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Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan. Toilets
with Mozart’s music. On Sunday May 19, 2005. Photography by Vicente
Alonso-Fontelos.
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By Vicente
Alonso-Fontelos.
Sixty-one percent of Britons who voted
to leave the European Union believe their children will have less than their
parents. Fifty years ago, several million British households
did not have flushing toilets.
What is populism? I like Pierre Rosanvallon’s definition: “Populism is
not just an ideology. It is a perverse inversion of the ideals and procedures
of democracy.”
We remember the unforgettable image, of Brexit campaign, of a
middle-aged woman, wrapped in in the Union Jack, with her fist raised and
spitting poison. And I read in The Daily
Telegraph: “One of the reasons we voted Leave is to inoculate ourselves
against Europe's toxic brand of populism” (Stanley,15 Dec 2018: 22).
Helmut Dubiel wrote a paper titled, “The Specter of Populism”, in the Berkeley
Journal of Sociology (1986): “The
popularity of the Falkland war amongst the British public was supposed to have
been "populist”. The young Tim Stanley, PhD in Philosophy, didn’t read Berkeley
Journal of Sociology at this time,
I supposed.
If European unification was conceived in fear to Europeans’ wars between self. UK have not break off that atavist fear to lose your own sovereignty. But British nationalism have transformed on an unhinged behavior. And this nationalism in angry populism.
Ronald F. Inglehart and Pippa Norris written: “poorer white populations
living in inner-city areas with concentrations of immigrants—susceptible to the
anti-establishment, nativist, and xenophobic scare-mongering exploited of
populist movements,
parties, and leaders, blaming ‘Them’ for stripping prosperity, job
opportunities, and public services from ‘Us’.
Nativist is key word in depth meaning of Tim Stanley. All nationalists,
populists and future neo-fascists do not understand how that process happens
through themselves. But the beginning is the same: vaccinate ourselves ... or
inoculate us from the others ... Hence the irrational fear of outsiders, who do
not share the background, language and habits of the dominant tribe.
Nigel Farage is a populist born,
eaten, drunk and educated like a pure Briton. Or is he a pure French? Populism
is heroin in vein, and when you want to quit, you're hooked and you will sell
your soul for a dose.
On Sunday, October 4, 1936, the black-shirted British Union of Fascists
led by Oswald Mosley marched in support of his anti-Semitic policies. The
anti-Fascists launched a counterdemonstration, and almost 100 people were
arrested in the fighting that followed, dubbed the Battle of Cable Street. […] The
sight of Mosley on the streets of London made people aware of what was
happening and what could happen if they were allowed to get away with it"
(Lewis, 2006: 32).
Who would have imagined that the land of the Levellers’ thought, An Agreement of the Free People of England and the Putney Debates, would become the nation of European populism bitterly divided?
Rainborough's claimed on 29th October 1647: “I desired that those that
had engaged in it [might be included]. For really I think that the poorest he
that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he; and therefore
truly, sir, I think it's clear, that every man that is to live under a
government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government”
(Woodhouse, 1951: 53).
Now, the black-shirted are yellow vests. Colors change. New times. Although
it seems that the disappearance of British flushing
toilets is not in
danger. Another issue is toilet paper, mostly from the continent. Populist loo
paper, of course. But in the pub discussions between pint and pint of beer,
everyone will agree to use or not Times’
torn-up newspaper to wipe British bottoms with the picture of his Majesty:
God Save the Queen!
References
Dubiel, H., 1986. The Specter of Populism. Berkeley Journal of
Sociology, Vol. 31, pp. 79-91.
Inglehart, R. F. & Norris, P., 2016. Trump, Brexit, and the Rise of
Populism: Economic have-nots and cultural backlash. Annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia.
Lewis, G., 2006. “International Brigade Medic.” Military History, 23, 2; pg. 32.
Rosanvallon, P., 2008. Counter-Democracy.
Politics in an Age of Distrust. New York. Cambridge University Press.
Stanley, T., 15 Dec 2018. Why you
must turn to Twitter if you want a true picture of modern Britain. The Daily Telegraph, London: 22.
Woodhouse, A.S.P. 1951. Puritanism
and Liberty. Begin the Army Debates (1647-9) from the Clarke Manuscripts.
The University of Chicago Press, p. 53.
