NARCISSISM, KITSCH AND NOSTALGIA
Trump Brexit And The Politics of Illusion
‘[Nazism]
involved, perhaps first and foremost, a love of self, not the reality of the
self but the self that is reflected in the mirror. This narcissism was
projected into a political movement and eventually came to encompass an entire
nation. The reflection in the mirror the Nazis had of themselves – blond, blue
eyed, strong as Krupp steel, eternally youthful, with a Nietzschean will to
power - that was the myth…
Nazism was an attempt to lie
beautifully to the German nation and to the world. The beautiful lie is,
however, also the essence of Kitsch. Kitsch is a form of make-believe, a form
of deception. It is the alternative to a daily reality that would otherwise be
a spiritual vacuum…”
‘Rites
of Spring, The Great War and The Birth of The Modern Age.’ Modris Eksteins
I
The past is perhaps just as much an imagined country as it
is another one. As Pessoa reflected, the greatest of all nostalgia's is the
nostalgia for things that never were. The whole Leave campaign during last
year’s plebiscite campaign had just such a nostalgia as a backdrop. The slogan,
‘Take Our Country Back’ a demand for
a return to an imagined earlier, better, age. A similar thread, ‘Make America Great Again’ was the theme
running through Donald Trump’s election campaign. The slogan could just as
easily have been, ‘Back to the Future.’
The Presidents of Russia and the United States and
the Prime Minister of Great Britain are not motivated by a political vision of
the future, but by visions of the past. The same is also true of our current
leader of Her Majesty’s loyal opposition, – more of him in a moment.
 |
| Vladimir Putin in Uniform |
Putin’s lost nirvana is the USSR. A world in which
he was a member of the elite, lauding it over the subject colonial people of
Eastern Europe and Central Asia, in the most powerful empire on the planet. If
Hitler’s defining moment was the Armistice of 1918 and the defeat of Germany,
Putin’s was the collapse of the Soviet Union. Both whispering the incantation
to themselves of this humiliation – ‘never again.’
Of course, Putin cannot reconstruct the USSR, but,
rich in natural resources and with a sizeable nuclear Arsenal, he can throw his
weight around and shape Russia in his own image. A gangster Tsar endorsed by
the Orthodox Church and adored by the nationalist right, that feed his vicious narcissistic pathology. An enemy of Putin is an enemy of Russia.
II
Trump by contrast is a much emptier vessel, a
slogan on two legs, a serial liar and sexual predator who sells get rich quick
formulas to rural hicks, possessed of the ego and narcissism of a man with no
brains who has made money.[1] The vision of America he sells is a distorted
picture postcard image of the 1950’s, a time of American hegemony and
certainty. What he really believes in however is Donald Trump; Trump the playboy with a heart of gold, who will roll
back the clock to a time before ‘political correctness,’ a time before Gay and
lesbian, gender and racial equality laws. To a time when a ‘guy’ could be a ‘guy’
around the girls and grab them by the pussy, - because in truth they loved it.
Everyone- since Trump projects his own memories onto the entire world, - was so
much happier back then. Donald looks in the mirror and wants to create a world
fit for playboy businessmen. In short Trump combines the outlook of a Hugh
Heffner with the morality, and nepotism, of a Bernard
 |
| 'Everyone' Was So Much Happier Then |
However, Trump is merely the instrument of other,
far more sinister figures like Bannon, whose agenda can be unequivocally
categorised as fascistic. They dream the same dreams of racial and cultural
superiority as the Nazi’s. They are
currently aware that they must remain in the shadows and never be too explicit
about ‘the project.’
III
But in
his defence Orwell was writing ‘The Lion and the Unicorn,’ from whence the
quote comes, in 1940 when this culture was truly imperilled and had one eye on
morale. It bares as much comparison with the England of the early 1990’s, let
alone of 2017, as that of the England portrayed in Pygmalion. Yet it is an
enduring image, a ‘Hallmark’ image for greetings cards that will always sell well. It is also, one suspects, an image engraved on the heart of a Tory
vicar’s daughter, Theresa May. Brought up in the Home Counties, insulated from the vibrant but untidy multicultural Britain of London, Birmingham, Liverpool an Leeds, she grew up in a conservative world that viewed change with suspicion, and felt nostalgic for a time when Britain ruled the waves. She embodies those values and that nostalgia and as Tom Whyman, in an incisive New
York Times piece has pointed out her speeches are ‘a sanitised version of the dream of a British Empire.’ From ‘Red White and Blue Brexit,’ to ‘Global Britain,’ it is the stuff of
facile fantasy. It is also rooted in the narcissism of British self-regard
reflected in the kitsch of Royal memorabilia and the last night of the proms. It
is a picture postcard image of the England of 1955, with Suez erased from the
history books.
 |
| Corbyn At the Durham Miners Gala |
And what of our leader of the opposition,- a man as
inspiring as Jehovah’s Witness with a head cold on a wet Monday morning. He too
lives, not with the complexities of globalisation and the problems of a de-industrialised economy, but in an imagined past. In an idealised world of
coal and steel and heavy manufacturing, of powerful Trade Union giants such as
the NUM, TGWU, SOGAT. He believes that the people he meets at the Durham Miners
Gala reflect current thinking within working class communities. His Kitsch is the
Kitsch of miner’s lamps, Trade Union badges and Tolpuddle Martyrs T towels.
When Corbyn looks in the mirror he sees a leader of the working class, a man destined
to confront the bosses, - the dragon’s opponent.
Like cheap plastic Christmas decorations from
Walmart or Poundland what they are all selling, in their different ways, is
illusion and tawdry kitsch glitter. Corbyn however will never get near power,
all his narcissism will do is inflict immense damage on the movement he
purports to love.
The illusions and dreams they are selling will
soon fall apart and then there will be a terrible fallout, a terrible
reckoning. However whether the snake oil salesmen and women themselves will face the music seems doubtful. The scapegoats,
- ‘Remoaners’ foreigners, liberal lefties, - are already being set up to take
the hit.
In the meantime, we have entered the age of narcissism
and kitsch. So get your Brexit souvenir mug while you can. Though be warned, they can
only decline in value.
