tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post3562708395417345020..comments2024-03-29T09:14:53.583+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Laclau on PopulismPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-54665349283086888252019-05-20T13:47:03.555+01:002019-05-20T13:47:03.555+01:00(When I use the word you or your I do not literall...(When I use the word you or your I do not literally mean the author!)<br />Populism is a pejorative term because it assumes your analysis is correct and objective whereas those of your enemies are irrational, it assumes the people who support you are logical and the people who support your opponents are illogical. In other words you embody everything that is intelligent and thoughtful and your opponents pander to ignorance and prejudice.<br /><br />Now I am perfectly willing to accept the latter but less willing to then assume you embody all that is intelligent and thoughtful. For example my claim is that much of liberal politics is simply the reverse side of the coin from so called populist politics, in other words it isn’t built on any objective scientific analysis but is simply one assertion put forward to negate another assertion. It is a battle of ideologies with erroneous claims.<br /><br />Doesn’t the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau sum up liberalism? He speaks of transgender and women’s rights while at the same time he dumps toxic waste on the poorest people and does everything in his power to keep doing it!<br /><br />The other thing about populism is that it assumes anything popular is somehow based on ignorance, so it’s the actual opposite of democracy. Democracy assumes that 100 people will make better decisions than 1 person whereas those who bandy about populism fear the decisions of the 100 and therefore reverse the equation. For them 2 ‘informed’ people make better decisions than 100 people without a firm grasp of the facts. This assumes that facts are more important than people’s innate sensory perception and their ability to process information sub consciously to arrive at decisions that result in better outcomes. Underlying this is the assumption that machines should not only replace human physical labour but also should replace human experience. Machines know what is best for humans more than the humans do! This fits in very well with capitalisms general dehumanising affects.<br /><br />Populism is also a loaded term because they don’t call it nicheism, the fact that they call it populist and not for example atomist politics is because the people who use the term have a negative view of the masses, especially when they come together to express shared opinions. Personally I think atomism is a better word, these are opinions not of a shared popular group but are the fragments of a strategy to divide and conquer.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-85309936187420058192019-05-16T07:18:29.208+01:002019-05-16T07:18:29.208+01:00You can never exclude the hard right permanently b...You can never exclude the hard right permanently because it is not a political opinion but a characteristic. <br /><br />As you say, populism is politics-neutral, its a strategy, something the USSR used effectively until a cocktail of economic failure, outside competition and sheer political error led to its downfall. It is not even political - religion is almost defined by them and us. <br /><br />You lost me on some of the technical stuff, but it seems to me that what you're saying is populism needs fertile ground. The fertile ground of Brexit (if we concentrate on elder voters) has been long in preparation - there is as you have said the economic aspect of accumulated wealth and security, but also the specific attributes of a generation of Baby Boomers who first "threw off the shackles" of the 50s and 60s (actually thought they did - a bourgeois revolution) and then shaped by Thatcherism, the long tail of the class system and the right-hegemony of the mass media. <br /><br />You can slice this cake however you like - a populism for millennials? Maybe an Instagram star. The problem is democracy (it wasn't a "problem" in the USSR as it was a means of control). Populism cannot deliver in democracy (because by definition populism is undeliverable) but it can destroy it. <br /><br />It's like a dragon in GoT - whoever's got one is going to turn into a despot basically, and burn down Kings Landing. <br />Speedynoreply@blogger.com