There is an argument that can be made that the rise in Populism is a clear reaction against globalisation, social and technological changes and the effects of the financial crisis of 2008. Similarly, a concurrent trend has emerged in popular culture of a growing fascination with esoteric symbolism and fantastical escapism.
It's not only children who want to believe in "unicorns" these days, but some of our politicians, too.
We've been here before.
It seems to be an instinctive human reaction against social and economic change. The sudden growth of industrialisation led to various cultural movements in Europe; most notably the change towards stricter moral values in Victorian Britain and a spurt in romantic historical literature, which occurred as Britain was rapidly changing from an agrarian society to an urban one. Artistic movements like the Pre-Raphaelites can be seen as part of the same narrative. Britain's social change was rapid when seen in its historical context, especially when we consider how, in the 18th century, London's population of half a million was ten times that of Britain's second biggest city (Bristol); in other words, England before industrialisation was essentially a country with a bloated capital and an assortment of modest market towns. Put into this context, the social schizophrenia felt by those living in the middle of such sudden changes is unsurprising.
Meanwhile, in places like Germany (even before the nation itself existed), there was the concurrent romantic movement that had a large effect on art and literature (which, more darkly, saw themes such as underlying Anti-Semitism emerge in folk tales). This can also be seen as a wider expression of identity confusion, resulting in a need to hark to the (imagined) past as a form of social therapy.
The same esoteric themes were self-evident in the rise of the original Populist movement in the USA at the end of the nineteenth century, with the themes of tradition versus technology being played out in varying forms across the most rapidly-transforming places like Germany and Britain, and (to a lesser extent) Russia.
Of these three, both Germany and Russia had their own form of social collapse as a result of their involvement in the First World War. In Russia's case, it led to a complete embrace of technology in its use as enabling the aims of Bolshevism, though Russian nationalism was still strategically exploited later on by Stalin. In Germany, it ultimately led to the opposite, and the rise of the Nazis and Hitler, whose values were both highly nationalistic and ultra-traditional, yet also were in favour of strategically-exploiting technology (e.g. the modern media) when it suited them.
Of course, it was Italy that "broke the mould" in exploiting traditional values in the chaotic aftermath of the First World War. In this sense, that global continental conflict can see seen as the ultimate expression of chaotic modern values - technology leading to the destruction of human society in its most primal form. Put in this light, it is no wonder that some traditionalists led a counter-reaction against their experiences and led a political campaign - like the artistic movement a century earlier - to reconnect people with their "humanity".
The irony here, of course, is the reversion to "traditional values" led to even greater inhumanity in the Second World War.
Different versions of reality
In this greater context, then, the rise of Populism is as unsurprising as it was predictable.
The rise in "traditional values" can have many manifestations. Britain has now become a modern "nursery" for Populist strategy, with the rest of Europe and the world looking on in morbid fascination at how a country once looked to as an exemplar of democratic moderation has become transformed into a cauldron of irrationality and "magical thinking". Politicians there have been acting as though "Game Of Thrones" were a practical manual in applied strategy rather than a piece of small-screen fantasy escapism: life imitating art, and all that. They see dragons, and start to imagine that "unicorns" might well exist too.
The tendency to believe that the impossible is possible, and that reality itself can be doubted (or is only a matter of opinion), is a form of esoteric thought that its historic roots in pagan values. This fascination with "natural law" first came to into the popular imagination in the 19th century, with Victorian writers and thinkers in Britain, and romantic writers and musicians in Germany in particular; think of Wagner, for instance. This then leads, in a different interpretation, to the skepticism of Nietzsche. This thinking was later ruthlessly exploited by the Nazis.
Brought to the present-day, skepticism in reality - climate change skeptics, Holocaust deniers, the "flat earth" movement etc. - seems to have grown with how technology has been manipulated in the media for partisan effect. In other words, when the news more and more resembles "propaganda" by people with an agenda, people doubt the truth of what they see and read. This media partisanship has then been exploited by the Populist movement (such as Farage in the UK) to promote its own agenda and to disseminate a narrative that the press are lying about immigration (i.e. under-reporting its negative effects on society). This then gives an excuse for those Populist-leaning media outlets to feed their readers with stories to fuel their own prejudice even further.
The very concept of the "lying press" goes all the way back to the use of the by the Nazis to promote skepticism in mainstream opinion. In this way, by sowing doubt in the "reality" people are seeing on the media, it encourages people to believe in their own "version" of reality. This gives further contextualization of how, when presented with a world that makes no sense, feels constantly unpredictable, and reality itself seems contradictory, people turn to fantasy and science fiction as a form of escapist therapy. This also explains the growth in the far-right and its use of esoteric symbolism to promote its agenda - the whole "red pill" meme, for example. Symbolism that harks back to ancient values - such as a "chivalric" version of the St George's cross used by the EDL - has been increasingly used to provide both memorable imagery and to provoke an emotional impact. The signs are they have not been entirely unsuccessful.
In this sense, the growth in fantasy imagery in the media and the use of reality-skepticism in Populist rhetoric, are inherently linked. When reality itself becomes questionable and simply a matter of opinion, ideas that were once seen as absurd are now taken seriously; when the mainstream media disregard Populist ideas as either fantastical or paranoid, this simply feeds into the Populist narrative. In the Populist narrative, mainstream thought (i.e. that which is promoted by "the elite") is simply an agenda to make people supine and unthinking, accepting of their fate. In the Populist narrative, no conspiracy is too extreme an explanation.
Chaos and unpredictability are two tools used by Populist movements to create a reality-skeptical public and generate popular support for their rhetoric. These are themes that have been used in the past, but technology and the ability to manipulate perception are at a level where it becomes ever easier. This skepticism that becomes ever more prevalent in the public, leads to people becoming both paranoid and more prone to irrational thought.
Welcome to Fantasy-Land
This explains the British movement that has led around a third of its electorate to lend their support to Nigel Farage's "WTO Brexit" and his "Brexit Party".
By all rational analysis, Britain trading with the world on WTO terms alone (i.e. a "no deal Brexit") would be economically-disastrous. But people's sense of reality has become so skewed that the most popular party in the country is one that supports this very scenario. In their "reality", any negative consequences would be the fault of the EU and other co-conspirators within the UK, while any negative consequences would be both "not that bad" and "worth it in the long-run".
In this sense, the supporters of this scenario are able to believe two contradictory ideas at the same time - they believe that their future would be worse but also better. This is why appealing to reason is pointless, and missing the point. What they believe is more important to them than what they experience. Their sense of reality is not what they perceive with their senses, but what they believe exists in their own mind. It is, in a cognitive sense, a separation of the senses from their consciousness.
Without going too deeply into this, what this tells us more generally is that followers of this movement are acting like members of cult: they are brainwashed into believing what they have been told supersedes what they experience with their own senses: their "reality" is literally different from someone outside their group. The obvious danger of this psychology is that it can lead to potentially dangerous behaviour, such as "mob rule" fueled by hysterical rhetoric.
Britain is currently experiencing a form of collective nervous breakdown, where reality itself seems to be under question by its politicians. Goaded by the poisonous rhetoric of "betrayal", the mass of the electorate accumulating around Farage's "personality cult" are leading the country towards a reactionary and self-destructive path. The tribalism of the past has been turned on its head by Brexit, leading to a new form of "primal" tribalism: the tribe of the fantasy-believers.
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