{"id":182531,"date":"2019-01-22T07:39:41","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T07:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=182531"},"modified":"2019-01-25T06:45:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T06:45:37","slug":"the-people-know-what-they-want-and-just-might-get-it-good-and-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=182531","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The People\u2019 Know What They Want and Just Might Get It \u2013 Good and Hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

James George Jatras \u2013 Strategic Culture Jan 19, 2019<\/h1>\n
\"Demonstrators<\/a>

Demonstrators during a protest of \u201cyellow vests\u201d against rising oil prices and living costs, near the Champs Elysees in Paris, France, on December 1, 2018. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

A survey of nations in what was once known quaintly as the Free World shows some of them engaged in what could best be described as a\u00a0cold civil war<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a condition is inherently unstable. One possible future is one where the cold conflict becomes hot with unforeseeable consequences. Another is that one side successfully represses the other before violence reaches a certain threshold.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now before we go any further, let\u2019s make one thing clear. Whatever the country and its specific ills, we can be sure that Vladimir Putin is the culprit. According to\u00a0Stephen Collinson of\u00a0CNN<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/em>(\u201cAnother good day for Putin as turmoil grips US and UK\u201d):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018In London, Theresa May on Tuesday\u00a0suffered the worst defeat in the modern parliamentary era<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0by a prime minister, as lawmakers shot down her Brexit deal with the European Union by a staggering 432 votes to 202.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The United States, meanwhile, remains locked in its longest-ever government\u00a0shutdown, which is now entering its 26th day<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, is nowhere near ending and is the culmination of two years of whirling political chaos sparked by President Donald Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018It’s hard to believe that two such robust democracies, long seen by the rest of the world as beacons of stability, have dissolved into such bitter civic dysfunction and seem unmoored from their previous governing realities. [ \u2026 ]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The result is that Britain and the United States are all but ungovernable on the most important questions that confront both nations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018That’s music to Putin’s ears.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The Russian leader has made disrupting liberal democracies a core principle of his near two-decade rule, as he seeks to avenge the fall of the Soviet empire, which he experienced as a heartbroken KGB agent in East Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Russia has been\u00a0accused of meddling in both the Brexit<\/strong><\/span> v<\/a>ote and the\u00a0US election in 2016<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/a>— the critical events that fomented the current crisis of the West.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t exactly clear how the \u201cmeddling\u201d of which the coryphaeus of the Kremlin is merely \u201caccused\u201d managed to entice Theresa May into\u00a0botching (or sabotaging) Brexit talks<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>or to embolden Donald Trump into finally\u00a0standing his ground on his top campaign pledge<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. Even Collinson admits that folks in the US and UK may have had something to do with the ruckus: \u201cSupporters of Trump in the US and Brexit in Britain see their revolts as uprisings against distant or unaccountable leaders who no longer represent them or share their values.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Harrumph<\/a><\/strong><\/span>! Why should anyone care what the great unwashed think about accountability or values? What matters, say \u201cskeptics\u201d like Collinson, is that the proles\u2019 getting uppity might be \u201cdeeply corrosive to the international political architecture that has prevailed for over 70 years.\u201d Let\u2019s get our priorities straight!<\/span><\/p>\n

While Britain and the US are entertaining distractions, the current main feature is the\u00a0jacquerie<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0going on in France. To be sure, many wonder if\u00a0les gilets jaunes<\/em>\u00a0are a genuine, grassroots rebellion of ordinary Frenchmen, or some kind of Astroturf comparable to \u201ccolor revolutions\u201d that western governments and their accomplices like George Soros have sponsored in many countries. While there is some evidence of\u00a0agents provocateurs<\/em>\u00a0(the expression is French, after all) working for the\u00a0Emmanuel Macron regime<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u2013 can we start using that word now, like \u201cAssad regime,\u201d \u201cPutin regime,\u201d etc.? \u2013 and minor involvement of groups like Antifa committing vandalism with an aim to discredit the yellow vests, the definitive attestation of authenticity was pronounced by world-class\u00a0poseur\u00a0and shill for plutocracy and warmongering,\u00a0Bernard-Henri L\u00e9vy<\/a><\/strong><\/span>: \u201cIt\u2019s a real social movement, but it\u2019s one driven by sad, mortifying, and destructive forces.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Any movement L\u00e9vy calls sad, mortifying, and destructive \u2013 that\u2019s French for \u201cdeplorable\u201d \u2013 can\u2019t be all bad, especially with\u00a0some monarchists involved<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. It\u2019s rather ironic, though, given that barely a year ago some were comparing vain little\u00a0Macron to Napoleon<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is perhaps most detestable to\u00a0bien pensants\u00a0like Collinson and L\u00e9vy is that the social basis of the yellow vests is readily identifiable. They\u2019re who we used to call simply French working people. As geographer\u00a0Christopher Guilluy describes in\u00a0Spiked<\/a><\/strong><\/span>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Paris creates enough wealth for the whole of France, and London does the same in Britain. But you cannot build a society around this. The\u00a0gilets jaunes<\/em>\u00a0is a revolt of the working classes who live in these places.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018They tend to be people in work, but who don\u2019t earn very much, between 1000\u20ac and 2000\u20ac per month. Some of them are very poor if they are unemployed. Others were once middle-class. What they all have in common is that they live in areas where there is hardly any work left. They know that even if they have a job today, they could lose it tomorrow and they won\u2019t find anything else.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Not only does peripheral France fare badly in the modern economy, it is also culturally misunderstood by the elite. \u2026 One illustration of this cultural divide is that most modern, progressive social movements and protests are quickly endorsed by celebrities, actors, the media and the intellectuals. But none of them approve of the\u00a0gilets jaunes<\/em>. Their emergence has caused a kind of psychological shock to the cultural establishment. It is exactly the same shock that the British elites experienced with the Brexit vote and that they are still experiencing now, three years later.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The Brexit vote had a lot to do with culture, too, I think. It was more than just the question of leaving the EU. Many voters wanted to remind the political class that they exist. That\u2019s what French people are using the\u00a0gilets jaunes<\/em>\u00a0for \u2013 to say\u00a0we exist. We are seeing the same phenomenon in populist revolts across the world. [ \u2026 ]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The Parisian economy needs executives and qualified professionals. It also needs workers, predominantly immigrants, for the construction industry and catering et cetera. Business relies on this very specific demographic mix. The problem is that \u2018the people\u2019 outside of this still exist. In fact, \u2018Peripheral France\u2019 actually encompasses the majority of French people. [ \u2026 ]<\/span><\/p>\n

Think of the \u2018deplorables\u2019 evoked by Hillary Clinton. There is a similar view of the working class in France and Britain. They are looked upon as if they are some kind of Amazonian tribe. The problem for the elites is that it is a very big tribe.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The middle-class reaction to the yellow vests has been telling. Immediately, the protesters were denounced as xenophobes, anti-Semites and homophobes. The elites present themselves as anti-fascist and anti-racist but this is merely a way of defending their class interests. It is the only argument they can muster to defend their status, but it is not working anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Now the elites are afraid. For the first time, there is a movement which cannot be controlled through the normal political mechanisms. The\u00a0gilets jaunes<\/em>\u00a0didn\u2019t emerge from the trade unions or the political parties. It cannot be stopped. There is no \u2018off\u2019 button. Either the intelligentsia will be forced to properly acknowledge the existence of these people, or they will have to opt for a kind of soft totalitarianism.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, \u201csoft totalitarianism\u201d is not out of the question, whether in France or other countries in which populism threatens to upend the elites\u2019 neoliberal gravy train and all the social and moral baggage that comes with it. Guilluy sees the revolt in France as beyond control by the \u201cnormal political mechanisms.\u201d That may be true, at least in France, at least for now.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the US may be another story. At the end of this week all Washington was atwitter with an alleged bombshell (relax, in the US legacy media every other story is a \u201cbombshell,\u201d especially if it involves dirt on Trump) that former Trump attorney, \u201cfixer,\u201d and\u00a0alleged literal bagman<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Michael Cohen had actually been instructed by his erstwhile client to commit perjury. Unlike much else thrown at Trump, this story (reported in\u00a0Buzzfeed<\/em>, which by total coincidence\u00a0played a key early role in publicizing<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>the\u00a0US-UK Deep\u2019s State<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u2019s \u201cdirty dossier<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u201d) would constitute an impeachable crime. In an extraordinary move, Grand Inquisitor Robert Mueller released a statement through a spokesman\u00a0indicating the report was \u201cnot accurate\u201d but not specifying in what regard<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. As of this writing\u00a0Buzzfeed\u00a0<\/em>stands by the story and asked for clarification by Mueller\u2019s office<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, which may or may not be forthcoming.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever the fate of this report, make no mistake: there will be more of the same,\u00a0an endless parade of them<\/a>.\u00a0The fact that such reports might turn out not to be true makes little difference<\/strong>.\u00a0Their existence is sufficient to keep Trump constantly on the defensive\u00a0pending his removal<\/a><\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0one way or another<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elizabethtown College Professor Emeritus Paul Gottfried<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0describes how grandees of the GOP are already getting set to restore the\u00a0status quo ante<\/em>\u00a0in collusion with their nominal Democrat adversaries once the interloper is gone:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018\u2026 in the next few years, a working alliance will develop between regular Democrats\u2014particularly New Democrats from red states\u2014and the milquetoast Republican establishment. \u2026 Such an alliance would reflect electoral reality, as the Right seems to be growing weaker, not stronger, since the election of Trump two years ago. The ever ambitious Mitt Romney fired on his party\u2019s leader prematurely, but his political instincts may be right after all. The GOP is likely to move leftward because\u00a0that\u2019s where a majority of the voters are<\/strong><\/span>,<\/a>\u00a0and if this happens to Trump\u2019s detriment, Romney will hope to pick up the pieces. Neoconservatives and much of the authorized conservative movement would no doubt welcome the Utah senator or someone like him as the kind of \u201cconservative\u201d they could work with were he to run for the presidency.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018If the elections since 2018 have shown anything, it\u2019s this: blue electoral areas have remained quite solid, while traditionally red ones, even in the Deep South, are up for grabs. That\u2019s because the party perceived as being further to the left has benefited from its growing coalition. If there\u2019s another explanation, I can\u2019t seem to find it. It would not be unusual to have two national parties that are recognizably on the left contending for power. The parties now running the major Western European countries are all to the left of our present GOP.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018In a possible alliance, the GOP, as the ideologically and electorally weaker side, will readily cooperate with establishment Democrats. They will undoubtedly find such shared concerns as confronting Putin \u201cthe thug\u201d and supporting the Likud Party in Israel. They should have no trouble reaching an agreement on giving amnesty to all non-criminal illegal immigrants once Trump is no longer on the scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018There is no reason to think that this political shift won\u2019t continue. We are looking at a process that\u2019s been brought about by college educators, the culture industry, the mass media, and mass immigration, and the momentum may be extremely hard to reverse or even to stop. America\u2019s future won\u2019t necessarily be British Columbia\u2019s, whose provincial legislature features only\u00a0parties of the left<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0and which hasn\u2019t elected a conservative to a provincial office since the early 1990s.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

The celebrated Sage of Baltimore,\u00a0H. L. Mencken observed<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0that \u201cDemocracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.\u201d This begs the question, though, of who the \u201ccommon people\u201d are. In contrast to France, where Guilluy\u2019s \u201cperipheral France\u201d is still a majority of the French population, US elites in both parties are looking to the day when America\u2019s \u201cdeplorables\u201d are a minority (which we already may be) that will continue to shrink. Anyone who might object to\u00a0ethnic and moral replacement<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0is clearly a racist and \u201cwhite supremacist<\/a><\/strong><\/span>,\u201d comparable to France\u2019s \u201cxenophobes, anti-Semites and homophobes.\u201d In the not too distant future, Guilluy\u2019s \u201cnormal political mechanisms\u201d may be more than sufficient to handle\u00a0what\u2019s left of a disappearing America<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

If Trump is going to build that Wall<\/a><\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0he\u2019d better do it damn fast<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Popular disconent is growing across the West. James George Jatras explains why the elite should be worried<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=182531"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182537,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182531\/revisions\/182537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=182531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=182531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=182531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}