Understanding
Brexit: The Powerless Press Their Thumb in the Eye
of the Power Elite
Charles Hugh Smith - June 27, 2016
The sense of
having a real say, and possessing actual agency, is very empowering, and very
rare, for members of the lower-middle class and the working class today. The premier
strategy for retaining power is to give the powerless a carefully managed
illusion of decision-making and autonomy. Having a say over one's life and choices is called agency, and it is the
illusion of agency that makes democracy such a powerful
tool of control. The second most
effective means of maintaining power is to limit the choices offered the
powerless. Offering the
powerless false choices, i.e. the choice
between two functionally equivalent options, provides the comforting illusion
of agency while insuring that the status quo Power Elites remains in charge,
regardless of the choice made by the powerless. For example, give
the powerless a choice between Tweedle-Dum
(Republicans/Tories) and Tweedle-Dee
(Democrats/Labour). Whomever they elect, the self-serving Power Elite of
entrenched interests and wealth remains firmly in charge, for the Power Elite
speaks with one voice through two mouths, one Establishment Democrat/Labour,
the other Establishment Republican/Tory. If the powerless
get restless, make them fearful. This is easily
managed via external threats and dramatic predictions of economic doom should
the Power Elite be threatened. If fear has lost
its edge due to over-use, then whip up social controversies that divide
and conquer the powerless. Divisive, hot-button social controversies are easily
staged and media-managed; these serve to distract and fragment the powerless
in endless culture wars. The powerless get
very few opportunities to express their dissatisfaction with their gradual
impoverishment and powerlessness, and few opportunities to register
their disapproval of the Power Elite. They know complaints go nowhere,
petitions are ignored, and demonstrations accomplish nothing. So when a rare
chance to stick a thumb in the eye of the Power Elite comes along, they take
it. The Brexit vote was just such an opportunity. Though the
benefits that flowed from membership in the European Union may well have been
substantial, many people did not have any direct experience of those
benefits, which largely flowed to a handful of privileged classes: young,
well-educated workers in finance, people who bought housing in London before
the huge run-up in valuations, and workers providing services to the wealthy
foreigners and highly paid financial professionals. Many households
have seen their quality of life and living standards stagnate or decay during
the U.K.'s membership in the E.U. The benefits touted by the Power Elite are either
illusory or too modest to matter to these households, and their rage has only
grown as the Power Elite tried to browbeat them into approving a membership
that yielded no benefits to their households. The Power Elite
simply repeated what has worked well for 60+ years: tout the systemic benefits of E.U. membership,
confident in the belief that some of these benefits have trickled down to the
lower economic classes, and stoke fears of economic decline if the Powers
That Be don't get their way. Unfortunately for
the Power Elite, the benefits of E.U. membership, financialization
and globalization have been concentrated at the top of the pyramid: the already wealthy got wealthier, and the young,
well-educated, mobile, entrepreneurial class had enhanced opportunities to
generate private wealth or at least secure an excellent salary. A third privileged
(i.e. protected) class includes all those benefiting from direct E.U.
subsidies. Those outside
these classes saw little if any benefit. The slow decay of
living standards and social mobility was crystallized into anger by the Brexit vote, which was intended to be yet another rigged,
illusory choice. The masses were
supposed to be persuaded by either the list of goodies that flowed from
membership or from fear-mongering about the catastrophic consequences of Brexit. But neither worked
as planned: the benefits were
too diffuse or too concentrated in the hands of a few to be persuasive in
terms of self-interest, and the fear-mongering only increased awareness of
how much the Power Elite wanted a Remain outcome. Will Brexit hurt the classes that did not directly benefit
from E.U. membership?Perhaps. Perhaps it was
not in their self-interest to vote for Brexit. But the immeasurable pleasure in
depriving the Power Elite of their "democracy" legitimacy was worth
any potential sacrifice. The sense of
having a real say, and possessing actual agency, is very empowering, and very
rare, for members of the lower-middle class and the working class today. the wealthy and powerful are accustomed to vetoing
anything that impairs their wealth or power, and they're accustomed to either
winning over or distracting the powerless. Thus it was a
shock when the powerless took the rare opportunity to stick a thumb in the
eye of the Power Elite by depriving them of something they wanted. Is this childish,
or self-defeating? Perhaps. But when the system erodes a citizenry's sense of
agency, they have little to lose by relishing the chance to use the same
power the wealthy constantly wield without any qualm or hesitancy: the power
to say "no." I am indebted to longtime correspondent G.F.B. for this topic suggestion. My new book is #14
on Kindle short reads -> politics and social science: Why Our Status Quo Failed and Is Beyond Reform ($3.95 Kindle ebook,
$8.95 print edition) For
more, please visit the book's website. |