The free market individual is breeding fascism

The free market is dead along with its political bedfellow, individualism, but people simply cannot bring themselves to see that. I have been following the American election and have watched numerous programmes highlighting the industrial devastation that defiles large swathes of the United States, with whole townships in serious disrepair and what appears to be the entire American working class, if not unemployed, then verging on penury whether they are working or not. We in Britain are suffering the same phenomenon, and, as with the USA, it is almost entirely self-inflicted. For the past half century our populations have been listening to, and applauding, the siren voices of unscrupulous politicians singing the praises of the free market, of private enterprise, of the sanctity of the individual, whilst damning the state, collectivism, the public sector, trades unions and whatever they want to discredit as socialism. It has worked and they have been very successful and in the course of winning the war of ideas they have destroyed our respective societies, destroyed our peoples and are on course to destroy the world. We have a national newspaper in Britain with an editorial discussing why Britain has become so mean spirited and narrow minded. Britain has become a nasty and unpleasant place. It notes how political debate in this country is now characterised by 'racism, bigotry and hatred'. Those are not Kommirat's words, it is a leading article in the Observer. Why? Well I have been trying to discuss this on this blog for some years now and I am at least grateful that the Observer is catching up.

Any rational look at the problems besetting our world point to one common denominator, the dominant free market neoliberal ideology. What we are suffering from is the great theme of so many successful Hollywood movies, an alien invasion. The human being is a social animal and its individuality can only be seen within its natural milieu. I have written this so often here. The anti-social, aggressive individualism of the free market narrative is alien to the human animal and destructive to its environment, a serious virus that has attacked and has succeeded in damaging, perhaps terminally, the body politic. But the British people suffer from a similar malaise to the American, they have an exaggerated opinion of their own importance. The appellation Great Britain was originally meant to signify size, it referred to an expanded Britain when it became four nations under one rule. The British then came to believe that it meant they were great, superior to other people. As a result, they are always right, their problems cannot be self-inflicted they must be someone else's fault. Enter the classic scapegoat mentality and the demonization of the EU, the immigrant and foreigners in general and a whole class of disgusting and unscrupulous politicians who are perfectly happy to exploit such a scenario.

Whether they are conscious of it or not, the victims of this poison have set their sights on the authors of their woes, the political elites. They are right to do so, but the most serious problem in both societies is that they have been so successfully poisoned against what could be utilised as solutions that they refuse to even countenance them. In Britain, Brexit, and in the US, support for Trump, is fundamentally a working class phenomenon. The people's instincts are correct, it's their imagined solutions that are wrong. It is painful and deeply sad how the British believe that people who are so responsible for their plight can be the answer to their problems. There can be no solution if we turn to people who are still wedded to the dominant ideology, an ideology that is fundamentally hostile, not only to possible solutions, but to the people who are calling for such solutions. Westminster politicians and the political elite in the US, and that includes Trump, detest the people, they both hate and fear them. My last post used a quote from Adam Smith who told us that such people do not even regard us as their fellow creatures. I have been berating you for some time as to the dubious intellect of the people in this country I call well-schooled but poorly educated. On Question Time on Thursday, Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek Finance Minister called our Department for Brexit, 'Pythonesque', and staffed by people of a very low IQ. This is exactly what I have been saying for a long time now. It is a continual source of wonder to me how anyone can think that we can be adequately served by Boris the Spider, a demonstrable clown, and his henchmen, David Davies and Liam Fox. If it were possible to combine the intellects of these three gentlemen you would still be unable to produce a halfwit. If you then add into this toxic mix the Trump, you do not add to the intellectual mix, you subtract from it. I understand the American anger, I fail to understand how they can see this person as offering anything other than division, hatred and bigotry.

I am reminded of the poet Michael Rosen who warns us that fascism does not spring up out of nowhere and grab you. Fascism appears as your friend, who will help you get a job and a nice home, who will clean up the neighbourhood and get rid of the undesirables, protect your wife and children and keep law and order. It doesn't advertise its violence, its camps, its militias and paramilitary
nature. But it does pinpoint the cause of your problems, the others, the foreigners, the unions, socialism, the Jews and Muslims, the disabled and the useless, the untermenschen etc. As with the neoliberal free market, it appeals to your lowest and ugliest instincts, and, as with the neoliberal free market, it is simply wrong. The neoliberal free market does not promote fascism, but that is where it is leading, the unintended consequence of intentional human action. You have been warned

Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat