Historically people do not vote for their self interest but in dogged defence of their identities. Trump is an obvious example where working class citizens thwarted their own chances at fair wealth distribution only to bolster the standing of a man whose vitriol they 'identified' with, in as much as 'working-class' speech is patronised for being unenlightened by educated intellectuals privy to the micro-linguistic upheavals of identity-premised social-justice rhetorics. I can only assume the very same has happened in Britain with the election of Boris, another sagging conservative with draconian regard for immigrants and refugees who has expertly recruited workers as a border-patrol task-force which, if you asked them, they'd call by any other name; most likely self-preservation, protecting their jobs etcetera.
Identity is a fucking bitch and a half and I'm personally over it tbh. I know there's a certain tribalist thrill in gathering with recognised brethren to rouse each other vengefully over this or that slight perpetrated by a morally deficient Other, usually rich and tardy and painfully well-dressed (I guess my imagined corporate enemy is a Patrick Bateman lookalike, equal parts scary and fuckable). But I think the world needs an imaginary beyond tribalism, also beyond the anaemic alchemies of universal humanism which absently nullifies difference in it's project of total inclusion. Like anyone else with five senses right now, I can see that if alternatives to nationalistic hooplah aren't leant into with even half a heart then we won't survive the building pressure of dwindling resources, the approach of climate-induced disasters, the sublimely indifferent sword-fall of nature as it flexes a long delayed response to industrial prodding. We'll tear ourselves apart before the world has a chance to, and a part of me likes to think some vegetal sentience of the biosphere is secretly looking forward to levelling cities and giving it's crusty shoulders one big apocalyptic shrug.
Hardt and Negri in their Empire trilogy, theory books on how cooked the current world system is, admit identity will probably have to go before a decent shove to capitalism can occur because it's a concept too closely allied with the commodity form, acting as an entrenched conduit within consumer ideology not just for the distribution of goods but also consumer ideals and affects themselves. Basically identity is an ideological mannequin and anything under it's banner pitches everybody as a clothes-horse for cosmetic variants on the human being essentialized as capitalist. You're a trailer pimp, and you might already know this, but awareness does not delete the function.
There's the faint hope awareness over time might instil vigilance and that opportunities to glitch or 'queer' systemic fetters will occur, opportunities which the enlightened capitalist has been patiently awaiting and which they've probably simulated in their tortured-liberal minds for decades.
But this becomes less and less likely considering anti-capitalism is often a feature of capitalism, an affective trinket with as much novelty value as acrylic nails or a weekend in Raglan (and just as lucrative to vested parties). I mean, has anyone seen a Disney movie lately? They've recently purchased a dozen franchises, absorbed a plethora of lucrative icons and squeezed them into a single streaming package, bearing economic clout equal to a collapsing star and with just as much insidious suck on surrounding planets; their status as capitalist behemoth is undeniable.
But this becomes less and less likely considering anti-capitalism is often a feature of capitalism, an affective trinket with as much novelty value as acrylic nails or a weekend in Raglan (and just as lucrative to vested parties). I mean, has anyone seen a Disney movie lately? They've recently purchased a dozen franchises, absorbed a plethora of lucrative icons and squeezed them into a single streaming package, bearing economic clout equal to a collapsing star and with just as much insidious suck on surrounding planets; their status as capitalist behemoth is undeniable.
And yet they cannot resist pitching themselves as 'woke', spitting out narratives for kids with gently anti-capitalist codas which nonetheless eschew radicality in favour of a pean to the resilience of family, as if strength-in-numbers were preferable to remedying the capitalist-ailment. Bunker down as a 'community' and you'll get a happy ending these storylines say, disavowing entirely the possibility of alternatives; all while reinforcing the capitalist construction of the individual as it passes through that hallowed site of ideological re/production; The Family.
In this way Disney colours between the lines of the flabby-liberal status quo in which social media enables instant commentary and reduces political actants time and again to just this. By Twitter standards political activity is mere gesture, is 'representation', by which is meant slave to the commodifying principle of identity. Getting studios to produce content with more queers and people of colour is NOT going to effect real and lasting change. Tweeting about violence is NOT going to magically draw back the curtain and get the masses on board with overhauling the limits of 'rendition'. And punishing cis-men for being the villains of a gender construct rather than mere products of the same is NOT going to vanish predatory behaviour. Period.
So long as identity is the organising principle of western social worlds, we're fucked. It's scary to think what other relational modes we might shuttle towards in aid of averting crisis, but also exhilarating; how else would I think about Self without the bias of Identity as we've come to know it? Is it truly possible to extricate Self from Identity, and how do we even discern the two? Identity being a coordinate heavily contingent with memory, where would History sit in a society which no longer worshipped linear sequencing as the only measure of civilisation? What within Life does History camouflage?
God?
Lol. Maybe.
Though we're a couple of days into January now, before you commit to any no doubt ideologically compromised set of New year's resolutions just ask yourself; who fucking cares? When the world is burning and nation-states are rounding up dissenters for liquidation, nobody's going to remember that in 2020 you managed to quit smoking or shed a few kilos. And will you still be vegan when the only available proteins are bugs and human flesh? I don't know about you but personally, my tolerance for exhaustive goal-orientation is the lowest it's ever been. The only upside to once universal hegemonies crumbling and cut-throat tribalism taking the place of a failed experiment in global politics, is that the difference between trivial and crucial has never been clearer.
Good luck out there.
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