The fascist tactic, classically, is the pounce. The fascist strategy is to see the fragility of the political establishment, which by its nature has nourished the most shortsighted and the most cowardly in its ranks.
Le Pen is not a particularly shrewd politician, but after Macron did her the favor of dissolving the national assembly, she is reeping the benefit of the strategy of normalization: the political establishment is dissolving before her eyes. She probably can't believe her luck. One goes back to the thirties, and the way the Social Democrats went from the establishment to the concentration camp in Germany. All the while its leaders making some vain and stupid stand or another, and refusing to turn to the working class, cause they are grody.
France, as Tucholsky remarked in 1928, was characterized, much more than Germany or the UK at the time, by the fact that the past was never passed - history was in the very cries in the street.
This was a shrewd insight. And what we are seeing in France - the cluelessness of the left, the vanity of the center, the cluelessness of the right, and the desire of the extreme-right - is like many periods in the past. Marx's 18th Brumaire is still pertinent to France.
That a man as shallow and vain as Macron is trying to make this all about him just adds to the comedy. His asskissers are floating a new idea from the Great Disrupter: what if he resigned? Then he could run again for a glorious third term.
Louis Napoleon he is not. This harebrained scheme, however, might be the best way for Le Pen to take the presidency in the next year. I can see Macron trying it, although I don't think even the ever pliable constitutional council would accept it.
Watching this happen here is sad sad sad - and instructive. It happened in the UK with the Tories. The political establishments in most countries are fat, complacent, and brain-dead. We will measure just how braindead as the Socialists, under Raphael Glucksman - who, for my sins, I voted for - pull away from the only thing that can save the left from disaster - a united front.
The only happy gleam I can see, at the moment, is that the fascists in Italy, though they triumphed in the Europeans, were closely followed by a re-invigorated leftwing party. But that is thin gruel.
Welcome to the Jungle, baby.
And here 's the song link.null
3 comments:
Je nous pense, en partie, responsables, nous, gens de gauche, nous, gens de culture. On a lâché le peuple, on n’a pas voulu écouter les peurs, les angoisses. Quand les gens disaient ce qu’ils voyaient, on leur disait qu’ils se trompaient, qu’ils ne voyaient pas ce qu’ils voyaient. Ce n’était qu’un sentiment trompeur, leur disait-on. Puis, comme ils insistaient, on leur a dit qu’ils étaient des imbéciles, puis, comme ils insistaient de plus belle, on les a traités de salauds.
https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/tribunes/ariane-mnouchkine-a-quel-moment-doit-on-cesser-de-faire-du-theatre-sous-un-gouvernement-rn-20240612_SQSP4WGKCBD6VF3ESDB55SSW3M/
- Sophie
Funny, Sophie, when I read that in liberation I thought of you! But I am now getting caught up in what is probably a false hope for the left, and hoping that Macron gets something he def doesn't want.
Hope the hope isn't false. I've been unable to sleep last few days but my sis says I smiled today! I'm certain the Macron media is going to go into overdrive to splinter the precariously unified left. Macron was brandishing the "antisemitism" of the "extreme left" the other day. Uh huh, it was the left that sent Blum and how many others to concentration camps, not the forbearers of RN! I also so hope the left doesn't get all tied up with the figure/leader thing as you've pointed out. Win the the majority first dammit, and guess what you won't get that without listening to people and what they're saying. It might not be what you want to hear but goddam well listen.
- Sophie
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