Another year whipped by, and it turned out to be a year like no other. Rulebooks are being burned and ripped up and rewritten, and what’s deemed acceptable has become a game of trial and error. The Overton Window has been stretched, but perhaps only for those with the most vocal following. So what’s in and what’s out? The Fallen in Public look at our politicians, newspapers and netizens - What’s in? What’s out? What’s OK? What’s not? Read on to find out...
IT'S IN! Strongmen
“I could
stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue, shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any
voters.” Donald Trump
After thirty years of whinging, sensitive liberals ruling
the world, it’s time for the Strongmen. Packaged and sold as the answer to all
problems, strongmen are being chosen by their populations to halt the liberal
march towards doom, with its nightmarish vision of people getting along. The strongmen
of choice are headed by president-elect Donald Trump and his Russian friend,
the indestructible Vladimir Putin, but others are making their mark: Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in 2013 a mere Prime Minister, when he began the plans for
replacing Gezi Park with a shopping centre. Protests followed, and took on a
hue of anger directed not only at redevelopment misery, but other concerns
about the direction of this proudly democratic Islamic country, an issue that
many had seen coming given Erdogan’s history and right-wing Islamic ideology.
But Erdogan’s crackdown and his authoritarian figure must have delighted some,
because he was elected president the next year.
After blaming a coup on Fethullah Gülen, who lives safely in the USA, Erdogan’s relationship with Obama cooled, and with Putin, warmed, despite shooting down the latter's plane earlier in the year.
On the other side of the planet the Philippines elected
Rodrigo Duterte, who unleashed ‘death squads’ to murder suspected drug dealers
and users. Unrepentant, Duterte defended himself against ‘corrupt’ journalists
and their questions, called Obama a ‘son of a whore’, and made friendly waves
across the sea towards China. Strike 2 for America’s hopeful first black
president.
China’s president Xi, while far gentler in tone than his
brethren, is championed at home as a strongman - the great counterweight to
America’s might - and also has in his corner the added kudos of not even
pretending to be democratic.
While the UK hasn’t quite elected one, much of the political
muscle has been provided by our very own autocrat-in-waiting, Nigel Farage,
who’s fast learned that demagoguery can be sought and found and enacted without the need of the
ballot box. Wearing the mask of a democrat, he ran his party like Mao and uses
headline grabbing controversies to get his name out, rather than reason or
debate. After bemoaning Obama’s involvement in the UK/EU referendum as meddling
in UK affairs, he went and did the same thing in the USA. All the while getting
the benefit of the doubt from our media.
Having realised that neither bigotry nor lies can dent his
appeal, Farage went hypocrisy crazy by endorsing Trump’s mad suggestion that he
would be a great ambassador. If only all authoritarian leaders could pick their
ambassadors, hey Nige. Over Christmas he worked Berlin’s terrorist attack into
his favourite political cause (destroying the EU) and called Brendan Cox an
extremist for supporting the anti-extremist organisation, Hope Not Hate. On
Christmas Day, this ‘defender of Christian values’ told his Twitter followers
to ‘ignore’ the ‘negative’ Archbishop of Canterbury, as if Farage’s followers
weren’t already ignoring those who call for peace, understanding and unity.
With more trouble coming,
al la Brexit, Farage will be poised to make it the fault of liberals and
elected politicians, rather than himself. He might just do it. For these strongmen
aren’t just winging it – they’ve managed to get the ears of the electorates,
seizing the vacuum of trust in the political establishment. Their self-consciously
anti-pc language is cheered on as it gets on liberals’ nerves. Even lies and
hypocrisy are applauded as long as liberals are being hounded – the strongmen
act as leaders of movements in which the liar lies on behalf of the mob,
fighting for what they think is a bigger cause. Populations in fear grant their
leaders this licence.
Much talk of late on democracy, people power and how
important it is. It’s one of the few things which simply cannot be questioned.
But the rise of the strongmen shows that people, albeit unconsciously, are
desperate to be led, and to have blind faith that the leader’s cruel worlds
will only manifest in actions which affect others. Democratic authoritarianism is in!
