(Part 2 of a two-part article. Read part 1 here.)
After ten years of a Tory government, austerity measures and feeding big business, the average person will feel an intense economic squeeze. What is more, because economy is a civilised way of survival – i.e. you do not have to shed blood to achieve dominance or direction – you feel a subjective effect; in this case constriction. You are made to feel more self-conscious, scared, selfish and despondent. If the public sector is being deprived of money and capital is being syphoned into business instead, society will naturally feel more divided and competitive within itself.
Gradually, through a framework of unregulated capitalism, the disabled being deprived of benefits and dying in shocking hundreds, murderous xenophobia a sadistic work environment and the unlimited selling out of our privacy via mandatory devices become internalised commonplace. Furthermore, worn down to a zombified state, you are divided within yourself: you spend less time with friends because you need to recuperate a daily lost part of yourself; you care less about other people because a part of you really doesn’t and/or cannot afford to. You use what little energy you have to fight for happiness and stay alive, and the worst part, you stop psychologically from being able to rebel.
He has packaged up and made accessible a concrete and life-changing hope
Thus, Corbyn’s coming is so significant. He has packaged up and made accessible a concrete and life-changing hope. With the specifics of the Labour conference detailed, including better and affordable housing, putting particular emphasis on the Grenfell tragedy, uniting the older and younger generations and the Remain and Leave camps, and my favourites: the explicit calling for workplace democracy, calling out ‘the threat from both authoritarian political elites’ and specifying that Brexit will not determine the economic health of the UK because it was always our free market economy that was the problem – it is 100% clear this man wants deep, structural reform.
An unlikely candidate who came from outside the New Labour clique, unmoved by even his own party’s PR, he continues to prove himself a true thought leader and as opposed to just another mercenary political puppet. As well as listening to the people he is stoking a process of true enlightenment. As broadly discussed in my Liberalism has Never Been Stronger piece, this combination is what is truly beautiful. The Labour leader’s alchemical snap election strategy – including using smart technology to educate more young people of his aims, and personally speaking at important points and places, for example at Manchester after the concert terrorist attack – managed to reach more people because it was so meditated and pure.
( Theresa May – CC BY 2.5 Marcin Wichary )
Reviving a fast-fading warmth and connection to individuals, he at once awoke them in a nascent philanthropy that was always curled up within. More important than the fact that the ‘Red Pill’ contains a unique mix of chemicals that allows for an awakening, is its significance . Remember that Miliband was promoting social democracy in the 2015 General election, but with last minute, lukewarm policy such as ‘Mansion Tax’ and a clinging corporate stench – including a tycoon brother and the failure to acknowledge immigration at all in heated debates – his credibility was undermined. Now, given access to the right fortifying stuff, people can rebel against the Conservative’s punishing divide and rule. Corbyn doesn’t proclaim himself a hero; he’s merely a spokesperson. But that’s enough to wake the public to see Mrs May for the Mr Smith she really is.
Refusing to step down after a hung parliament, it’s clear she’s in it for the power. And while Corbyn smiles that humanising grin, you just know behind those eyes, she’s thinking: ‘I. HATE. THIS. PLACE.’ Labour’s momentum means more than an anti-Tory establishment; with its own empathetic ‘strong and stable’ rhetoric, it is bringing a future of community and individual control realistically to the fore. By regulating the system – and inevitably the Few – Corbyn wants to grant life through empowerment, and a pragmatic shared humanity that will support the Many.
Featured image CC BY-SA 4.0 w.carter
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