assumed. I can see it divided into factions which would contemplate bumping off prominent figures such as JFK.
dearieme - ha ha - sedentary rock sounds like my kind of rock.
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