Farage's dangerous appeal

Nigel Farage’s effort to rebrand the Brexit party as an anti-lockdown faction poses the question: what’s the link between being pro-Brexit and anti-lockdown?

It might seem there’s none. Sure, anti-lockdowners are proclaiming the virtues of freedom. But the anti-migrant sentiment Farage stirred up during the Brexit referendum is the antithesis of libertarianism. If we put it nicely, Reform UK is an unstable coalition between cultural conservatives and libertarians. Less nicely, it’s just another toxic grift.

Perhaps, though, there is a common theme between hostility to migrants and the lockdown. It lies in something Richard Sennett wrote fifty years ago in The Uses of Disorder. Social life, he said, is a process of awkward encounters not just with other people but with a reality that is other than we’d like it to be. Many people cope with this by developing a “purified identity” that denies dissonances and discomfort:

The threat of being overwhelmed by difficult social interactions is dealt with by fixing a self-image in advance, by making oneself a fixed object rather than an open person liable to be touched by a social situation.

Such a self-identity, said Sennett, is “a fearful defence against the unknown future” which arises from “a fear of the sources of human diversity that create history.”

Farage’s reaction to feeling “awkward” on hearing foreign languages on a train exemplifies this. It was not to celebrate the freedom that people have to come to the UK, nor to wonder what benefits diversity brings. Instead, it is to resist such migration. His fixed identity must have priority over dissonant reality. (We might add that this fits Perry Anderson’s idea of “imagined communities.” As Sennett says, “the myth of community solidarity is a purification ritual.”)

In the same way, rather than see the lockdown and mask-wearing as the price we must pay to combat the virus, Farage resists it. He wants to screen out dissonance and assert the priority of his preferences over the imperfect solution to a collective action problem. This is the attitude of a narcissistic toddler throwing a tantrum because he is unable to accept that the world is not as he wants it to be.

To put this point into sharper focus, we can contrast this to two other attitudes. One is expressed in Dar Williams’ astounding song After All. “Once upon a time I had control and reined my soul in tight” she sings. This purified identity however led her to the brink of suicide. But, she continues:

Cause when you live in a world
Well it gets in to who you thought you'd be
And now I laugh at how the world changed me

Our fixed identity can jeopardize our mental health. Throwing it off and embracing dissonance enables personal change and growth – and survival.

But the hatred caused by dissonance need not always be channeled inwards. It can also be directed outwards. Noreena Hertz, following Hannah Arendt, argues that loneliness and isolation, and an inability to engage with the world as it is, fuels populism. Farage is tapping into this, and not in its most toxic form: think also of “incels” and perhaps Islamist terrorists.

My second point of contrast is with Friedrich Hayek. The thing about freedom, he said, is that we cannot foresee its benefits:

Since the value of freedom rests on the opportunities it provides for unforeseeable and unpredictable actions, we will rarely know what we lose through a particular restriction of freedom. Any such restriction, any coercion other than the enforcement of general rules, will aim at the achievement of some foreseeable particular result, but what is prevented by it will usually not be known. (Law Legislation and Liberty Vol I, p56-57.)

If we are to truly embrace freedom, with the benefits it brings (many of which are non-economic) we must therefore be prepared to tolerate some disorder, sights and sounds that some fixed identities would resist – be it foreign languages on a train or same-sex couples dancing on Strictly.

Which brings me to a paradox. The right sometimes accuse students and the left of being “snowflakes” – of having a Sennettian fixed identity which seeks safe spaces against uncomfortable interactions. Maybe this is right, maybe not - though as I am past the age of 21 student politics no longer interests me. Such an accusation, however, applies just as much to many on the right. And perhaps it does more social damage there.

Comments

[Stuart]

I think you mean his dear departed brother Benedict

[Jenkirby]

Maybe it's just me, but when I hear foreign languages on a train or near a station, I think "Tourists."

[ltr]

The way in which I understand Nigel Farage is that though I have done Farage no possible harm the guy is willing to kill me and those closest to me for being asked to comfortably stay home for a short time. I prefer being well. I prefer those closest to me and even those not close to me being well and safe.

Farage is dangerous to any number of us.

[Phil]

I don't think Benedict Anderson's idea of "imagined communities" does fit there, really. National communities, the way Anderson describes them, are *collectively* imagined into being, and imagined through practice; think of his extraordinary image of "pilgrimage" to the capital as a bonding experience for the young and ambitious from all around the country (any country), just as the actual practice of pilgrimage bonded religious believers (and in Muslim cultures still does so).

Whether some groups of people have more and denser shared experience of "Britishness" than others is a different question - and whether it would matter if they did is a different question again. Arguably, once a nation's got its own army, navy and stamps, it doesn't much matter what's going on in its citizens' imaginations national-community-wise.

[Scurra]

I think you are confusing Nigel Farage with someone who actually cares about this stuff.
Like Trump, Farage is a grifter. He spots the mark and milks them before skipping out and onto something else. The best result is that the next round of grifting will fleece the same marks all over again because that's so much easier than trying to find new victims. Eventually it all comes tumbling down (cf. Madoff) but it's a giddy ride for them getting there.

But otherwise, I tend to agree. There is much to praise about modern media (the internet can answer any question I need to know within moments and very reliably) but the degree to which it has promoted echo bubbles is horrendous, to such an extent that it is entirely possible that there are now two entirely distinct universes that barely touch each other but which we continue to believe are actually one.

[rsm]

"In the same way, rather than see the lockdown and mask-wearing as the price we must pay to combat the virus,"

You get to wear a mask. If someone else doesn't, you avoid them.

"the guy is willing to kill me and those closest to me for being asked to comfortably stay home for a short time."

How do I kill anyone by leaving the city for public lands where I self-isolate? Your lockdowns are too broad and sweep me up, when I am scientifically no threat to you. Your policies are unfair to those of us who get sick inside, and have been germophobes for decades and do our due diligence by nature to avoid spreading viruses.

[ltr]

"How do I kill anyone by leaving the city for public lands where I self-isolate? Your lockdowns are too broad and sweep me up, when I am scientifically no threat to you."

The point of precautions against the spread of the coronavirus is taking precautions that are just what is necessary and no more. Walking outdoors with a mask and observing social distancing is no problem. Shopping with a mask and social distancing in a market is no problem.
However, I want all shoppers in my market to wear masks and distancing observed....

[Stuart]

"Combat the virus"... LOL. One way to "combat the virus" would be to step away from the computer screen, get off your fat arse, eat healthy food and practice yoga. Another would be to lock everyone up in their house, force them to take measures of no proven value, and wait for "the science" to save us and end all death. No prizes for guessing what all the lefties went for.

[ltr]

"Combat the virus"... LOL.

[ Sheer mean nuttiness. Why not look at what has been done in countries that have contained and minimized the spread of the coronavirus? Why should the UK be doing so poorly? ]

[ltr]

November 4, 2020

Coronavirus

UK

Cases   ( 1,099,059)
Deaths   ( 47,742)

Deaths per million   ( 702)

Germany

Cases   ( 597,359)
Deaths   ( 11,028)

Deaths per million   ( 131)

[Dilberto]

What Farage does is to give a voice to native British people in their homeland and to voice their concerns and speak for their interests, something which cosmopolitans who dominate the state institutions, political class and media of western multicultural societies will not do.

It is instructive perhaps that the only types of society which actively deprives natives of a voice in their homeland are colonial societies and multicultural societies because it is seen as dangerous.

The question is dangerous to whom?

[ltr]

What Farage does is to give a voice to native British people in their homeland and to voice their concerns and speak for their interests...

[ Cultivating and preying on prejudice to deflect from class. Yes, I get it, Farage is a monster. ]

[ltr]

There were more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases yesterday in the US, there are 100,000 new cases today:

November 4, 2020

Coronavirus

US

Cases ( 9,801,355)
Deaths ( 239,829)

Serious, Critical Cases ( 18,045)

[Blissex]

«a voice to native British»

A large majority of scots and northern irish and a lot of welsh are not particularly fond of Farage and his positions. Perhaps this this should be "native English"...

«people in their homeland and to voice their concerns and speak for their interests»

But they don't have much in the way of common interests: native english people have very different situations in the Home Counties and London vs. the rest of the nation, and depending on their assets and their incomes.

The globalists you refer to are almost all upper-middle and upper-class and southern english (note: the scots and northern irish and many welsh are internationalists, quite a different thing).

«the only types of society which actively deprives natives of a voice in their homeland are colonial societies»

That has happened to most of the middle and lower classes in the UK regardless of whether they are internationalist or nationalist, and that has been the effect of entirely native, tory, nationalist thatcherism, not multiculturalism.

[rsm]

"If we are to truly embrace freedom, with the benefits it brings (many of which are non-economic) we must therefore be prepared to tolerate some disorder, sights and sounds that some fixed identities would resist – be it foreign languages on a train or same-sex couples dancing on Strictly."

Can you tolerate the sight of a maskless person shopping?

"Serious, Critical Cases ( 18,045)"

How many suicides? How many overdoses? Aren't you cherry-picking? Total deaths in Sweden are below the average for the past few years: https://www.statista.com/statistics/525353/sweden-number-of-deaths/

75k deaths so far for Sweden in 2020; 6k due to covid; 28k due to cardiovascular disease.

Aren't you being histrionic, becoming hysterical over an imagined hospital capacity problem? We went through this before, they brought military hospitals here and never used them. They ordered ventilators, and returned them because the predicted hospital shortages never occurred.

The virus is so scary, you have to get a test to know you have it.

(Which is not to say I am not scared, but I do my best to protect myself and not feel awkward if someone else is not wearing a mask.)

[James Charles]

"The NHS in England is to declare a national incident over the surge of coronavirus cases in hospitals, as the head of the health service revealed that 11,000 Covid patients are now being cared for – enough to fill 22 hospitals."
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-second-wave-surge-nhs-hospitals-b1587647.html

[dilbert dogbert]

I wonder if what Dean Baker is talking about also applies to the UK?
https://cepr.net/donald-trump-and-being-deplorable/
We have many more grifters than the UK and our funding of politics offers an inviting target for the grifters.

[ltr]

November 6, 2020

Coronavirus

UK

Cases   ( 1,146,484)
Deaths   ( 48,475)

Deaths per million   ( 713)

Germany

Cases   ( 635,618)
Deaths   ( 11,299)

Deaths per million   ( 135)

[ltr]

"Which is not to say I am not scared..."

This is just the point, and I understand and completely relate to the feeling.

[ltr]

Ten million coronavirus cases in the US, the Hobbesian state of affairs of Branko Milanovic.

[Gregory Bott]

Farage is anti British and pro plutocrats. He is using Marxist style dialectics to control information.

[Ralph Musgrave]

I find Chris Dillow's concentration on Farage's feeling akward on hearing foreign languages on public transport a very feeble point. That "hearing foreign languages" point is not something that bothers the vast majority of those who want immigration better controlled.

Of more concern to opponents of mass immigration is the culture which goes in for beheadings, pedophilia, wife beating, killing apostates and blasphemers etc etc. But of course Chris keeps quiet about that because he knows full well that opponents of mass immigration have a good point there.

[georgesdelatour]

“But the anti-migrant sentiment Farage stirred up during the Brexit referendum is the antithesis of libertarianism.”

Immigration will only make a society more liberal if the median immigrant is typically more liberal than the median native or emigrant. With democracy, at some level, the inputs ultimately determine the outputs. Imagine if emigration from the UK consisted largely of nice liberal lefties with degrees starting families, while immigration to the UK consisted largely of disgruntled US Trump supporters, Polish (PIS) Law & Justice supporters, South African boers, plus Taliban and Isis members.

Pretty soon many of our major cities have Trumpist/PIS/Boer/Taliban ghettoes, filled with mega-churches and Salafi mosques. Our new citizens vote en masse for right wing politicians who favour making guns legal & abortion illegal, forcing gays back into the closet, scrapping almost all environmental legislation, and punishing blasphemy with capital punishment. When those right wing politicians take power, they encourage even more Trumpist/PIS/Boer/Taliban immigration, so as to give themselves a permanent electoral majority. Within 20 years, it becomes demographically impossible to elect even a “wet” Tory government, never mind a socialist Labour one.

[ltr]

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1206008.shtml

November 7, 2020

No infections among 56,000 people who traveled abroad after receiving Sinopharm-developed COVID-19 vaccine: developer
________________________________

None of the 56,000 people who were inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine and travelled abroad have contracted the coronavirus, Sinopharm’s chairman said on Friday.

Sinopharm Chairman Liu Jingzhen, said at a conference on Friday that some 100,000 people have been vaccinated with the company’s vaccine and have shown no adverse reactions so far. Among those who were inoculated and travelled aboard, none have been infected with the virus, said Liu....

[ltr]

I suppose the point is that had Americans and the British simply been asked to wear masks from February on, there would have been millions fewer coronavirus cases and tens of thousands fewer severe cases and deaths. There is no social excuse for failing at so simple a request or requirement.

[ltr]

November 7, 2020

Coronavirus

UK

Cases   ( 1,171,441)
Deaths   ( 48,888)

Deaths per million   ( 719)

Germany

Cases   ( 653,281)
Deaths   ( 11,417)

Deaths per million   ( 136)

[ltr]

About the awful Farage, I am thinking that with Donald Trump gone from the presidency Farage will immediately be considered far less influential. I suspect Farage will soon be of no political importance.

[Maurits Pino]

If Farage feels “awkward” on hearing foreign languages on a train, he's made some strange decisions in life. From his perspective, his German wife must feel permanently "awkward" - not something you would wish upon your spouse. And obviously he would feel miserable visiting his in-laws with all that German speaking around him (in the train, in the restaurant, and even in the streets)

[ltr]

November 9, 2020

COVID, the US election and media balance

I want to start with my last post. It contrasted a minority of countries that were good, were not too bad and the majority that were terrible at handling the pandemic. What surprised me was how willing people were to believe that each of the good countries had some special attribute that explained their superior performance, rather than accept the more obvious explanation that they had more practice at handling pandemics, or just had better governance. These countries that have handled the pandemic well knew that you needed a good TTI operation, you needed to keep case numbers low, you needed strong border control and in most cases that if you lose control of case numbers you lock down quickly and hard.

The UK has failed on all these counts. The experts learnt not to underestimate the virus after the first wave. They recommended a short lockdown in the early stages of the second wave. This is just the kind of thing that the good countries in my classification from last week would do. Boris Johnson (or was it Rishi Sunak with a veto?) rejected their advice, using the spurious grounds that he was balancing health against the economy. You are balancing nothing when you leave R>1. Johnson and Sunak were wrong...

-- Simon Wren-Lewis

[ltr]

November 9, 2020

Coronavirus

UK

Cases   ( 1,213,363)
Deaths   ( 49,238)

Deaths per million   ( 724)

Deaths per million   ( 719)

Germany

Cases   ( 687,029)
Deaths   ( 11,627)

Deaths per million   ( 139)

[ltr]

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-11-10/1-in-5-COVID-19-patients-develop-mental-illness-within-90-days-study-Viq3V2635K/index.html

November 10, 2020

1 in 5 COVID-19 patients develop mental illness within 90 days: study

Many COVID-19 survivors are likely to be at greater risk of developing mental illness, psychiatrists said on Monday, after a large study found 20 percent of those infected with the coronavirus are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within 90 days.

Anxiety, depression and insomnia were most common among recovered COVID-19 patients in the study who developed mental health problems, and the researchers also found significantly higher risks of dementia, a brain impairment condition.

“People have been worried that COVID-19 survivors will be at greater risk of mental health problems, and our findings … show this to be likely,” said Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at Britain’s Oxford University.

Doctors and scientists around the world urgently need to investigate the causes and identify new treatments for mental illness after COVID-19, Harrison said.

“(Health) services need to be ready to provide care, especially since our results are likely to be underestimates (of the number of psychiatric patients),” he added.

The study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal, * analyzed electronic health records of 69 million people in the United States, including more than 62,000 cases of COVID-19….

* https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30462-4/fulltext

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