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| We used to have a silly season. Now there’s no escape from absurdity | We used to have a silly season. Now there’s no escape from absurdity |
| (30 days later) | |
| When politics was reliably serious, parliament’s summer recess would open the silly season. It was a time for sightings of Cornish sharks, the beast of Bodmin, kittens that resemble Hitler. The tradition seems obsolete. News as light entertainment lost its charm when politician-entertainers started making serious news. If only it were just cats that looked like fascists. | When politics was reliably serious, parliament’s summer recess would open the silly season. It was a time for sightings of Cornish sharks, the beast of Bodmin, kittens that resemble Hitler. The tradition seems obsolete. News as light entertainment lost its charm when politician-entertainers started making serious news. If only it were just cats that looked like fascists. |
| The idea of silliness requires shared assumptions about what is sensible. The ridiculous must be self-evidently transgressive to still be ridiculous. But in the rise of Donald Trump there is a new, sinister kind of absurdity that simultaneously defies reason and demands reasoned engagement. Because plainly, to millions of people, it is not absurd at all. | The idea of silliness requires shared assumptions about what is sensible. The ridiculous must be self-evidently transgressive to still be ridiculous. But in the rise of Donald Trump there is a new, sinister kind of absurdity that simultaneously defies reason and demands reasoned engagement. Because plainly, to millions of people, it is not absurd at all. |
| It is preposterous that this man, who radiates infantile petulance, narcissistic spite and tyrannical racism should end up in charge of a nuclear arsenal. Yet it is possible that he will. Theories abound as to how this has happened. Trump as the expression of a cultural marginalisation of the white working class; Trump as the manifestation of economic insecurity in an age of dysfunctional globalisation; Trump as a symptom of Republican anti-government rhetoric eating itself. | It is preposterous that this man, who radiates infantile petulance, narcissistic spite and tyrannical racism should end up in charge of a nuclear arsenal. Yet it is possible that he will. Theories abound as to how this has happened. Trump as the expression of a cultural marginalisation of the white working class; Trump as the manifestation of economic insecurity in an age of dysfunctional globalisation; Trump as a symptom of Republican anti-government rhetoric eating itself. |
| The phenomenon requires a rational explanation but also somehow doesn’t deserve one. It feels as if the act of dispassionate elucidation is too flattering. To paint a maniac as the conduit for genuine grievance risks sanitising insanity. It is a problem that Hannah Arendt observed in 1951 in the preface to The Origins of Totalitarianism. She warned that causal analysis of extremism risks becoming a moral anaesthetic. | The phenomenon requires a rational explanation but also somehow doesn’t deserve one. It feels as if the act of dispassionate elucidation is too flattering. To paint a maniac as the conduit for genuine grievance risks sanitising insanity. It is a problem that Hannah Arendt observed in 1951 in the preface to The Origins of Totalitarianism. She warned that causal analysis of extremism risks becoming a moral anaesthetic. |
| “Comprehension does not mean denying the outrageous, deducing the unprecedented from precedents or explaining phenomena by such analogies and generalities that the impact of reality and the shock of experience are no longer felt.” The same sentiment was voiced by EJ Dionne, a columnist for the Washington Post, earlier this year. It would be easy to get used to Trump’s repetitive offences, to be numbed by them. The challenge, he wrote, is “staying shocked”. | “Comprehension does not mean denying the outrageous, deducing the unprecedented from precedents or explaining phenomena by such analogies and generalities that the impact of reality and the shock of experience are no longer felt.” The same sentiment was voiced by EJ Dionne, a columnist for the Washington Post, earlier this year. It would be easy to get used to Trump’s repetitive offences, to be numbed by them. The challenge, he wrote, is “staying shocked”. |
| In a milder way, the UK also shows symptoms of losing its sense of politically absurdity. Not long ago Boris Johnson was a comedy subplot in British politics, the ribald swaggerer with self-belief that vastly outstripped capability. But somewhere along the way, obvious unsuitability for high office stopped being obvious. This fairground Falstaff is now foreign secretary. Nigel Farage was once a nationalist mosquito, consequential only because his high-pitched whine made bigger beasts flail around trying to swat him. Now Farage is the toast of Trumpian ultras, the prophet of the implausible fringe breakthrough. Labour was recently a serious party of government. Now it is a chaotic nest of delusion and conspiracy theory. | In a milder way, the UK also shows symptoms of losing its sense of politically absurdity. Not long ago Boris Johnson was a comedy subplot in British politics, the ribald swaggerer with self-belief that vastly outstripped capability. But somewhere along the way, obvious unsuitability for high office stopped being obvious. This fairground Falstaff is now foreign secretary. Nigel Farage was once a nationalist mosquito, consequential only because his high-pitched whine made bigger beasts flail around trying to swat him. Now Farage is the toast of Trumpian ultras, the prophet of the implausible fringe breakthrough. Labour was recently a serious party of government. Now it is a chaotic nest of delusion and conspiracy theory. |
| The knowing chortle has become a comforting substitute for winning debates | The knowing chortle has become a comforting substitute for winning debates |
| Absurdity used to be self-punishing in politics in the same way that being caught telling flagrant lies used to have consequences. Politicians gave evasive answers to avoid saying things that were diametrically opposed to reality, which was a bit slippery but showed at least some respect for the aspiration to be truthful. In the new, vaudevillian style of politics, words needn’t retain even a tenuous connection to facts, any more than the lines in a play are expected to be the transcription of real-life events. What matters is the effect the words produce. So Penny Mordaunt, a pro-Brexit Tory minister, when asked whether Britain would have a veto over Turkish membership of the EU could say no, when the correct answer was yes. And there is no penalty, no shame. | Absurdity used to be self-punishing in politics in the same way that being caught telling flagrant lies used to have consequences. Politicians gave evasive answers to avoid saying things that were diametrically opposed to reality, which was a bit slippery but showed at least some respect for the aspiration to be truthful. In the new, vaudevillian style of politics, words needn’t retain even a tenuous connection to facts, any more than the lines in a play are expected to be the transcription of real-life events. What matters is the effect the words produce. So Penny Mordaunt, a pro-Brexit Tory minister, when asked whether Britain would have a veto over Turkish membership of the EU could say no, when the correct answer was yes. And there is no penalty, no shame. |
| Mark Twain wrote that no political church “can face ridicule in a fair field and live”. Perhaps that was so in 1889. Today ridicule bounces off the ridiculous. It was gratifying to watch Jon Stewart make a one-off guest appearance on the Late Show last week, lambasting Trump and his Fox news cheerleaders. It was a comic-polemic tour de force. The clip whizzed round liberal silos on social media. But the wits have been wielding their rapiers against the same target for years, leaving barely a scratch. | Mark Twain wrote that no political church “can face ridicule in a fair field and live”. Perhaps that was so in 1889. Today ridicule bounces off the ridiculous. It was gratifying to watch Jon Stewart make a one-off guest appearance on the Late Show last week, lambasting Trump and his Fox news cheerleaders. It was a comic-polemic tour de force. The clip whizzed round liberal silos on social media. But the wits have been wielding their rapiers against the same target for years, leaving barely a scratch. |
| Stewart’s comrade Stephen Colbert coined the word “truthiness” for assertions that are effective because they resonate with the gut instinct of an audience, regardless of what the evidence shows. It was not true that Turkey was poised to join the EU, but it was truthy as hell to people who wanted to believe that Britain was being overrun. This too was prefigured by Arendt, who wrote of totalitarian propaganda that “what convinces … are not facts, and not even invented facts, but only the consistency of the system of which they are a part”. The liberal cognoscenti enjoy a good laugh at the purveyors of conservative truthiness. Their laughter does nothing to restore old-fashioned notions of truthful truth. | Stewart’s comrade Stephen Colbert coined the word “truthiness” for assertions that are effective because they resonate with the gut instinct of an audience, regardless of what the evidence shows. It was not true that Turkey was poised to join the EU, but it was truthy as hell to people who wanted to believe that Britain was being overrun. This too was prefigured by Arendt, who wrote of totalitarian propaganda that “what convinces … are not facts, and not even invented facts, but only the consistency of the system of which they are a part”. The liberal cognoscenti enjoy a good laugh at the purveyors of conservative truthiness. Their laughter does nothing to restore old-fashioned notions of truthful truth. |
| The knowing chortle has become a comforting substitute for winning debates, which leads to atrophy of argumentative muscle. Worse, it inflames the sensibilities of those who feel they are the butt of the joke. The attack doesn’t damage the fanatical candidate, but it does register with his supporters, who sense – often correctly – that cosmopolitan sophisticates are sneering at their credulity. Liberals have basked so long in a sense of their own erudite superiority, they have forgotten how to fight well-armed, righteous ignorance. | The knowing chortle has become a comforting substitute for winning debates, which leads to atrophy of argumentative muscle. Worse, it inflames the sensibilities of those who feel they are the butt of the joke. The attack doesn’t damage the fanatical candidate, but it does register with his supporters, who sense – often correctly – that cosmopolitan sophisticates are sneering at their credulity. Liberals have basked so long in a sense of their own erudite superiority, they have forgotten how to fight well-armed, righteous ignorance. |
| No one wants to be the smug, anti-democratic elitist who despises the opinions of millions of voters, but it is hard to advance liberal politics when the shield of anti-elitism is erected in defence of wilful Trumpesque stupidity. Follow this trajectory, and soon reason itself becomes suspect – a weapon for “so-called experts” and intellectuals to attack the pious believers and their political prophets. That way lie the dark ages. | No one wants to be the smug, anti-democratic elitist who despises the opinions of millions of voters, but it is hard to advance liberal politics when the shield of anti-elitism is erected in defence of wilful Trumpesque stupidity. Follow this trajectory, and soon reason itself becomes suspect – a weapon for “so-called experts” and intellectuals to attack the pious believers and their political prophets. That way lie the dark ages. |
| It needn’t come to that. Hillary Clinton could mobilise numerically superior forces of moderation against Trump. Theresa May is no darling of liberal opinion, but she hails from an enlightened conservative tradition. Sensible politics is holding the line against craziness, but the boundary between the two has blurred. The politics of reasonable debate is shading seamlessly into the absurd. And inflated absurdity, immune to puncture by satire, is turning respectable. | It needn’t come to that. Hillary Clinton could mobilise numerically superior forces of moderation against Trump. Theresa May is no darling of liberal opinion, but she hails from an enlightened conservative tradition. Sensible politics is holding the line against craziness, but the boundary between the two has blurred. The politics of reasonable debate is shading seamlessly into the absurd. And inflated absurdity, immune to puncture by satire, is turning respectable. |
| That is why I miss the old silly season. It feels like a luxury of bygone days when the ridiculous was light relief from politics and politicians were chastened by ridicule. The preposterous has turned plausible, and it is no laughing matter. | That is why I miss the old silly season. It feels like a luxury of bygone days when the ridiculous was light relief from politics and politicians were chastened by ridicule. The preposterous has turned plausible, and it is no laughing matter. |
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