MP Jo Cox was shot a killed a few days before the Brexit Referendum. Of course, she was known for her staunch defense of UK remaining within the EU. I just read that her killer, Thomas Mair, at his arraignment, when asked his name, answered, "My name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain".
Nationalism, being what it is, I find it hardly surprising that violence would be its result. So her death, regardless of what others may claim, came as a result of the political positions she held.
So here's the thing: National elitism is still bad. And dangerous.
Those who hold it might want to consider the extent to which we have a moral responsibility for the emotional reverberations of our rhetoric, the extent to which we point to the "other" as the source of our problems.
There are rational criticisms to be made of the EU: The bureaucratic reach, the entrenched global capitalism, and the reliance on the military industrial complex especially. The situation as it stands is far from ideal, but destabilization can be disastrous. The reasons given to remain have been presented, largely, economically -- but, more importantly, it has been emphasized that the role of the EU is peacekeeping. Ironic much, given the West's actions in the Middle East? Perhaps, but keeping the Western nations from all rising up and blowing one another up -- again -- is pretty important. It's no accident that those who oppose the EU on nationalist grounds -- or Trump's own supporters -- have used language that is anything but peaceful.
Here's another thing, though. Opposing the EU because it's "elitist" is rather pointless. Elites have run governments in the West for a long, long time. I'm distrustful of rhetoric that wants to claim its democratizing force (!) for the common person. I know how that plays out. It's never good.
This is as true of the US as it is for the UK, with the added irony that the supposed savior of the downtrodden populace is the most opportunistic of elites, and one who prospers greatly through the mechanics of global capitalism. I know enough American history to know that the first guy who campaigned on the "common man" ticket really only meant men as common as those like him. (This is why any number of Native Americans I know to this day refuse to do business using $20 bills.) Plato's wish that kings could be philosophers, and philosophers kings, is one I would be tempted to echo -- except, I have known too many philosophers, and have briefly worked as one myself, so academic elitism is not a solution, either.
But the supposed populism in both Brexit supporters in the UK and in Trump's fan base in the US is a ruse. We are instructed to ignore racist or xenophobic language, and to behold instead a desperate uprising of frustrated salt-of-the earth workers tired of being sold out, people in search of a savior, and dissatisfied with Jesus Christ, since Christianity isn't, it turns out, all about prosperity, in spite of what the televangelists have told us -- or maybe because the Jesus who is marketed in churches is often remote, unreal -- either a soft abstraction, or a rigid conglomerate of rules. Nietzsche was on to something when he proclaimed the death of God, and the churches his tomb. In a religious vacuum idols arise.
And a lot of God-talk doesn't mean there isn't a religious vacuum, as Flannery O'Connor knew, writing of the "Christ-haunted" South. America may be "Christ-haunted", but that's only because we'd rather believe he's still a-mouldering in the grave than on the loose and found in the faces of those we want to keep out.
All this crappy populism is wrapped up in Christian language, but, make no doubt about it, it isn't Christian. It masquerades as opposing elitism, but is elitist itself, because nationalism always involves privileging one group over another. Nostalgia for a past national identity is understandable, but it can become dangerous. Once the past has passed, you can't recreate it, without force. Or, alternatively, one can become a delusional madwoman sweeping about in a fifty year old debutante gown, waiting for a lover who will never come: Either way, it means passing into the realm of the gothic, where violence always lurks. The gothic involves disguises, masks, and doubling. The hero often becomes the villain. The object of desire becomes an object of terror. There's something grotesque about the arrest to stop time, just as there is something terrifying about the urge to speed it up, to accelerate "progress". Both are artificial and bad for life on earth. If you don't believe me, read some Poe again.
Nationalism can be either conservative or progressive (Trump vs. Clinton, anyone?), but whichever mask it wears, it's an elitism, of the most dangerous sort. It can never be Christian! It's very different from a healthy love of one's native soil -- the actual soil, the actual people and animals and plants living in it (that's the only patriotism I'll ever be able to embrace, thanks to Jesus). It's different from a shared cultural identity of hospitality, feasts, collective celebration and mourning, because culture is alive and growing, while nationalism is as rigid as dead rock. And nationalism is usually quite content to blow all that real living stuff up, for the sake of some remote, frothy idea. It's rarely even an interesting idea. It's reducible to "make (County X) great again" or "us first!" How boring. And how lethal.
I take Jesus seriously, therefore: There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but we are all one in Christ Jesus.
Nationalism, being what it is, I find it hardly surprising that violence would be its result. So her death, regardless of what others may claim, came as a result of the political positions she held.
So here's the thing: National elitism is still bad. And dangerous.
Those who hold it might want to consider the extent to which we have a moral responsibility for the emotional reverberations of our rhetoric, the extent to which we point to the "other" as the source of our problems.
There are rational criticisms to be made of the EU: The bureaucratic reach, the entrenched global capitalism, and the reliance on the military industrial complex especially. The situation as it stands is far from ideal, but destabilization can be disastrous. The reasons given to remain have been presented, largely, economically -- but, more importantly, it has been emphasized that the role of the EU is peacekeeping. Ironic much, given the West's actions in the Middle East? Perhaps, but keeping the Western nations from all rising up and blowing one another up -- again -- is pretty important. It's no accident that those who oppose the EU on nationalist grounds -- or Trump's own supporters -- have used language that is anything but peaceful.
Here's another thing, though. Opposing the EU because it's "elitist" is rather pointless. Elites have run governments in the West for a long, long time. I'm distrustful of rhetoric that wants to claim its democratizing force (!) for the common person. I know how that plays out. It's never good.
This is as true of the US as it is for the UK, with the added irony that the supposed savior of the downtrodden populace is the most opportunistic of elites, and one who prospers greatly through the mechanics of global capitalism. I know enough American history to know that the first guy who campaigned on the "common man" ticket really only meant men as common as those like him. (This is why any number of Native Americans I know to this day refuse to do business using $20 bills.) Plato's wish that kings could be philosophers, and philosophers kings, is one I would be tempted to echo -- except, I have known too many philosophers, and have briefly worked as one myself, so academic elitism is not a solution, either.
But the supposed populism in both Brexit supporters in the UK and in Trump's fan base in the US is a ruse. We are instructed to ignore racist or xenophobic language, and to behold instead a desperate uprising of frustrated salt-of-the earth workers tired of being sold out, people in search of a savior, and dissatisfied with Jesus Christ, since Christianity isn't, it turns out, all about prosperity, in spite of what the televangelists have told us -- or maybe because the Jesus who is marketed in churches is often remote, unreal -- either a soft abstraction, or a rigid conglomerate of rules. Nietzsche was on to something when he proclaimed the death of God, and the churches his tomb. In a religious vacuum idols arise.
And a lot of God-talk doesn't mean there isn't a religious vacuum, as Flannery O'Connor knew, writing of the "Christ-haunted" South. America may be "Christ-haunted", but that's only because we'd rather believe he's still a-mouldering in the grave than on the loose and found in the faces of those we want to keep out.
All this crappy populism is wrapped up in Christian language, but, make no doubt about it, it isn't Christian. It masquerades as opposing elitism, but is elitist itself, because nationalism always involves privileging one group over another. Nostalgia for a past national identity is understandable, but it can become dangerous. Once the past has passed, you can't recreate it, without force. Or, alternatively, one can become a delusional madwoman sweeping about in a fifty year old debutante gown, waiting for a lover who will never come: Either way, it means passing into the realm of the gothic, where violence always lurks. The gothic involves disguises, masks, and doubling. The hero often becomes the villain. The object of desire becomes an object of terror. There's something grotesque about the arrest to stop time, just as there is something terrifying about the urge to speed it up, to accelerate "progress". Both are artificial and bad for life on earth. If you don't believe me, read some Poe again.
Nationalism can be either conservative or progressive (Trump vs. Clinton, anyone?), but whichever mask it wears, it's an elitism, of the most dangerous sort. It can never be Christian! It's very different from a healthy love of one's native soil -- the actual soil, the actual people and animals and plants living in it (that's the only patriotism I'll ever be able to embrace, thanks to Jesus). It's different from a shared cultural identity of hospitality, feasts, collective celebration and mourning, because culture is alive and growing, while nationalism is as rigid as dead rock. And nationalism is usually quite content to blow all that real living stuff up, for the sake of some remote, frothy idea. It's rarely even an interesting idea. It's reducible to "make (County X) great again" or "us first!" How boring. And how lethal.
I take Jesus seriously, therefore: There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but we are all one in Christ Jesus.