how we survived brexit (and even laughed) / los naufragios: shipwreck(ed) on the shores of politics

horsemouth is back from seeing tinariwen at esmoriz (just down the coast from porto - about the length of led zeppelin I by car). great gig - good band.

before the gig horsemouth and friends sunbathed on the beach \ drank a bottle of cheap but presentable wine \ played a dice game vaguely resssembling yahtzee \ there may be photos of the sun sinking into the sea - he met a youngster who´d lived in england and studied product design (now he was back home and a lifeguard).

 though this may not be the time to say it brexit has a utopian content - an archaic content refusing the mangerialism of political parties with nothing to offer but austerity. of course their solution to the problems caused by brexit will be more austerity but never mind.

´the worst kind of scarcity a nation can suffer from is a lack of inhabitants´
- rousseau, political economy.

in cabeza de vaca´s los naufragios the spanish sailors are shipwrecked on the shores of a native american texas. they find neither cities of gold nor utopias but only grinding poverty. only a handful survive and cross that immensity to reach the spanish garrisons of mexico.

on his return to spain cabeza de vaca writes a book for the king - he tells him of his discovery of the indians´humanity and, at the moment of greatest poverty, the rediscovery of human capacities, in particular the capacity to heal others.

when the last boat sank the spanish laid down on the beach and cried - the indians cried with them.

at the start of his (1988) on the shores of politics (horsemouth was reading it at the beach) ranciere says this,

 ´to speak of the boundaries of the political realm ... evokes no precise or current reality´.

but time has changed this. instead of globalised world of the free movement of capital and thus necessarily (to a lesser extent) the free movement of people, instead of an end of history in a strangely delayed prussian democracy, it is as if on a boat at sea we had run aground on a rock - a rock with a plastic union jack on it. (to be fair these are precisely rancierian themes)

instead of no borders we have campaigns for the corollary more borders - what is the content of this in terms of the ideas of the people? (and what kind of tap-dance on the decks will our leaders have to do to annul this atavistic irruption?).

what the fuck!

there is the return (or the revenge) of white van man here - where the rulers bemoan the stupidity and racism of the poor slobs they must govern (and the ruled insist on their right to their stupidity and racism).

horsemouth is (as they say) glad to be out of it - the second (non-serious) part affords him pleasure - watching the scots nats emerge from the wreck dressed as statesmen and europeans. he takes less pleasure in contemplating the unravelling of the good friday agreement (where the northern irish were encouraged to re-attach to europe rather than ireland or britain). like horsemouth says he´s glad to be out of it (but soon enough he must return ' and indeed he has).

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of course where once there existed a possible escape to europe this may now become more difficult (it is all a bit up in the air) - a number of horsemouth´s friends are now trapped in this. a while ago (while desecrating a copy of city am in burroughsian style), horsemouth noted that themes of limitation on the freedom of movement were cropping up. sadly he did not heed the warning.