Politics as Creative Toxic Waste

As Brian Fung reported for the Washington Post on June 24th, the British electorate, after voting to leave the European Union, decided to learn about their decision and its consequences. After the count, they started ‘frantically Googling’ what the European Union is. I think that there is no point trying to argue the merit of the vote, and whether or not they should have voted the way they did. The important point is that they voted without knowing what they were voting for. They were also forced or coerced to vote. In other words, whether or not they were educated on the issue at stake was not a prerequisite for casting a vote. In fact, you can be completely ignorant about everything related to it, and you can still cast a vote that will supposedly count. You also do not have to know what consequences to expect in order to vote, but you will have to suffer through them anyway. What can we make from this?

I argue that this situation is more evidence for the fact that politics is a kind of creative toxic waste. Let me explain – think about the millions of people who are paying attention to the lies of politicians, none of whom could ever be trusted. Yet, speaking with slogans, they convince the conceptually unprepared masses, indoctrinated in the school system into some silly form of nationalism, to believe them, to cheer them for whatever they repeat. Instead of working creatively on themselves, learning about other ways of living and being, their minds and souls are vacuumed into the game of mass and national politics, the most ineffective mode of social organization that the world has ever seen.

And it’s ridiculous how so-called radical political science and theory scholars, wearing suits and congratulating one another over glasses of free booze after convoluted and arcane presentations, and pretending that they are not simply reinforcing the status quo. In fact, things like political science only exist to reinforce people’s dependence on the idea of government, in the notion that they cannot govern themselves, but must always be told what to do. As long as they believe that casting a vote for a crook once in a while is a great right and achievement to be cherished, everything is under control. When I think about political slogans, people chanting horrible songs as if they are getting charged with the righteousness of state power, its flags and colors, it’s sickening to anyone who has a grasp on world history.

The shame is that, people get attached, for a lifetime, to national identities, to presidents and ministers, media personalities and their brainless discussions and productions. they forget to try something different, and they idolize idiots. It’s a surreal situation that should lead to many a satirical novel. In fact, all scholarship on political issues should be read like a great collective joke –a bunch of babbling that leads to more babbling.

Drunk in the toxic waste of political jargon, binary values and terminology, drenched in mass media bullshit and dazzled by the insights of red faced, orange tanned men, the masses get very anxious about politics, until distractions like the FIFA World Cup or the next Olympics reinforces the myths of nationalism and political dependence further. Somehow, the masses programmed to turn off their critical minds have been contaminated by the toxic waste of global politics. Just pay all your taxes in time, watch television, listen to what the politicians are saying, cast a vote, then go figure out what it was for.

Unless you stop giving attention to politics and politicians, they will continue to tell you what to do, steal from you, lie to you, and laugh at your face. We are doomed. The only way out of this is to revert to modes of civilization that predate so-called modernity – leave the cities or reform them, getting rid of cars and roads, and turning them into grassy paths, places for growing food and making art, and you shall find self-sufficiency!