Sooner or later

Sooner or later the population of England will turn Communist, and then it will take over. Some form of Communism is the only effective religion for the working class; its coming is therefore is inevitable as was that of Christianity. The liberal Die-hard then comes to occupy historically the same position as the ‘good Pagan’: he is doomed to extinction.

Palinurus (Cyril Connolly) – The Unquiet Grave (1944)

As we know, when Connolly wrote this, communist USSR was deemed to be more successful than it subsequently turned out to be. Yet the political classes have known for a long time that policies are more easily sold to citizens via collectivist framing. The totalitarian creed behind it stays out of the frame.

A very familiar and durable example is climate change policy framing which from outside feels like a totalitarian political creed because it is. It’s an aspect of the religion Connolly foresaw but more middle class than he anticipated.

The BBC, NHS, state education and many other encroaching aspects of UK life continue to survive because too many people do not demand power over their own lives. They fail to see the framing and do not resist each encroachment as the creed tightens its grip.

A useful perspective on underlying political creeds is to abandon a Left- Right spectrum which in any event obscures trends. With Left- Right framing the words don’t change as trends encroach. A useful substitute is a political-pragmatic framing, or we might express it as political and apolitical.

Political-pragmatic framing highlights a political divide which is very one-sided in terms of power, as the immense reach of government becomes permanently skewed towards the political ends. As we know – we’ve seen it. Too often, pragmatism does not suit democratic governments.

Within political-pragmatic framing, political language is clearly easier to formulate than pragmatic language. Political language has far fewer restrictions on meaning and facts do not have to be relevant or even genuine.

To take it further, political language does not have to mean anything at all if it triggers useful sentiment and offers a sense of belonging. However loose political language may be, belonging and not belonging are clear enough even to those who are not true believers.

Conversely, anyone may adopt pragmatic, apolitical outlook, but can’t belong to it in the same way that political believers belong to political power.