Brown and Retreat from Empire.
A vague air of depression hangs over the place as the realization sinks in that the counter-coup has been and gone. As in Von Stauffenberg’s plot an insufficient explosive charge was used and the fuhrer was able to emerge more or less unscathed. The motivation for that plot would have been comparable; military reverses had become unacceptable and simply couldn’t go on as before. The unprecedented viciousness of the Blairite response to Brown’s first grab for power confirm that here was more than just personal rivalry: entire factions within Britain’s elite had begun a struggle to end War without End.
It has been objected that Brown lacks any alternative programme and that the contest can therefore be no more than a bit of shadow boxing. This shows a somewhat naïve view of politics where each man puts forward his programme and the best man wins. Here, not only is it not necessary to have a stated programme , it is necessary not to have one. For who could put forward a programme that is effectively a recognition of military defeat: that the struggle to force the rest of the world to support us at their own expense has been lost. The alternative, that we must support ourselves, is so terrible as to be unconscionable. Rather, what we are seeing here is an attempt to grab the reins of power and just do what is necessary; bring the army out of Iraq and Afghanistan while there is still an army to talk of. Of course, the counter-coup would not express itself in defeatist terms. The US/UK would reaffirm their global leadership through diplomacy and trade: a continuation of war by other means- winning without war as the Democrats put it. Losing is winning by other means.
But this would be nothing other than the necessary illusion of those destined to begin the retreat: and those illusions would have all the power necessary to sustain the protagonists. Once retreat has begun an unstoppable chain of events is unleashed: the collapse of the dollar and pound, an inflationary and deflationary economic crisis and generalized political crisis and social breakdown. Most importantly, internal consumption, the glue that holds what’s left of our society together would collapse: consumers would become debtors. In short, the collapse of the imperial project would demonstrate why it had become necessary in the first place and why so many went along with. But now would be the time for the hangover and it would be one hell of a hangover in which the British people would be made more miserable by the impression (correct) that they had brought all this upon themselves through stupidity and greed.
After looking and around and starting to pick up the pieces where would we go? Well, the oligarchy, the creditors who have by now inherited virtually all real estate and state property will have no intention of letting go of it. As at the end of the Roman Empire society would be divided into potentes and humiliores, the all-powerful and the impoverished . Unlike that post-imperial scenario the oligarchy would be unable to transform themselves into a feudal class on the basis of their largely rural property holdings; there would be barriers to the level of backwardness that could be inflicted on what was once a modern society. A legal revolution would therefore eventually be set in motion to reclaim the ill-gotten gains of the post- Thatcherite oligarchy ( property is theft, remember). The collapse of the Middle East war effort would already have unleashed a bloodless purge of the European atlanticist faction : the likes of Sarkozy and Merkel. A great historic development would emerge: an independent and united Europe. The British people would then find a powerful ally in a Europe only too happy to rid itself of a permanent fifth column in its stand off with the USA. Let’s hope we have the wherewithal to grasp the opportunity this presents.
But I am getting ahead of myself: what is clear is that the plots will continue, the process has begun whereby the Whigs who seized power in 1688 to establish the empire of usury and slavery face their demise; it’s not the end of the beginning, it’s the beginning of the end.
A vague air of depression hangs over the place as the realization sinks in that the counter-coup has been and gone. As in Von Stauffenberg’s plot an insufficient explosive charge was used and the fuhrer was able to emerge more or less unscathed. The motivation for that plot would have been comparable; military reverses had become unacceptable and simply couldn’t go on as before. The unprecedented viciousness of the Blairite response to Brown’s first grab for power confirm that here was more than just personal rivalry: entire factions within Britain’s elite had begun a struggle to end War without End.
It has been objected that Brown lacks any alternative programme and that the contest can therefore be no more than a bit of shadow boxing. This shows a somewhat naïve view of politics where each man puts forward his programme and the best man wins. Here, not only is it not necessary to have a stated programme , it is necessary not to have one. For who could put forward a programme that is effectively a recognition of military defeat: that the struggle to force the rest of the world to support us at their own expense has been lost. The alternative, that we must support ourselves, is so terrible as to be unconscionable. Rather, what we are seeing here is an attempt to grab the reins of power and just do what is necessary; bring the army out of Iraq and Afghanistan while there is still an army to talk of. Of course, the counter-coup would not express itself in defeatist terms. The US/UK would reaffirm their global leadership through diplomacy and trade: a continuation of war by other means- winning without war as the Democrats put it. Losing is winning by other means.
But this would be nothing other than the necessary illusion of those destined to begin the retreat: and those illusions would have all the power necessary to sustain the protagonists. Once retreat has begun an unstoppable chain of events is unleashed: the collapse of the dollar and pound, an inflationary and deflationary economic crisis and generalized political crisis and social breakdown. Most importantly, internal consumption, the glue that holds what’s left of our society together would collapse: consumers would become debtors. In short, the collapse of the imperial project would demonstrate why it had become necessary in the first place and why so many went along with. But now would be the time for the hangover and it would be one hell of a hangover in which the British people would be made more miserable by the impression (correct) that they had brought all this upon themselves through stupidity and greed.
After looking and around and starting to pick up the pieces where would we go? Well, the oligarchy, the creditors who have by now inherited virtually all real estate and state property will have no intention of letting go of it. As at the end of the Roman Empire society would be divided into potentes and humiliores, the all-powerful and the impoverished . Unlike that post-imperial scenario the oligarchy would be unable to transform themselves into a feudal class on the basis of their largely rural property holdings; there would be barriers to the level of backwardness that could be inflicted on what was once a modern society. A legal revolution would therefore eventually be set in motion to reclaim the ill-gotten gains of the post- Thatcherite oligarchy ( property is theft, remember). The collapse of the Middle East war effort would already have unleashed a bloodless purge of the European atlanticist faction : the likes of Sarkozy and Merkel. A great historic development would emerge: an independent and united Europe. The British people would then find a powerful ally in a Europe only too happy to rid itself of a permanent fifth column in its stand off with the USA. Let’s hope we have the wherewithal to grasp the opportunity this presents.
But I am getting ahead of myself: what is clear is that the plots will continue, the process has begun whereby the Whigs who seized power in 1688 to establish the empire of usury and slavery face their demise; it’s not the end of the beginning, it’s the beginning of the end.
posted by Cailean Bochanan at 1:48 AM
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