{"id":27164,"date":"2019-12-30T20:18:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T02:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=27164"},"modified":"2019-12-30T20:19:42","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T02:19:42","slug":"drawing-parallelograms-can-be-tricky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2019\/12\/30\/drawing-parallelograms-can-be-tricky\/","title":{"rendered":"Drawing Parallelograms Can Be Tricky"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reader sends a link to an interview<\/a> in ThoughtEconomics<\/strong><\/em> with Ece Temelkuran, a Turk forecasting doom if we don’t all become socialists – immediately<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 Why are nationalism and populism creeping back into our world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Ece Temelkuran]:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>The\u00a0Second World War<\/a>\u00a0taught us a specific aesthetic of\u00a0fascism<\/a>.\u00a0 We always imagine that Nazi uniform, and the kind of futuristic authoritarian settings we see on Netflix and HBO.\u00a0 In our culture, we see the\u00a0uniform<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0militaristic<\/em>\u00a0as the representations of authoritarianism and fascism.<\/p>\n

Today, right-wing populism, authoritarianism and\u00a0neo-fascism<\/a>\u00a0are coming from different places.\u00a0 Reality TV stars, strange men, and people who otherwise would be considered national jokes.\u00a0 Many of today\u2019s right-wing populist leaders are political figures that nobody really took seriously from the beginning.\u00a0 Nobody expected that neo-fascism could take hold with swagger, in such a laid-back manner.<\/p>\n

To understand\u00a0why<\/em>\u00a0these phenomena are creeping back into our world, you have to look for the roots.\u00a0\u00a0Neoliberalism<\/a>\u00a0has- since the 1970s- imposed this idea that the free-market economy is the best (and most ethical<\/em>) system humanity can come up with to organise itself.\u00a0 Neoliberalism changed the definition of what human fundamental morals are, and what justice means \u2013 and it\u2019s created a new kind of\u00a0being<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 It tends to be the\u00a0extreme<\/em>\u00a0examples of neoliberal being that disgusts, appalls and surprises us \u2013 but those are also the people who have become the leaders of our world.<\/p>\n

The neoliberalist model has been put forward as a solution to which there is\u00a0no<\/em>\u00a0alternative; we\u2019ve crippled the political spectrum, cut the left away, and shifted everything to the right.\u00a0 Politics has become a competition, who can be\u00a0further<\/em>\u00a0right \u2013 and who can further deliver numbing of the mind through consumerism \u2013 after all\u2026 people are only\u00a0allowed<\/em>\u00a0to be free when they consume, and thus we are political objects, not political subjects\u2026<\/p>\n

Politics has become entertainment \u2013 and people feel like their opinions do not matter any more\u2026 this became clear after the\u00a0Iraq invasion<\/a>\u00a0when millions of people took to the streets of Europe, and saw that their call for peace meant\u00a0nothing<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Now? people carry this sense of being a political\u00a0object<\/em>\u00a0as a badge of honour \u2013 they want strong powerful men to be in charge\u2026 they want bold action like the suspension of parliament\u2026. There is an incredible willingness to be\u00a0shepherded<\/em>\u00a0and that\u2019s only because we\u2019ve lost faith in democracy, in politics and\u00a0ourselves<\/em>\u00a0as political subjects.<\/p>\n

The de-politicisation of media has also emboldened all of this \u2013 the obsession with objectivity has become a substitute for\u00a0neutrality<\/em>.\u00a0 The vast majority of the world\u2019s mainstream media have become obsessed with being neutral, and have done so at the cost of forgetting their main job \u2013 holding power to account, asking questions to power, and giving a voice to the voiceless.\u00a0 In many ways, the media have become their own class \u2013 an elite of sorts\u2026 that has cut ties with unions and politics\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was interesting in that she virtually calls for the politicization of the media. But we’ve seen how that plays out here in the States with the megaphones of the fringe-right-wing, such as Fox News <\/strong><\/em>and Breitbart<\/strong><\/em> – anything from carefully manipulated reporting to out and out lies. Temelkuran may decry the loss of those links between unions, politics, and the media as diagnostic of the imminent failure of democracies, but for me those links lead to propaganda, and I’m allergic to that favorite organ of political zealots, regardless of the stripe.<\/p>\n

If we – and I mean everyone, not just the socialists, or the communists, or the liberals, or anyone else who wants to spit on all of their political rivals – are to solve the problems facing the world, we need a commonly agreed upon collection of facts<\/em>, and that is best provided by media which embraces the neutral[1]<\/sup><\/a> stance in its reporting, though not necessarily in its editorial stance. Temelkuran, in this instance, reminds me of a lot of political zealots I’ve known who view the media as evil because they’re not on the side favored by the zealot in question. Their moral certitude makes me question their maturity.<\/p>\n

Q: What are\u00a0populism<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0nationalism<\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Ece Temelkuran]:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Today, there is less time to understand the differences between nationalism, populism and authoritarianism.\u00a0 In Britain, democracy is\u00a0literally<\/em>\u00a0crumbling at the hands of a strange guy with funny hair!\u00a0 People simply aren\u2019t recognising the dangers that lay ahead, so there\u2019s not enough time to get into definitions<\/p>\n

One truth is that you cannot really know what populism is until you\u00a0experience<\/em> it.\u00a0 Populism is the act of politicising and mobilising ignorance to the point of political and moral insanity.\u00a0 Nationalism as we know, comes from the phenomena of nation-states \u2013 and it\u2019s quite ironic therefore that we are now talking more and more about the failure of nation states and the failure of supranational and international institutions as well\u2026 and meanwhile neo-nationalism is on the rise. …<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 How can we\u00a0fight<\/em>\u00a0the growth of authoritarianism?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Ece Temelkuran]:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0People sometimes look to the Middle East to see where things are going wrong, but I must say\u2026 in Turkey, perhaps our democracy was stronger \u2013 it took decades for Erdo\u011fan to achieve what Boris Johnson did in a few weeks\u2026 maybe we had a better resistance\u2026<\/p>\n

I have to say though, it\u2019s difficult to find something\u00a0positive<\/em>\u00a0to say about the fight against authoritarianism in the middle east but I am incredibly inspired by the fight of young women in Turkey and the Middle East \u2013 fighting for democracy with their lives\u2026 they are unstoppable\u2026<\/p>\n

When it comes to Europe and the Western democracies; we have to take to the streets and make ourselves heard \u2013 end of story.\u00a0 We have to organise, mobilise and politicise\u2026 we have to use those good old-fashioned tools of politics, they\u2019re the ones that count.\u00a0 We have to show-up! We have to fight, we have to get out onto the streets and change things.<\/p>\n

Since the 1970s it\u2019s almost become a\u00a0taboo<\/em>\u00a0to talk of conflict \u2013 we\u2019ve become a society geared around consensus, and co-existence \u2013 and this has domesticated politics in a dangerous way.\u00a0 The media have been too busy finding consensus with the Brexiteers and Trumpeteers to fight them.<\/p>\n

This is a political struggle and there is no politeness or kindness in this.\u00a0 It is very clear what one has to do if one has to defend her right.\u00a0 It is to fight back when there is oppression.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I must admit I react poorly to rhetoric meant to inflame the passions, especially when I can start raising objections as I read. The Turkish collapse of democracy has been almost entirely precipitated by the Islamists in their calls for Turkey to be an Islamic State, and all that goes along with theocracies. What theocrats of any stripe rarely anticipate – because God is on their side!<\/em> – is the moral collapse that accompanies the rule of those who believe they can do no wrong. We see this in Erdogan’s behavior, and while Trump was already morally collapsed before he was elected, it’s not difficult to see just about all of his religious supporters to now be in a similar state of moral collapse, in particular in the religious leaders who’ve refused to abandon him.<\/p>\n

But Temelkuran tries desperately to draw a parallel to Prime Minister Johnson in Great Britain, and I must say I am unconvinced. He and his party are not, as best I can tell, in the grip of religious mania or ideological madness, a remark which might apply more properly to the defeated Labour leadership and their dreams of re-nationalizing industries. Expatriate Andrew Sullivan has pointed out, following a visit to his former homeland, that the Brits had some legitimate concerns about how their country was being run and that they didn’t like it.<\/p>\n

It didn’t sound like religious mania. The appeal to nationalism sounds awful to those of us who have had to put up with the mendacious Make America Great Again<\/strong> slogan, but that word, nationalism<\/em>, lacks nuance. Nationalism is not innately evil. It, in fact, serves to keep New York City from building an army and invading Philly. Oh, you think that sounds stupid? Think of Greece back when it was Athens and Sparta and all the rest, fighting with each other, think about how, as the Islamic State was taking over cities in the Middle East, each city would be used to move on to the next.<\/p>\n

Nationalism is the name we use to explain why we don’t do that shit. Because we believe, from border to border, that we are a people sharing something important. Whether it’s a belief in freedom, or victimhood, or standing aloof from our neighbors on the Continent, nationalism is what keeps us from disintegrating into warring villages, or even feuding clans and even small families.<\/p>\n

And, of course, when used to build a fallacious superiority complex, it can lead to war & brutality. Nationalism is, like most tools, morally neutral; the responsibility for its end result lies with the people who’ve used it for good or bad ends.<\/p>\n

But we don’t have a good set adjectives to go with it. Turkish nationalism, American nationalism, British nationalism – these are not morally equivalent phrases. One cannot say Oh, they’re nationalists, they’re evil<\/em>! So when she decries a strange guy with funny hair!<\/em>, itself a red flag to the skeptical reader, for encouraging nationalism, it’s important to know and understand the particulars. Sullivan suggests<\/a> the Brits aren’t motivated by xenophobia and religious mania, but concerns that their governance isn’t coming from the people they elected, but from the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. Never mind if it’s an appropriate concern – we’re concerned about the roots, and these do not strike me as utterly irrational worries, unlike the America Christians who support Trump, or the Islamists in Turkey.<\/p>\n

So when Temelkuran tries to lump them altogether in an interview that makes my pulse race, it’s a big blinking red light that something’s wrong. And speaking of factual concerns, the introduction to this piece struck me as rhetoric to be wary of:<\/p>\n

Ece has seen this all before.\u00a0 In her incredible 2019 book\u00a0How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship<\/a>, she notes, \u201cWe have learned over time that coups in Turkey end the same way regardless of who initiated them. It\u2019s like the rueful quote from the former England footballer turned TV pundit\u00a0Gary Lineker<\/a>, that football is a simple game played for 120 minutes, and at the end the Germans win on penalties. In Turkey, coups are played out over forty-eight-hour curfews, and the leftists are locked up at the end. Then afterwards, of course, another generation of progressives is rooted out, leaving the country\u2019s soul even more barren than it was before.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a lovely summary that really evokes a sense of persecution and victimhood, isn’t it? It serves to bond together everyone who considers themselves to be like-minded.<\/p>\n

Here’s the problem:<\/p>\n

After that last Turkish coup attempt, it was the military who suffered<\/strong>. As the punishments mounted for those military members even suspected to be sympathetic to the coup, or of being a Gulenist<\/a>, former Turkish military members were recalled to their units in order to make their units operational again. Sure, the progressives might have been impacted as well, but they were not the sole, or even primary, victims.<\/p>\n

Binding disparate people together requires they have some shared, or potentially shared, experience, along with a reason they’re special. The above paragraph provides the persecutive behavior inflicted on the progressives, and how much of an impact on the country’s soul their absence has. It’s just about perfect.<\/p>\n

But when it omits facts, I become quite suspicious. The history of politics is positively full to the brim of manipulative slogans, rants, and any other form of communication you care to name, and I prefer to not be one of the victims.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a>1<\/sup> Long time readers might remember that I’ve treated the subject of neutral reporting <\/em>before. It means being fair-minded; it doesn’t mean allowing idiots and liars onto the stage. It means calling Trump a liar every time he lies or misleads. It means ignoring people who run around with their hair on fire crying about chemtrails or the world is flat or any other completely discredited nonsense. And it’s not as easy as it sounds, but it’s really what needs to happen. Just a mention in the mainstream media can lend credence to a goofball’s viewpoint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reader sends a link to an interview in ThoughtEconomics with Ece Temelkuran, a Turk forecasting doom if we don’t all become socialists – immediately: Q:\u00a0 Why are nationalism and populism creeping back into our world? [Ece Temelkuran]:\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0Second World War\u00a0taught us a specific aesthetic of\u00a0fascism.\u00a0 We always imagine that Nazi \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27164"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27168,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27164\/revisions\/27168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}