Populism Archives - The Naton State

It’s hard to find a more perfect convergence of culture, media and politics than the recent One World benefit concert to support the beleaguered World Health Organisation. Luminaries like Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder and Elton John have all given their time (and presumably some of their own money) to help plug the funding gap left by Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US taxpayer funding. In one way it’s a refreshing change to see our entertainment and business elite putting their hands in their own pockets rather than trying to guilt the coins out of ours; although how much of this sudden flowering of philanthropy was a knee-jerk reaction to what the diabolical Dorito Man just happened to be doing at the time remains debatable.

Given the increasing criticism of the WHO for failing to carry out its core function of protecting the world’s health while carrying water for Communist China, one might reasonably think that savvy celebrities (or their managers) would want to steer clear of that potential minefield. But no, they fell over themselves to publicly declare their unqualified support for an increasingly discredited globalist order. I suppose their behaviour makes sense when you consider how they and their friends have been the primary beneficiaries of the current status quo.

We shouldn’t be surprised really, because the last four years have proved beyond doubt that our business and cultural elites are steadfastly incapable of learning anything. If they were capable of learning at least a little, they wouldn’t keep making the same mistakes over and over again. I’m sure Einstein had something to say about that.

Brexit

It’s Class Consciousness, Jim, but not as we know it!

27 May 201930 April 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

The earth has heaved and the landscape can never return to its previous contours. Maps must be redrawn and a new language for navigation established following the seismic results of the European elections. Today the world looks different across the continent, not just in Britain.

The stunning success of the Brexit Party here in the UK is clearly driven by a deep seated resentment at the shameless shenanigans of our political class over the last three years. However, this uniquely British problem alone does not explain the triumph of Le Pen’s National Rally, Salvini’s Le ga or Kaczyński’s Law and Jus tice party to name but a few.

There can be no denying it any longer. National identity, Euroscepticism and populism are on the rise across the continent in a way that transcends language, custom and cultural differences. Whilst Farage’s Brexit Party shares some similarities with other Eurosceptic movements, there are also many differences between them. What binds them together in opposition to the centrist dominance of past decades is what Marxists would recognise as a growing sense of class consciousness.

It’s so much bigger than just Brexit. Here in Britain, what began as a poorly defined sense of alienation has developed into a clear realisation that a large percentage of the population are viewed as little more than dangerously ignorant tax fodder by the established political class. As a result of this realisation, the Brexiteers’ trust in political and cultural institutions has collapsed, to be replaced by an understanding that organisation and confrontation are the only viable methods to achieve their broader political and cultural goals.

Politics

Globalism, a Skyscraper Built on Sand

24 February 201928 April 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

The Eurozone is sliding into recession, again. France is on fire, again. Italy is in open revolt and nationalist populism is rapidly gaining ground across the entire Western world. We cower behind concrete as we wait for the inevitable Islamist attack while apologists for religious genocide walk among us unchallenged, and in many cases proactively protected by the establishment. In response to these crises of their own creation, our democratically elected governments conspire to stifle free speech and police unfashionable opinions in the name of security; the oldest Faustian bargain known to civic society.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. We were promised that a post-national world would usher in greater peace, prosperity and security for all. Instead we are reaping a bitter harvest of fragmentation and frustration first sowed by the post-Cold War consensus of neo-liberalism, a consensus which was foolproof, evidence-based and unassailable…right up until the moment it was properly tested in the real world.

To put it another way, our political, academic and media elites held certain truths to be self-evident without really thinking them through. Or even worse, they did think them through and pressed ahead anyway, knowing that the real-world burden of their lofty aspirations would be borne by those least able to resist the post-national reality they were never consulted about. That idea may sound a bit like a conspiracy theory, but it would help to explain the otherwise mystifying decades of hostility and organised vilification of all who dared to question whether borderless travel, mass migration, national outsourcing and state-sponsored multiculturalism are in fact unalloyed benefits. After all, if the establishment was so confident in the robustness of its ideas, why would it actively seek to destroy those who questioned the its orthodoxy?

Politics

Is Populism really a Problem?

19 November 20178 May 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

We’re supposed to think it is.

Just look at the havoc populism has wrought on our once stable, orderly and deeply contented Western societies. The seismic shock of Brexit, the Trumpocalypse, the rise of Front National and Germany’s current coalition woes are just a few examples of populism’s pernicious and harmful effects.

At every turn we see populism on the rise, more often than not defined as an entirely negative cultural and political force.

We can be certain in our analysis because our moral, intellectual and social betters inside the commentariat bubble have declared it to be so. You know the people I’m talking about; those highly educated, highly paid and infallible analysts who told us Britain would sink into the ocean the day after a Brexit vote. The ones who were certain Donald Trump had a less than 2% chance of becoming president. The ones who wrote off Jeremy Corbyn as a joke.