What Explains Britain’s Authoritarian Turn?
JVL Introduction
Why is British legislation taking such a repressive turn at a time when protest levels are low by historical standards?
In a situation where neither party offers much beyond managing austerity and further stagnation, argues Oliver Eagleton, authoritarianism plays a crucial role in lowering expectations.
It is largely symbolic, stigmatising any act of protest in advance. “It creates,” says Eagleton, the perception that the average citizen is someone who “gets on with it,” taking their immiseration on the chin, while only criminals kick up a fuss.”
RK
This article was originally published by Jacobin on Wed 14 Jun 2023. Read the original here.
What Explains Britain’s Authoritarian Turn?
Loading article text…
Spot on
What a truly dreadful article full of miserable pessimism. Capitalism faces its greatest threat in decades with an explosion of strikes; working class people are retaliating on a huge scale. Does the writer seriously think that just because the RMT and CWU have settled at the moment a new outbreak of industrial action wont happen! Ask any railway worker or postie. Class war is breaking out on a huge scale; workers are unions that fight on an unprecedented scale. The battle on trans rights is just beginning! Mr. Eagleton get a life!
‘Now is the hour’. If the British people do not demand ‘revolutionary changes’ now they never will; it is perhaps the consequence of conditioning over the years by a MSM that has always presented a moderate, unquestioning compliant representation of society that causes such inertia. More Food Banks than there are McDonalds; OAPs ‘cleared out’ of hospital beds & into care homes en masse, without being tested for Covid; promises of more austerity for the working classes whose wages have stagnated for generations & whose terms & conditions of employment are being replaced by the insecurity of casual labour & zero hours contracts in a flexible labour market. May I suggest that ‘the cost of living crisis’ isn’t the consequence of Tory government ineptitude, what if everything is going to plan & who gains? The 1st thing that Boris Johnson did when he became Mayor of London was order water canon. It seems we have at least one thing from the French.
The NHS is an example of ‘Socialism in action’ & therefore a prime target for ‘harvesting’ after a long period of deliberate under investment. Deja vu. The stock exchange is doing remarkably well, recently reaching record levels as productivity & investment declines. CEOs are in receipt of stratospheric wages & bonuses as poverty & a universal collapse in our standard of living is all our politicians & a Neo-Conservative Capitalist system have achieved. Quantitative Easing was Socialism for the rich & the devil is now demanding payment for the reckless money printing. For the 1st time in many generations, life expectancy is declining & the poor are expected to work longer for less. The one thing that Marx could not foresee was the power of electronic media ‘in the global village’, to act as the cement that holds Capitalist Society together & can distribute preferred dominant ideologies on a daily basis. We live in interesting times.