I have felt strangely ambivalent about the events underlining Trump's political dissolution. As he fades into narcissistic array, amid deliberately consistent lies, his elite among the groomed working class engage in what some mistakenly call 'insurrection'. It isn't; it's the reactionary rump of a rusted corrupt and racist hegemony beating its chest. The saddest part of all is that these may well rank among Trump's greatest victims, when they face the legislation he himself instituted, to their cheers. Put in place to deal with the perceived threat of the 'far left' (i.e. black people).
They are storming the infrastructure of a state in the same way that overweight neo nazis (look at their tattoos) defended statues of Churchill from the same 'baying mob'). They did it not because it aligned with their ideology, but because they have been conditioned by that same state into becoming its citizen defenders. This fact is reinforced further when the police, it's legitimate (according to the state) defenders, "stand back and stand by".
WHy are people still surprised at this? The role of the police is to protect and serve...the state. Sure they might chase a burglar or find a missing kid, but that's ancillary. Their fundamental function is preservation of the status quo. These so called insurrectionists are only being supported by them because they share the same goal, and the same colour. If they were anything likt he revolutionaries they've been convinced to identify with they would be shot. If they were black (or any ethnic minority, tbf)...
This is purposeless and chaotic. It will be described, with tedious inaccuracy, as anarchism. Again false: anarchy is rule by direct grassroots democracy. Not a society without rules. The question anarchism poses is in where the power lies: who gets to make the rules. These 'insurrectionists' aren't looking to change rules, they are raging because they've been carefully convinced, by a media that inspires rage but never provides solutions or explanations. A media that, crucially, never questions power, in fact it seeks to deflect; that's what lies behind the rage inducing headlines. All of which reinforce the status quo, the unbalanced violent hegemony that the 'insurrectionists' are defending, though they have no idea how.
Ultimately a genuine working class insurrection, that is, a revolution, will have to address state power. This too will involve the question of approaching its infrastructure, such as Capital Hill, or Westminster. People quick to criticise these events mistakenly claim these are the 'people's' places. This is 'our' seat of democracy. It isn't. These are the palaces of the ruling class - why are there cops in the first place if they belong to everyone. I don't have cops protecting my home. You are not welcome there, not without some serious vetting and a purpose the ruling class accepts. You certainly can't just walk in and demand answers from the people who lie to you telling you that they are your servants. The truth is quite the reverse.
Unless your purpose in visiting is to protect it from its enemies, in this case Trump's ideological enemies. The sad reality is that Biden isn't. He's another rich capitalist installed to represent rich capitalists. He isn't revolutionary and never will be. Ironically, for all his narcissism ignorance and cruelty, Trump is more of a revolutionary. That is what the ruling class feared and that is the beast the Republicans unleased. Now they are reaping the orange whirlwind. I'll drain the swamp he said, while pointing to foreigners and paupers. The tragedy is that his ideological opponents, i.e. the Democrats, are indeed the swamp. But then so is he. One rich ruling elite scumbag is no different to the other, when it comes to the lives of the working class.
Like it or not, that's who's storming the Bastille right now. They are our brothers and sisters and the ugly truth is that they have been expertly lied to and manipulated. This is the ultimate play of divide and rule. Their only real crime (thus far) is being gullible, but then poverty will make you that way.
No comments:
Post a Comment