…and the shift from a society of aspirational individualism to one of preservationist individualism.
Ok, so the title sounds ironic, or even a reference to a Father Ted scene. But it does raise what has been one of my serious concerns over the past year or so: that a series of factors have altered my constitution and outlook, into a more right wing one.
What does it mean to be concerned about becoming right wing? Surely it’s a decision, an active choice I make, either to be or not be so?
Also, who am I scared for? Myself, or a left-leaning/progressive ‘Other’ for whom attitudes associated with right wing beliefs stand in for all evils at a quasi-religious level (even if that ‘Other’ has no genuine alternative to types of joy produced on the right)?
…yes, I think I am bit scared by this; i.e, “what would my piers think?” etc.
But only a bit.
It’s more about how I feel about myself, and my specific path in life.
But what do I mean, what does anyone mean, when they say ‘right wing’? And am I merely thinking of the aforementioned: a term to stand-in for all the perceived ‘badness’ that could be instilled within me?
Perhaps where to start, is with a sense of being on a road to resignation. A road that looks towards political hopelessness and a loss of faith in the ability to be surprised by the ‘other’, or, perhaps more importantly, the loss of faith in the ability to be able to surprise myself.
This, I see – and worryingly so – as a road to nihilism, or at least a ‘nihilism of the Now’; a sense that nothing can surprise or make the world a better place in its contemporary state.
This means that the type of ‘right wing’ I am describing is one that could be born after a ‘depressive realism’ takes hold, when one not only no longer believes that things can be any better, but is bitter and very hostile to any calls to try to make something better.
I don’t think I’m quite at this place, yet. But it may be like witnessing the zombie bite you arm, consciously aware that you’re about to succumb to a possession.
For many who know my art work, I have been there a long time, as they have always only seen despair in it, which I must admit has caused great disheartenment and made me wonder what I can do differently, because at its core I believe the point remains that my work is positive in its negativity, it’s refusal to play game to this presentation of reality I’ve always found so difficult and unnecessary.
Sorry: side-tracking, but necessarily so. Because I’m highlighting what is a lifetime’s output that has gone alongside years of being idealistic, even if, to use my home-made term, it has most been punch-drunk idealism.
So where am I atm?
I am sat in a coffee shop in Penrith, but I am also sat on the outside of myself. I’m looking in at myself , watching myself age like in a video of later life, fast-forwarded to a single minute. And to answer the above question, I don’t see becoming right wing as a choice, but more of a process, a slow happening, like the ageing process itself, but this one specifically set on by a confluence of subsequent societal crises and an accumulation of assumptions borne of experience.
But there is one choice here, just one: the choice to take actions to prevent, or overcome this. This is my plan. But I’ll come back to that later.
Where am I? I’m not alone.
Large numbers of us, especially in early adulthood right up to early middle age have been left politically shipwrecked by a subsequent series of crises, one after the other, with earlier ones initially activating us, only for later crises to disorientate and ultimately deflate us.
I am always speaking as if I am everybody. This is of course particular. But if it is it is collectively particular. So entrenched in the wake the pandemic, the crisis that was like a brain injury at the end of a car crash of political hope.
I was 24 when the 2008 financial crash changed the texture of reality. I was 17 when 9/11 happened, but for all 9/11’s aftermath, it was the financial crash that set in motion a political activation of millions of people across the world, especially those 5-10 years younger than myself. We’re all now in our thirties, many of us wondering what we’ve just gone through. I am certainly thinking this – I turn 40 in 6 months.
Over the last 5 or so years politics has become ever-more personal. Perhaps more so than it was at any point since Margaret Thatcher heralded the death of society (which isn’t what she actually said, but may as well have).
Or perhaps it’s more that it’s become personal in an unexpected way?
The age of individualism was built on a shifting a societal focus onto aspirationalism. In the UK this began aggressively with Margaret Thactcher, was standardised under Blairism, and had a last ditch champion in David Cameron.
I believe our age of individualism has now shifted its focus from aspiration to a society of individuals focused on preservation. Both are aspects of an individualistic society, but I believe that the dominance of preservation is a new thing. It has taken hold most notably since the pandemic and then the so-called ‘cost of living crisis’.
However, I believe that this shift has been most pronounced, and perhaps at its most ideological, through the emergence of ‘mental health awareness’.
Despite so much work done by many, most notably Mark Fisher and the legacies he left, to highlight the obvious political dimensions of any mental health crisis affecting so many people, it does no good when one is in the Now, experiencing it, and without the tools to even believe it could be collective. Fisher was so good at highlighting how our system encourages one to blame ourselves for our mental ill-health, but once one is in this state, the last thing you often feel capable of is being collective in mindset.
After the pandemic there has certainly been a lot of people questioning the role of work in their lives, but not necessarily with an active political angle, but more of a wish to turn to themselves, and prioritise self-care over career go-getting.
Aspirationalism as a societal glue stood in for a collective vision of progress towards a better future, but after 2010 this collective energy re-emerged, if only as a competing force. At the moment that energy feels lost somewhere. Not once again replaced by an individualist idea of progress, but by a vacuum of progress, leading progressive political energies to be based around obsessively seeking out accountability for the damage done in the world we inhabit.
There are many people who may not be the most historically repressed, but who certainly need a better vision for a future of society/the world.
And I have seen a lot of people become more conservative of late, not out of age, and a change of typical life priorities, but largely because they feel somewhat abandoned and alienated from any calls for collectivity. I have friends sympathetic to the deeply conservative ideas of the likes of Jordan Peterson, for the direct help he offers many people, when ‘progressive’ voices seem more energised by encouraging us to think of others and ignore our own needs.
Admittedly I am a white, heteronormative man, and these ‘people’ who I speak of are largely friends who are also this. Although assessing ones privilege can be like looking at your shape whilst walking through a hall of mirrors, they are certainly not the most historically repressed people.
Yet, they are most certainly people in need a better vision for a future of society/the world.
The present is marked by a desire to retreat both from individualist clambering and politics. The political appeal of conservatism is precisely in its promise to keep politics out of our lives.
This is what I see, and also what I fear I have felt over the last few years.
The past few years have felt so overwhelming that retreat into introspective solace seems ever-more appealing. I, like many have found myself listening to rain water, or seashore wave relaxation videos on YouTube over the last few years, actively turning away from anything that could stimulate. Purposely deactivating myself from the world, becoming more ill at ease listening to political debates, hearing arguments that perhaps require that I do soul-searching.
I know how all of this is sounding. “It’s up to me to sort this out” and, if the last few months are anything to go by, I am beginning to do so.
Perhaps what I’m doing is using myself to talk more about what at present seems like a wider abandonment of a better tomorrow, in favour of solace in the present. A path that I’m sure many philosophies would agree is the only true path to peace anyway.
But I still feel fidelity, and oath, somewhat, to the pursuit for a better tomorrow, and as present processes continue to make tomorrow look ever-more bleak for human life, never before has it been more important to work against the conservatism wanting to crawl into our disillusioned bodies.
John B Ledger 