‘whether autumn should follow’

horsemouth's gig of 2015 - long pike hollow-  it was a raw february and freezing in the chapel.

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‘I hear people say we have to stop and debate globalisation. You might as well debate whether autumn should follow summer.’ Tony Blair, October 2005. 

the first iteration of globalisation/ triumphant neo-liberalism/ the end of history has fallen - capitalism and competition will no longer solve all your problems, for it has produced its enemy from within it, an economic nationalism. the wise leader appears on the balcony in the sensible costume of the way things used to be and promises to protect his citizens. a grateful populace applauds. such is the dream of not just a political class that has not yet achieved irrelevance but a people that hasn't learnt better yet.

the putative my people first economy is still within the world of capitalism as a world system, the planes will still fly, the container ships will still sail, emails will still arrive from distant lands. (maybe)

but of course just because the bus’s destination board says economic nationalism/ britons (or whoever) first it doesn’t mean it is actually going there - to achieve this dream will require hard sacrifices says our leader (a little later) as the costs of doing business rise (in customs fees, in tariffs, in increased currency fluctuations, in skills shortages, in ratings agency downgrades of the nation’s credit-worthiness, in increased costs of servicing national and personal debt).

horsemouth should of course welcome a world where the tail of economy doesn’t wag the dog of politics - but that isn’t the world that is coming - we are witnessing a rebalancing of the forces between economics and politics and between the state and capital but ultimately it is merely the replacement of one ideology by another, an earlier one, one that is already dead. it is a game of dress-up played with a rapidly ageing cast, the bumptious middle-aged eton boy, lord snooty, the frightfully loyal head girl of her grammar school, the little swot, and a whole dorm of lesser sneaks. (here horsemouth gives it you as geoffrey willans, ronald searle’s molesworth books of public school folly, where a younger person might give it you as harry potter).

once again workers will confront national capitals (like they did in the 20ies and 30ies - and we all know how well that went).

and it is (as are all transitions) a time fraught with risk - the dealmaker appears on the balcony but he’s ti-jean the trickster god of business, the old gods cry when they come (because no-one summons them any more). he strides backwards into the future wearing the costumes of the past (like he’s in a jean cocteau film) his speech stripped of all causality and puffed up with will instead.

there’s an nip in the air today (but is it autumnal?) after the summer of sunshine and football and beaches, and  soon winter will come, but for now warmth above the seasonal average.

horsemouth has no truck with people’s sentimental nationalisms the proof of the pudding is in the eating and we will soon be on short rations (and school dinners).

it would be nice (or at least more logically satisfying) if capitalism developed in a straight line (ok no it would be terrible) rather than this zig-zagging, half-stepping, towards the future in the costumes of the past bullshit. the leninists and althussarians tell us to look for the weakest link in this conjuncture - but horsemouth cannot see it yet.