People who follow French politics are talking about the upcoming run-off between Macron and Le Pen as a possible replay of 1981. In that election, François Mitterrand scored a stunning upset of incumbent president, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, to become the first socialist to win since the Second World War. Mitterrand ushered in a new era of French politics that prevails to this day. It is a cynical, divide and conquer politics that serves a narrow elite at the expense of the nation.
Like Americans, the French have been facing the problem that elections seem to have no bearing on public policy. They vote in new people and new parties, but the polices never seem to change. Macron has not been much different from Hollande, who was not much different from Sarkozy. In fact, each French president since Mitterrand has followed a predictable internationalist course. As a result, France has been swamped by immigrants and looted by international finance.
It is a good reminder that elections in a democracy have consequences, but rarely in the way people expect. Mitterrand’s upset victory ushered in a new brand of politics that every ambitious French pol seeks to emulate. Something similar happened in the United States in the 1992 presidential election. Bill Clinton represented a new generation of political leadership. He ushered in a new form of politics that infected both parties and the political mechanism upon which they rely.
Like in France, American politics is deeply cynical now. Elections are viewed with disdain by the politicians. It is something they must endure so they can get on with what they view as the important parts of politics. The important part of politics is advancing an agenda that serves the narrow interests of the managerial elite. This is why elections have no bearing on public policy. The office holders may change and the parties may swap positions, but the elites never change.
That is the source of the growing hostility the political classes of the West have for the people they theoretically represent. Macron is a prime example. He is in trouble politically because he carries himself like a man who is doing the French people a favor by paying attention to them. Not long ago he said that you are not French if you do not follow his rules with regards to Covid. He joked about using the administrative state to torment those who question his policies.
There is that cynicism at the heart of politics in the modern West. No serious leader thinks such things, much less says them out loud, if he has any regard for the people he claims to lead. More important, no serious leader acts this way if he thinks the opinions of the voters matter. When the game is rigged, or at least seems that it is rigged, then it no longer makes much sense to pretend public opinion matters. This is the truth of the cynical politics of the modern West.
In America, this is most evident in the concept of messaging. In modern American political jargon, messaging is a form of crowd control. The crowd is the mass media, which takes its cues from the inner party. The e-mails go out, the spokesmen give pressers and this is what shapes the daily narrative in the press. This is then supposed to herd the public in the direction of the official policy. Good polls confirm to the political class that their messaging is working.
An example is from the chief messenger, Jen Psaki. Note that she struggles to read the catch phrase of the day. It turns out that saying “Putin price hike” out loud sounds rather silly and childish, even to someone without a soul. The expectation is the official media organs will use the phrase while reporting on the inflation numbers and the general narrative will be that the cause of inflation is Putin. The Democrats probably plan to campaign on the slogan “Putin price hike” this fall.
Think about the cynicism on display. Psaki knows what she is saying is a lie and everyone in the room knows it is a lie. Further, she knows that no one thinks what she is saying is anything but a lie. The stenographers in the press pool know that she knows that they know she is lying. When they work on the official narrative at their respective media organs, they will know they are participating in the lie. In other words, everyone knows everyone is lying but they keep lying.
This is only possible in a deeply cynical system populated with people motivated by malice toward the public. The people running the global economic war resent that they have to pretend to care about public opinion. They can barely contain their loathing for the people outside the castle walls. Shark-eyed dingbats like Jen Psaki exist because she is actually what passes for a friendly face in this system. Even she can barely conceal her contempt for the public she is addressing.
French political observers suspect this election is signaling the end of the cynical politics ushered in by François Mitterrand. Cynicism is an effective short term strategy in politics, but it eventually runs into the Lincoln limit. That is the old line about fooling all of the people all of the time that is attributed to Lincoln. It was also a popular advertising slogan in the 19th century. This is appropriate given that the cynical politics of this age is basically just a sales campaign organized by fraudsters.
In America, we may be seeing similar signals. The cynical politics of the Clinton machine gave as a degenerate (Clinton), a simpleton (Bush) and a vacuous airhead (Obama) as president, all with the claim that they were accomplished men. If not for Trump the fourth in that series would have been the wife of the degenerate. Now we are being sold a mumbling vegetable as the most popular man in history. Joe Biden may be the limit of the cynical post-Cold War politics.
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Cynicism is part of it, but the mockery is the most galling aspect. I hate to harp on the JQ stuff (since the mindset has spread across the entire ruling class), but Lawrence Auster used to point out Jews have two ways of reprimanding gentiles, scolding or mocking. Jon Stewart is a great sanctimonious scold who would mock as well sometimes. Most of what passes for comedy (especially the bile on late night talk shows and SNL) is just mockery. The Bible strongly condemns it, as it is poisonous and creates nothing but acrimony between people (like backbiting or gossip). But mockery does work quite well, as people find themselves humiliated when targeted. Think of all the mainstream conservatives squirming when the hip lefty comics took aim at them, and how eager they were for approval that they’d go on their shows (Giuliani on SNL, Bill O’Reily constantly inviting Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart on his show to argue with him in bad faith, while he tried to keep the little bit of decorum he could lay claim to).
But mockery, like cynicism, has limits. As useless as Bush was, he didn’t respond to it, didn’t even seem interested in it (maybe his dumbness immunized him to it). By the time we got to Trump, he had figured out how to use it as a weapon for the mainstream right. But the real task is clearing it from the public space, morally anathematizing it, not chalking it up as a victory when the platinum haired WWE wrestler/real estate magnate sort of scores one on our enemies using their tools.
There’s a risk that the mockers/humiliators/ scolders/ and cynics run, though, that has nothing to do with them being beaten with their own tools. It has more to do with them using them too much, until they cease to work. Think of the cool kids at a high school who use the popularity game to keep the rank and file in line, but go a little too hard on the fat goth girl or the one weird D & D kid. People totally outside of a system can’t fear expulsion from the system, and thus the tools cease to work on those people. Maybe (to extend the metaphor) the cool kids got a Columbine coming their way soon. Or a Carrie White (the treatment of the January 6th Loiterers has to be the equivalent of dumping pig’s blood on Carrie’s head at the prom). Hopefully the cool kids are too busy laughing to see what’s coming, though.
Regardless, I’m no longer angry. I am quietly seething with a patient anger. I suspect millions are.
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I would cut Jon Liebowitz a little bit of slack…I used to watch the Daily Show during the Bush years. He did the bit that Z-man did in today’s essay: by using actual video of the daily talking points fed to media and/or amplified by the talking heads. It was illumining for me and many other anti-Bush types, back when the Left still had a shred of decency.
I was inclined to cut Jon some slack, especially since he embarrassed Colbert by pointing out it’s patently obvious that the Wuhan virus came from the Wuhan Virology Research Center. But then I saw an interview with Stewart chastising Andrew Sullivan for downplaying white privilege and white supremacy, and now my feeling is he can burn in hell for all I care. Ultimately it doesn’t matter. Stewart is a yesterday man. The country he thinks he’s lecturing doesn’t exist anymore.
Let them mock.
Serious men get things done. I’ve been mocked quite heavily for rekindling my faith in Christ, but it is not a patch on what he himself went through.
Time is of the essence: sourcing a local farm that will sell you eggs, sourcing like minds in meat space, purchasing a portable wood burning stove, conditioning yourself to go without, drawing up plans for homeschooling your children, making shrewd investments (financial or skills), upping sticks to move near to people more like you, praying, learning to efficiently grow food indoors, imagining how to last a day without electricity (do a mental drill), verifying the water you catch is good to drink, spending quality time with a loved one, having a child, finding a wife, walking with your chin up, working on concise answers to the most frequently asked questions, keeping a mental list of those who’ve wronged you, taking a walk, listening to the breeze, thinking about where you draw the line, drinking a fine ale… all are good ways to spend that time.
Let them mock. We’ve all got stuff to do, and I’d wager most on this blog are getting things done, even if it is only on an individual level.
You may be a tad too optimistic. Cynicism and opportunism go together but there are differences. Cynicism is an outlook. Opportunism is a strategy.
Opportunists such as most of those who inhabit the political/tech/media world will say and do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals. Senator Liz is the most visible example. But, unlike Sandy Ocasio, Liz isn’t cynical. Liz is an empty head who seems actually to believe whatever she’s spouting at the moment.
Cynics tend to be less actively engaged, inclined to muse and mumur, “La plus ça change, le plus en même.” Tucker is cynical but not opportunist in that he appears to have sincere principles.
Jen Psaki has a pretty face and perfect hair. Its color may even be real. Empires have followed pretty facces to perdition even when the tongues in those pretty faces merely say what they’re told to say. Jen Ps. is an example of a cynic who’s also an opportunist as are most of the legacy tech/media personalities.
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Not a bad comment. I don’t know if you’re being cynical describing Jen Psaki as having a “pretty face.” My guess is that this did you in on the happy/sad face count.
From my some would say distorted outlook, if I saw Jen Psaki on the street or beside me at a restaurant my immediate impression would be HR c*nt. She just has the look. She was chosen for that look, for that demeanor.
I of course did not vote you up or down. Maybe you hold fond memories of that flashing up/down face as a teenager in some old Buick in some parking lot behind a 7/11. More power to you…they all need love.
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From what I can tell, the center-right has collapsed in France. Other than handing the far left a chicken switch over the second round of the election, what does this mean?
If a similar collapse occurs in the US — which to my mind is one of the aims of the dissident right — what will that mean?
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The center-right has collapsed in America, but the two-party system prevents another party from taking advantage of it. The Republicans will win in the fall, despite not representing the interests of their voters. They are just the only vehicle to voice displeasure.
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Zman
How familiar are you with the anything goes nothing matters period in the Weimar republic before the rise of you know who? Feels alot like that, raging monetary liquidity, total collapse of morals and such. Sometimes i wonder if we’re being setup for a repeat of history.
“Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people.”
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The main difference is that America is not mostly landlocked like Germany, and that the Treaty of Versailles didn’t just demilitarize the state, but deindustrialized the Ruhrgebiet/ Ruhr Valley so that the Germans couldn’t even produce food for themselves. The rules stipulated that the Germans could use their facilities for food essentials but not for munitions, but since fertilizer is a constituent in both, many times they couldn’t produce food. Are Americans literally starving yet, making coffee and bread out of acorns and chicory, living on turnip soup, waiting in line for six hours at the grocery to discover the shelves are bare? Once we get there, then we’ll be where the Germans were.
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I’m talking about the period before the hyperinflation.
“ Joe Biden may be the limit of the cynical post-Cold War politics”
I hope you’re right, but don’t underestimate the level of stupid that runs rampant amongst us.
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Hilarious.
Hopefully those who tune in to Hannity will finally wake up when he starts repeating/whistling the “Putin price hike” line through his dentures.
Vogue Magazine is always a good place to check up on the leisure and fashion antics of the real ruling elite, especially when their offspring are getting married off.
The gushing sycophancy of the writing is accompanied by photos of lavish celebrations that would have embarrassed the court of the Sun King, but the photographs of the upcoming crop of our betters feature a seething contempt and elitist arrogance on the faces of the young that they long ago stopped trying to conceal.
Here billionaire heiress Nicola Pelz marries a Beckham boy.
https://www.vogue.com/article/nicola-peltz-marries-brooklyn-beckham-palm-beach-wedding
Here’s Gordon Getty’s Grand daughter Ivy’s three day, multi million dollar wedding extravaganza.
https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/inside-ivy-getty-wedding-weekend-in-san-francisco
Vogue also gives us a look at “16 Stunning Celebrity Wedding to Swoon Over”.
https://www.vogue.com/article/celebrity-wedding-venues-to-rent-amal-clooney-chrissy-teigen-blake-lively#intcid=_vogue-bottom-recirc_bb36f69e-21eb-4ee1-9671-78786fbec380_entity-topic-similarity-v2
Swoon away, peasants…oh and eat the f&^king bugs.
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Wow. That right there is the very definition of the phrase “resting bitch face.”
Pop quiz, hotshots: Am I talking about the women or the “men”?
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Given the current state of affairs, one has to ask which is the prevailing zeitgeist, inanity or insanity?
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The funniest thing about the White House press briefing and when Biden takes questions from the press is how enraged they get at the mild pushback offered from Fox News nepotism hire Peter Doocy. A midwit reporter knocks down their talking points and Psaki can’t handle it. Biden is even better as his responses usual boil down to something like “why would you say that to me.”
The same thing happened at some even The Atlantic was putting on about press “disinformation” when a kid at the U of Chicago blew apart Jeffrey Goldberg’s ridiculous narrative. Crazed zealot Anne Applebaum fell back to an argument that the business dealings of a Presidential candidate’s son should have no impact the election. Brian Selter’s argument against bias at CNN was that he and a Biden aide had yelled at each other. Previous generations of the ruling class at least could put on a front, these people aren’t even trying and I think this is their best.
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Shame about parts of France. When we were much younger, our family would take holidays in the South of France; in small villages where the population was exclusively white. If it were ever possible for a small village to complete capture a clueless foreigner’s idea of what France ought to be, it was some of these places.
Just don’t venture into Paris, Marseilles, Lyon &c. It is the same as one would find in any large US city or British one. Coloureds galore.
The other thing about France is that she is a deceptively large country, with some quite staggering variety in geography and peoples – and I’m led to believe that local opinion of GloboHomo isn’t exactly shining. Turns out, Pierre doesn’t want some Somali man pissing against the wall of his medieval village house. That said, they’ve had a funny history with Algeria and other assorted colonial appendages and as a result some of the diversity there – and it’s reach – seems to be quite terrifying.
But in the end, we English must still pay our 20% basic rate income tax above a certain threshold; a tax originally levied to fund the Napoleonic Wars, so I’m not all that sweet on ’em!
Wonder if Z has any French readers? It’d be interesting to hear from people actually on the ground.
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Algeria is unusual because at one point it was considered part of metropolitan (European) France.
One of the major unresolved tensions that led to the Algerian war for independence was that no one could figure out a workable plan to permit Algerian political representation in the French political system at that time.
The nearest equivalent I can think of in Anglosphere politics were the efforts to give the American colonies representation in British Parliament in the years leading up to the revolution.
Re: the Putin Price Hike, the first thing they tried was even worse (if you can believe that). I saw a NYT article that claimed, in all apparent seriousness, that the economy was booming, and asked “so why are experts predicting a recession?” I girded my loins to actually read a few paragraphs, and the point of the piece became clear: They’re trying to sell the notion that “inflation” is happening largely because of supply and demand.
Things are just so great, economically, that retailers can’t keep stuff on the shelves. That’s both why the shelves are bare, and prices are astronomical. Same way, there’s nobody working because the economy is just so hot, employers can’t find anyone to fill all the open jobs. Bad enough, but they specifically called this inflation. That’s not what “inflation” means, and they know that’s not what “inflation” means, but that’s the sales pitch they were going with. I guess that was a bridge too far, even for the concussed goldfish of the “American” public, so they’re going with Plan B, Putin (they mentioned him in passing, too, of course, and though I couldn’t stand to read more than a few paragraphs I’m sure they blamed Climate Change and agitated for Moar Immigration, too, because of course they did).
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Goldfish is far too generous.
The US American public has the intellectual capacity of a gnat.
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Also, not sure what you did for a living Zman, but if you’ve ever been a drone a giant corporation then Jen Psaki makes total sense. Nancy Pelosi also, you’ve never been talked down to by corporate management in the 3rd pointless meeting of your day about how you should just be grateful to have a job? You haven’t lived yet!
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Check out the smiley little drip in the image halfway down this Armstrong post:
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/are-democrats-going-to-dump-biden/
But, as George Carlin said, “No one seems to notice, no one seems to care.”
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I’ve found that the most powerful antidote to cynicism is sincerity. Being a GenXer, I’m cynical by nature, but my cynicism melts when I encounter people who genuinely, openly (but quietly) believe in something good.
Cynicism is fine in small doses but taken for too long or too much, it destroys the soul – and most people (not the Clintons) can feel it eating them away.
That’s why a love of people is so terrifying to these people. There’s a purity and simplicity to it that exposes the crass pointlessness of their politics, beliefs and, even, lives. They offer nothing. We offer everything.
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