This is a diversion.
Yesterday, while President Grotesque claimed victory over Robert Mueller, England's grotesque was moving into 10 Downing Street.
Fintan O'Toole, (Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain), has provided a profile of Boris at the New York Review of Books: "The Ham of Fate." Of course, it is entertaining.
He explains Boris Johnson's penchant for doing the wrong thing by light of a character who appears in Johnson's novel Seventy-Two Virgins: "The Greek philosophers found akrasia mysterious—why would people
knowingly do the wrong thing? But Johnson knows the answer: they do so,
in England at least, because knowingness is essential to being included.
You have to be “in on the joke”—and Johnson has shown just how far some
English people will go in order not to look like they are not getting
it."
O'Toole does a fine job of explaining Boris as he did explaining the English and Brexit in Heroic Failure. Our previous discussion. He has the keen eye of the Irish for seeing and describing English foibles, and does not hesitate to compare Johnson and Trump, among other things declaring that they are both racists, in case there was any doubt. He doesn't explain why Trump does the wrong thing--perhaps he doesn't get "knowingness."
UPDATE: Commonweal has a profile of Borish Johnson by Austen Ivereigh. Somewhat friendlier, but not uncritical. Maybe Ivereigh understand "knowingness."
"To Aristotle, an akratic is a person who knows the right thing to do but can’t help doing the opposite."
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there's some psychological term for this--oppositional defiance disorder or some such.
But sounds like the definition of evil to me.
Re: evil - yes. But. If it truly is a psychological disorder, then it may mitigate his culpability. Still, the actions cause harm/disorder.
DeleteYou see these types rise to power again and again. What is it in us that allows and even promotes this? Sometimes I think we should go back to being hunter-gatherers.
DeleteStanley - I think it's ambition, coupled with a sense that the rules that apply to the rest of us don't apply to the elites. The #MeToo movement is an attempt to drag the elites back within the fences of those rules. I think the results are mixed.
DeletePretty sure there were tyrannical types among the hunters and gatherers. Remember the opening to 2001: A Space Odyssey?
DeleteBut you might find Kurt Vonnegut's novel Galapagos soothing, which ends with a reverse evolution of humans into harmless little seal-like creatures.
O'Toole makes Boorish sound like someone who enjoyed his debaggings at Eton so much he wants to keep them coming. I hope he is no more dangerous than that. Our guy is.
ReplyDeleteIt's easier, theoretically, to get rid of a bad PM in a parliamentary system. We are stuck with ongoing disasters for at least four years.
ReplyDeleteOur allies seem to be willing to maintain ties, assuming we will come to our senses in 2020. A re-election of Trump might do more permanent damage to international relations.
I see Trump is vetoing a bill/resolution that would have banned his arms deal with the Saudis. Wars and war mongering is always good for our friends at Lockheed and Friends!
Austen Ivereigh's article was good. I didn't know Johnson had been an editor of Spectator magazine. That explains a lot. It always was a little loony. Just not as rude as Breitbart. But they like the same stuff.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite unheralded first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has written to Johnson that a nasty exit must go back to the people first. Well, she never did like Brexit. But now my new second favorite unheralded first minister, Mark Drakeford, has taken to co-signing her letters. That's Scotland and Wales heard from. Northern Ireland?
ReplyDeleteI think they want to send Johnson homeward to think again.
Yes, this may be the end of the United Kingdom. Presumably there will always be an England back in its original form with its original borders.
DeleteDo you think they might ask the Normans to leave.
N.B. Northern Ireland: The Guardian had a report the other week about surveys of farmers (Protestant) who fear that if Ireland is reunited, the Irish will come to claim their land! Hadn't thought about that problem.
Anything that drags the Irish into this scenario with a hard border between north and south is going to be a disaster. The akratic Johnson will likely revel in any violence and chaos that ensues. For some reason, the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" runs through my head whenever I see a picture of Johnson or Trump. Pleased to meet you, won't you guess my name!
DeleteThis longer profile by Toby Young at the Quillette site picks up some of the same themes and personal traits that Ivereigh has spotted. Young seems to be trying to clear-eyed about Boris's foibles yet apparently finds him irresistible.
ReplyDeletehttps://quillette.com/2019/07/23/cometh-the-hour-cometh-the-man-a-profile-of-boris-johnson/
At National Review, John O'Sullivan sees Boris's ruthlessness in the way he has built out his new cabinet - and suggests it makes the possibility of a no-deal Brexit more credible.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nationalreview.com/2019/07/boris-in-power/
I suppose the most important point in the O'Sullivan piece is in the last sentence. We should watch the Pound and ignore the circus. It rose yesterday, but it's down by about one-third against the Dollar since Brexit started. But who wants to spend their days watching the Pound?
DeleteO'Toole's piece is highly readable. Having read it and the profiles on offer here, I'd note Bret Stephens' take:
ReplyDelete"Johnson is often compared to Trump, but it’s inapt. Trump is a lout masquerading as a political virtuoso. There’s reason to suspect the new prime minister is much closer to the opposite. For Britain’s sake, but not just Britain’s, I hope that’s true."
I'm not certain I agree that Boris isn't a lout, at least when it comes to women and marriage. But whatever political acumen he has, I think he's going to need all of it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/opinion/boris-johnson-britain.html
Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are big horny loudmouth risk-takers. They have no desire to self-regulate their appetites for women, food, fights, adulation of the masses, their vanities, or their eccentricities.
ReplyDeleteTrump surrounds himself with toadies on his staff and cabinet who can drown out the criticism and advice from saner people.
In the UK the PM has to report to Parliament frequently. He is not ushered to the podium like a king once a year at the state of the union speech as the president is. The PM is not treated with the kind of deference the president gets. Johnson will have to put up with boos, hisses, and criticism from people looking him in the eye from a few feet away quite a lot. I doubt Trump could stand that kind of pressure. It may have a tempering effect on Johnson.
Jean, maybe you have come up with a benefit to having a sovereign. Only the king or queen gets treated like king or queen. Everybody else is basically a shmoop and the PM is just another shmoop. So the Head of State acts like a lightning rod for all the kowtowing BS. And if one doesn't like the king stuff, how much less will the PM be respected. Maybe I should write John Oliver a letter.
DeleteYup. Let the oldest living ex-president be head of state for life (or until debilitating infirmity descends), someone who gets a palace, regalia, and makes chit chat at state dinners, attends.funerals, and visits disaster areas. The queen's role is to speak for the people and good governance. Who better than an ex-prez to advise and remonstrate? I daresay even George W could offer wise advice to Trump.
DeletePresident Emeritus?
DeleteHoly Mom Church ahead of the curve for once?
DeleteBenedict doesn't serve any function, does he? Except for his comment on sex abuse, he has more.or less retired to prayer, solitude, and his cat.
DeleteHow about our current president thinks he is the king, but not in the Queen Elizabeth mode. How about one of the Louis, king of France, "l'etat c'est moi."
DeleteHistory repeats itself: first time with a beheading, the second with re-election!!??####
John Oliver on Boris (warning: profane): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXyO_MC9g3k
ReplyDelete