It's the Ruskies

He's a one man army. Let's give him a few extra troops... Some anecdotes to help Craig Murray. 

_______________

Come on! Support the man! He needs our assistance. So yes, he is right about Trump and Brexit; they are explained not by some algorithmic conspiracy but by a mass dislike of an aloof and alien political class. The class itself, of course, never accepting this view; tolerant, educated, intelligent, even quite cuddly, it is impossible, surely, to hate them: no-one's nasty to a teddy bear! No. It must be the Evil One; the table of twelve patriarchs off limits they are replaced by a small bald chap who speaks with a Russian accent…

I know many Leavers. The overwhelming majority have neither a computer nor internet connection; a tiny minority do surf - paddle is the more appropriate description - the Web, although of these the two I know well do not have a Facebook account. All receive most of their news from the BBC and ITV. Such people did not exist for Cambridge Analytica. So was Putin beaming subliminal messages through the terrestrial channels? But then what happened to the Remainers? 

What all these Leavers shared was a loathing of the one group who did vote in high numbers to Remain:

The AB social group (broadly speaking, professionals and managers) were the only social group among whom a majority voted to remain (57%). (Lord Ashcroft)

Social justice campaigners, council managers, young, pushy middle class adults, the haute bourgeoisie more generally; brief encounters with these characters could easily produce feelings of impotence and distaste; too often they felt patronised. The vote for Brexit was a vote against them. What revenge!

Polls immediately after the Brexit vote support this anecdotal evidence, giving credence to the Remainer ascription of their opponents as older and poorer; that part of the population one would expect computer ownership and Internet-use to be at its lowest. And indeed, according to Lord Ashcroft’s poll, a large majority of Leavers dislike the Internet, and the culture that surrounds it: the computer Johnny Foreigner to many of these voters.

Odd then that they should be the victims of a data raid on social media. One suspects it might be the other way round…

The most interesting question is why liberals want to believe in a passive mass manipulated by dark forces; the Referendum an example, one would think, of the contrary. The obvious answer is that they always have. Once upon a time it was the evil Capitalists beating up the innocent worker. In the 1960s and 70s the grandparents of today’s liberals believed in Marxian false-consciousness; the working class to be led out of their political and economic ignorance by a vanguard party, the truth personified. It never changes. Implicit in the Progressive case has always been the belief that the ordinary citizen is inadequate; for why else improve society, made up of just such citizens? Inherent in the Progressive sensibility, though carefully camouflaged, of course, not least from the beholders themselves, is the idea that the ordinary person doesn't know what’s good for them. They will be educated!

Do we wonder about that resentment, the hatred of condescension?

So why so aggressive now? The legitimacy of this elite rests upon the myth of the People, a myth that over the course of a century has hardened into a faith. A bourgeoisie looking down rather than up for their authenticity, they impersonate a class about which they know nothing. The results can be absurd (and very funny, for insiders like myself). Shall I tell you a story?

Once upon a time I was talking to a gallery owner, and she was telling me she how Diego Rivera was part of the culture of the residents on the neighbouring council estate; the bus conductors, cleaners and dinner ladies not only Communists but intimates of Left wing art….

The working classes are mere projections of these characters. The role badly performed is yet mistaken for the real thing; though never meeting a worker the impersonation appears perfect, and many, especially amongst the young, cocooned in their exclusive middle class enclaves - dare we say “bubbles” (private and religious schools, wealthy residential areas, a Facebook fraternity) - had come to believe their performances real; like, it’s just natural, isn’t it, we work, and so are workers, right? Brexit ended this fantasy. On one June day the mirror was taken away from the window pane. Suddenly, these kids were looking out at the People walking past; however, it wasn’t workers they saw; how could they be, they were supposed to be nice and sensible and Euro-friendly like themselves; no, they were looking at beasts. Ugh! Stupid, ugly, dangerous beasts; look, they’re taking away the cheap flights, the exchange-discounted restaurants, our short weekend breaks. Monsters! They’re bloody monsters! was the first hysterical cry. 

Since those first terrible days after the Vote the curtains have been drawn, and a desperate attempt has been made to rebuild the old fantasy (myths take a long time to die): the People are innocent; Brexit wasn’t their fault; no, it was the Russians, they are to blame. Of course it was the Russians; the KGB, you know, is everywhere, Clio was only yesterday telling me about….