https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2025/04/07/neo-iconoclasm/ I am not the only one to have noticed the massive growth of slop finding its way onto my social media feeds. By “slop,” I mean emotive, clickbait posts bearing little relationship to truth, and often merely repackaging stories from ages ago while claiming them to be news. Indeed, one level-headed Cornish observer complains about:
“Ill-affected posts which fly abroad in such swarms as are able to cloud the pure air of truth and present a dark ignorance to those who have not the two wings of justice and knowledge to fly above them.”
I refer, in particular, to the massive volume of posts comparing the current moment with events in 1930s Germany, with anyone the neoliberal left dislikes being cast as the modern version of the failed Austrian painter… a delusional product of a highly constricted history curriculum (limited to the Tudors and a boomer-version of the Second World War) and the Star Wars mythology of the triumph of the western allies over Germany and its allies in 1945.
Worse than this though, is the lack of balance between historical ontology (what we know) and epistemology (how we know it). While historians might trawl through contemporaneous records and witness testimony to unpick the nuances of historical events and processes, most ordinary folk turn to the biased and fantastical Hollywood portrayals – Journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer, for example, recently referencing the entirely inaccurate Darkest Hour version of Churchill’s first weeks as Prime Minister to justify the, frankly insane, idea that Britain and France (without American support) should go to war against Russia. (for what it is worth, Churchill’s “fight them on the beaches” speech in Parliament was not recorded, and the version, which is often claimed to be authentic, was a recreation recorded for the BBC by a voice actor, Norman Shelly).
One can hardly blame the education system for this sorry state of affairs. Education has been at the core of the neoliberal revolution, allowing little time in the curriculum for any of the secondary (11 to 16 years) subjects. Only in advanced level and university level education are students given a broader view of their chosen subjects, with more focus on epistemology in the process. But even then, a budding historian would need to engage in a lot of extracurricular research and reading to become truly familiar with a topic.
In this respect, the current Nazi go-to in contemporary shitposting resembles the old story of the policeman who finds a man on his hands and knees beneath a streetlamp. “What are you doing?” asks the cop. “Looking for my keys,” the man replies. “Where did you drop them?” asks the cop. “Oh, over there,” says the man, pointing to his car. “So, why are you looking here?” asks the cop. “Because this is where the light is,” the man replies. Since the Star Wars version of the Second World War is the only “history” most people know, then like Maslow’s Hammer, everything has to be shoehorned into that mythology.
The use of the term “nazi,” or the associated “fascist” and “far-right,” along with the claim that this or that politician is “literally Hitler,” is not, in any case, intended by the neoliberal left as a historical parallel. Rather, it is intended as a form of stochastic violence which has become all too common in leftist circles… the unspoken hope that someone (such as Luigi Mangione or Thomas Crooks) might be deranged enough to carry out acts of violence that the leftist intellectual “thwarted bourgeoisie” itself lacks the courage to commit.
John Michael Greer’s excellent series of articles deconstructing Wagner’s ring cycle operas, provides a historical insight into why there is little new in our contemporary intelligentsia’s attempts to stir an underclass into rising up on its behalf… it was apparent to Wagner from the very beginning of industrial capitalism:
“Despite everything that happened, despite Alberich’s curse and the warnings of Erda, he [Wotan] still wants the Ring, and the power and wealth that it provides. That’s true of most mainstream intellectuals. In Wagner’s time it was even more true than usual, since the role of the philosophes in launching the French Revolution convinced a great many intellectuals that they ought to do the same thing, plan out a wonderful new world, and then get other people to make it happen. That’s exactly what Wotan has in mind. He plans on getting somebody else to get the Ring for him. That strategy didn’t work out too well for the philosophes, all things considered, and it worked even less well for their heirs in 1848 and 1849.”
In Wagner’s time and in ours, the intellectual class has two options for obtaining power. Most obviously, they may suck up to (or act as useful idiots on behalf of) the ruling elite. Alternatively, they may seek to overthrow the elite and, as it were, put themselves on the throne. This latter was clearly present in the French and Russian revolutions, and chimes with Peter Turchin’s warning about the overproduction of elites (what I refer to as the “thwarted bourgeoisie” of indebted graduates with no graduate jobs to go to). Indeed, the entire post-modernist turn among the intellectual left is a product of the belief that the proletariat (Nibelungs) had failed in their historical mission fifty-seven years ago, and that some alternative (the rainbow coalition of externally-defined victim groups) would have to carry out the violent overthrow of capitalism that the intelligentsia lack the strength and power to undertake for itself.
This Wagnerian triangle of Giants, Nibelungs and Gods (today’s oppressors, victims, and white middle-class champions) may have stretched all the way back to the dawn of capitalism, but there is a more disturbing historical parallel with the dangerous tactics currently being employed in an attempt to stir the underclasses to revolt… not Germany in the 1930s, but Britain in the 1630s. It was a time of economic dislocation, with enclosures gathering pace as sheep farming replaced less profitable peasant holdings, and with the early development of industry together with the growth of cities and towns. It was also a time of religious turmoil, with the more democratic protestant religions in England and Scotland perceived to be under threat from various papist conspiracies… a perception not helped by the Catholics at Court, including Charles I devout wife Henrietta-Maria. After the failure (from Charles’ point of view) of parliament to resolve the Scottish Covenanters’ invasion of Northern England, in March 1629, Charles had dissolved parliament in favour of “personal rule” (aka “eleven years of tyranny”) during which government was funded by a series of duties, such as “ship money” which the king could levy without parliament. But when this failed to raise enough money in the face of further invasions by discontented Calvinist Scots, Charles was forced to call a Parliament in February 1640. Rather than grant Charles his taxes though, this “Short Parliament” first insisted on resolving the many grievances which had built up in the decade since parliament last met. Instead, in May 1640, Charles dissolved parliament once more. Nevertheless, the tax issue hadn’t gone away. And the growing religious tensions continued. So that Charles was obliged to call another parliament – which became known as the “Long Parliament,” and which sat from November 1640 to March 1660.
One could certainly draw a parallel between the division between elitist (“papist” – itself a term synonymous with the modern left’s use of “nazi” or “fascist”) Catholics and Protestants in the 1630s, and the divide between the modern supranational elites and their useful idiots and the growing national populist movements across the western states. But the more worrying parallel is with the introduction of a new media (the printing press then, social media today) which left the majority (on both sides of the divide) ill-equipped to distinguish between fact and slop. Take a look at the quote from the Cornishman at the beginning of this post. It was not written yesterday, but in 1641 (cited in Michael Braddick’s God’s Fury, England’s Fire: A New History of the English Civil Wars) and refers to the mushrooming volume of printed religious-political pamphlets of the period. As Braddick notes, the more parliament demanded of the king, and the more intransigent the king became to these demands, the more extreme the pamphlets became… winding the extreme wings of the general populace into a state of political and religious frenzy. By the end of the year, both king and parliament would be scrambling to take control of military and naval armouries. And just a few months later, the first shots of the English Civil War would be fired… a war which, by some accounts resulted in a higher proportion of casualties than the First World War.
Crucially, the process from remonstration to war was rapid. At the beginning of 1640, parliament and its supporters were concerned with righting the excesses of the crown and the church authorities over the previous decade. Within a year though, they had arrested the Earl of Strafford and the Archbishop of Canterbury (both of whom would later be executed) and were engaging in actions designed initially to restrict the power of the crown, and later to remove it entirely. Meanwhile, an increasingly zealous puritan minority (equivalent to today’s neoliberal left) was moving from attacks on the tiny Catholic minority to a much wider protestant population content to follow the official Book of Common Prayer. Nor did this stop with the misuse of the term “papist.” By the end of 1641, iconoclasm – the destruction of supposedly “papist” symbols – had become commonplace, with mainstream churches attacked for such “crimes” as displaying a cross. Twelve months later, and irrespective of widespread attempts at neutrality, those two groups of English protestants, along with their equivalents in Scotland, were divided into two armed camps, each determined to annihilate the other… even as those in the middle were forced to choose a side. And as happens in all violent conflicts, peace becomes impossible because all concerned respond only to the previous violent act.
As Mark Twain held, history doesn’t repeat but it does rhyme. Insofar as the British state may be incubating civil unrest, it is not about to produce rival armies occupying different regions of a divided country. Indeed, it is more likely to result in a growth of increasingly commonplace knife attacks, punctuated by the low-grade terrorism of cars and vans being driven at speed into the crowd. The fact that a sizable number of us seriously considered that the recent transformer fire which took out Heathrow airport might have been caused by a terror attack on vulnerable infrastructure, at least suggests that this kind of attack seems more realistic than it would have done a decade ago.
The USA – which the UK has a very bad habit of copying – is an altogether different proposition. The current iconoclasm – violent attacks on anything believed to be associated with the Trump administration or the MAGA movement – seems designed to create a descent into violence. It is surely only a matter of time before an armed Tesla owner responds by shooting a would-be iconoclast… after which, the iconoclasts will use that violent act to justify increasing violence of their own. And, as happened in England between November 1640 and October 1642 (the Battle of Edgehill) the downward spiral into tit-for-tat violence will take on a life of its own.
This ought to be the lesson that we draw from history – that engaging in political violence (or – as is the wont of the neoliberal left – encouraging others to do so on your behalf) is the most dangerous political game you can play. It easily escalates out of control, and it will likely consume you in the process… not least because, even in successful revolutions, those intellectuals who ferment revolt are always among the first to climb the scaffold or to stand before the firing squad.The last working-class hero in England.
Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
Re: Neo-iconoclasm
Posted by Gerard on April 10, 2025, 12:50 pm, in reply to "Neo-iconoclasm"
"not least because, even in successful revolutions, those intellectuals who ferment revolt are always among the first to climb the scaffold or to stand before the firing squad" Yup..as I found on Westminster Bridge..don't stand at the front!
Neoliberal left?
Posted by Keith-264 on April 10, 2025, 1:41 pm, in reply to "Neo-iconoclasm"
Odd way to put it; an oxymoron? The last working-class hero in England.
Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
Re: Neoliberal left?
Posted by t on April 10, 2025, 2:08 pm, in reply to "Neoliberal left?"
Puzzled me too. Perhaps he is referring to US of A?
Re: Neoliberal left?
Posted by Mark Doran on April 10, 2025, 10:38 pm, in reply to "Re: Neoliberal left?"
It's the sign of a nutter. The kind of fruitloop who thinks globalism is a leftist plot to create world socialist government and sees 'wokery' running amok in every academic and governmental institution.
Why anyone would read his drivelling screeds is beyond me.
It's the sign of a nutter. The kind of fruitloop who thinks globalism is a leftist plot to create world socialist government and sees 'wokery' running amok in every academic and governmental institution.
I think you have him wrong Mark, just imo. You are skimming the surface ..
Why anyone would read his drivelling screeds is beyond me.
Disagree here. He says a lot of home truth which are worth it, to my mind. I read it. Am I a fruity loop? You don't have to answer
Btw Dan thought he was a reactionary. Completely disagree with him there. Assertions don't phase me
There you have it.
Re: Neoliberal left?
Posted by Keith-264 on April 11, 2025, 12:15 pm, in reply to "Re: Neoliberal left?"
You might have noticed that when he makes comments about something in my fields I tend to pick fault with details and offer sources (I sent them to him but he hasn't replied). I do wonder if he's a bit of a Tory curmudgeon among his other attributes, which is disappointing but in his field, the economics of energy, I think his views are rather good.The last working-class hero in England.
Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
on April 10, 2025, 11:50 am
