26 april 2019, chaos, calamity, catastrophe: things can only get…

Friday 26th April 2019

It’s one of those periods where anyone who thinks they understand what’s going on doesn’t understand what’s going on. Like an itch that must be scratched, brexit is the boil that can’t be lanced and british politics remains entrancing as it gets even worse. May’s local then european elections are likely to shake foundations further, with the new brexit party of jack-in-the-box nigel farage (“the most successful politician of our era”, see 22 december 2017, ever-shrinking england goes back to black) set to win an online election (it’s worth watching carole cadwalladr’s ted talk), precipitating more splintering of the main parties, probably a new prime minister and probably the general election no-one wants. At some point, the emergency trap door of revoking article 50 will look a tempting option. I fear. Britain’s collapse into self-induced self-obsession comes at a terrible time, as a tide of populism swells across europe, egged on by a manical american leadership that normalises aggressive ignorance (see 23 august 2018, little amber man) and the supposed stability of the strongman model, in russia, turkey and china, just to mention a fifth of the world’s population, exerts an ever stronger pull in the world’s consciousness. Defenders of the post-war international architecture built on a common vision have deserted their posts and nativism is sweeping the world, even as mass media technology opens ever more of it up to ever greater numbers of poor but increasingly ambitious and discontented people. The world is in a funk, entirely complacent about economic progress and global peace. All momentum is with the forces of regression and sentiment; imprudence and exaggeration pay, consensus and reason do not. Global conflict is no longer unthinkable, the hopefulness of the baby boomers weaned on prosperity rapidly becoming history. The future looks an increasingly dark place and incredibly, tragically, rather than playing its part in renewing the global bonds of international consensus, the uk looks to be amongst the first heading into the pit.