THINGS FALL APART

As the whole Brexit fiasco descends into chaos those responsible are shedding responsibility like sandbags thrown from a balloon cradle, as they desperately try to find enough height to carry them into the stratosphere, where, like Olympian God’s they can stare down at the folly of mere mortals. On the ground, the ‘stabbed in the back’ narrative is competing heavily with the ‘evil machinations of the EU’ storyline.
As the Brexit crazed fanatics, like drunks who have broken into the wine cellar sought to throw the Good Friday Agreement out of a high window all patience and politeness and observing the niceties of discourse feel ludicrous. And, of course, the niceties of discourse have long since disappeared from the public sphere, this is what Brexit has ‘accomplished.’ To witness this phenomenon in all its gory horror one needs to go on Twitter.
Though this is not just a characteristic of Brexit but a worldwide phenomenon born of popularism, for when the President of The United States tweets like this, I am not sure we can ever row back from this. 

 Orwell spent his entire writing life swimming against the tide of British, especially English, complacency, against the idea that somehow we were immune from the contemporary viruses of totalitarianism. The action of 1984 was very deliberately placed in a still recognisable London, albeit more recognisable post-war than now. He did so precisely to challenge this feeling of immunity, with, one must say, very limited effect. Tyranny takes many forms but invariably is the offspring of chaos. Well now the chaos has begun and we are about to find out just how robust actually are our defences against tyranny.

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