Theatre of the Absurd

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We live in an era of theatre politics. Politics without substance, save the electability of the protagonists and the modus operandi necessary to achieve that election. In previous times, at least, despots would simply take control of the military, the media and the judiciary and seize control by force, rather than masquerade as 'democratic'. Wait - hold the phone - the government already has 95% of the media in its thrall - and pockets - and it now seeks, via the appalling Raab-creature, to throttle the very life out of the judiciary, rendering what he must see as a-government-in-perpetuity, outwith the scope of the law and the common good. 

Our elected representatives, remember, are attempting to set themselves outside the scrutiny of the populace that elected them and the legal system that regulates larger society by common assent. If their motivations are merely personal, egotistic and pecuniary, all to the good: they can be dealt with. If their motivations are rooted in deeper and more sinister waters, things might not pan out so well. There is only one step left in this sorry cakewalk into oblivion, and that is the control of the military in the service of this bland, lazy and quietly dangerous cabal of non-entities.

Think on: the most dangerous people in power during the Third Reich were not Adolf Hitler, Goering et al., but Heinrich Himmler; head of the Waffen-SS, and himself an unremarkable under-achiever who found his métier on the world stage, courtesy of the very kinds of process we are witnessing from the Tories today; and Reinhardt Heydrich, the principal architect of the Holocaust: both unremarkable men in civilian life. Am I exaggerating? Maybe, but the seeds of the Second World War were sown in the very same kind of apparently mundane, economic melting pot we are now witnessing. I hope I'm wrong.

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