"Political Alchemy"
by Joel Bowman
“I believe in the Individual; I disbelieve in the State.
Perhaps I am nothing more than a peaceful and silent
anarchist who dreams of the disappearance of governments.”
~ Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
Buenos Aires, Argentina - "The world is brimming with genius, dear reader, and yet we are governed by knaves and fools. What gives? Hot wars with enemies afar... trade wars with friends anear... plus debts, deficits and delusions as far as the eye can see. The latest headlines, from the Same Olds...
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Ho hum... And now that the Ships of State themselves are beginning to slip beneath the waves, laden with hubris and fatal conceits, we see too that their once-hallowed institutions, tethered to the hull, are going under, too. More on that below, but first, we are reminded there is a season for everything...
Back on Earth: “¡Se vino la primavera! (Spring is suddenly upon us!),” declared Rosanna, a kindly woman from the provinces who helps out around the apartment. “Ya se siente el calorcito. (You can already feel the ‘little warmth.’)” Like the seasons themselves, Rosanna seems to come and go more or less as she pleases... or at least in accordance with arrangements largely unknown to your editor. “No hace falta que salgas con la campera hoy (You won’t need your coat today),” she smiled, handing us our hat instead. “Que disfrutes la caminata. (Enjoy your walk.)”
Traipsing the grand Avenida Libertador, with the sunlight gathering in irregular, shadow-swept forms along the sidewalk, we were happy to find Rosanna right on all counts. Our fellow flâneurs, too, delighted in the propitious turn in the weather. Newspapers on their laps and caffeine on their lips, café-goers basked in the morning rays. A cheerful vagrant, stretching on a park bench, let out a mighty yawn to meet the new day. Even the joggers, faces contorted in silent protest at their self-inflicted condition, appeared less miserable than usual.
How does one capture a moment in time, we mused, as a pack of dogs passed us by, leashes taut, dragging “their walker” in tow? In an infinitely complex reality, how are we to comprehend the order of events cascading before us? And what vanity leads one featherless biped, or chest-thumping congress thereof, to suppose such spontaneous order ought to be centrally planned, directed, managed, or otherwise governed from the top down?
Spooky Alchemy: As patient readers well know, we distrust prescriptivism of all stripes here in these humble Notes, preferring the descriptive to the normative. Ever wary of Hume’s pending guillotine, we leave the “oughts” to those brave and reckless souls who claim to know better, finding sufficient cause for awe and confusion in pondering what “is” (or “is not”) instead.
Observing the State of the State, for example, we cannot help but notice that a creeping sickness, potentially terminal, has set into the bones of the world’s governments. On the one hand, warfare state apparatchiks promise to rain down ever more tragedy... while on the other, welfare state apologists propose policies of determined trickle-up poverty. Both “strategies,” if they can be called that, result in all the relevant and predictable bankruptcies... moral, financial, political, spiritual, etc.
In this manner, the ruling parties – it hardly matters the particular State in question – share a common conceit: through the spooky alchemy known as Modern Democracy, the will of the majority is magically transformed into Pure Knowledge, Truth and Beauty, a Law above all Laws, to be obeyed without question, forever and ever, Amen.
This glaring absurdity we addressed in our recent Note, Mobjority Rule. And yet, the modern nation state is hardly a non-negotiable part of the cosmic firmament, as its weak-kneed exponents and slack-jawed sophists would have us believe. It is, in truth, nothing more than an imagined reality, dreamed into being during the fearful adolescence of our species.
That is not to say it doesn’t exist (alas!) Only that, unlike change, it is not a universal constant. Most historians cite the “birth of the modern nation state” as sometime in the late 18th Century, around the time of the French and American revolutions. A blink of an eye, in other words, especially in an age where time itself (measured by human experience and the technology that shapes our world) continues its breakneck acceleration.
Political Animals: It is true what Aristotle says, of course, that man is a “zoon politikon” (“political animal”). But the old Peripatetic was referring to man’s interest and involvement in city life (that of the “polis”), and in the shared norms, lores and cultural mores of his kin. He was not referring to fiddling interest rates, passing minimum wage laws or deciding collectively which foreign nation – friend or foe – is most deserving of the Dear Leader’s rancor from one week to the next. Nor did he envision the insatiable snorkel snouts of a sprawling spoils system, or the theatrical outrages of a focus-grouped media carnival, bent on monetizing the anxiety of the hoi polloi.
To the “peaceful and silent anarchist,” Jorge Luis Borges (quoted above), the individual comes long before what he considered the great “political abstraction” that is government. Similarly culture, too, is something that forms in the imagination long before it manifests itself in the halls of Congress. Language, literature, mythology, customs, beliefs, norms, heuristics, etc. It is this deep, connective tissue that holds a society – a body politik – together... not the dunce’s crown that sits upon its head.
Casting back through the pages of history, we notice that when a particular culture finds itself in decline – when it is philosophically infirm... afflicted morally, aesthetically, spiritually etc. – the degradation tends to manifest itself in precisely the kind of bottom-feeding politics that pollute our attention spans today. And therein lies the trap...
Searching for political solutions to cultural challenges becomes something of a category error, rather like amputating an arm to cure a migraine, or fussing over the thermostat when the house is burning down. One can no more hope to elect gods from among men than to derive gold from lead. The right question, therefore, might not be “Which political party can best lead us?” but rather “How can we transcend politics altogether, such that a superior, more vibrant culture is possible?” More on this, anon. As always, stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World..."
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