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That was the week that was
Had a very busy week on the road, in which I barely consumed anything fannish and was instead consumed by the two simultanously running "History: A Farce" soaps running in the UK and in the US. No, that's unfair, the US one had a serious plot thread (btw, it's really WEIRD how the Democratic Midterms victory was downplayed initially), with only the tantrum-throwing toddler-in-chief providing the completely over the top satire. Back to the drawing board, scriptwriters. This "President" just isn't believable, not even as a caricature.
More seriously, as an explanation of how the insanity across the channel came into being, this article putting Britain on the couch provides as good an explanation as any as to what went on in the murky depths of (a part of) the public subsconsciousness:
What’s striking is that we can begin to see in this hysterical rhetoric the outlines of two notions that would become crucial to Brexit discourse. One is the comparison of pro-European Brits to quislings, collaborators, appeasers and traitors. (...) But the other idea is the fever-dream of an English Resistance, and its weird corollary: a desire to have actually been invaded so that one could – gloriously – resist. And not just resist but, in the ultimate apotheosis of masochism, die. Part of the allure of romantic anti-imperial nationalism is martyrdom. The executed leaders of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, for example, stand as resonant examples of the potency of the myth of blood sacrifice. But in the ironic reversal of zombie imperialism, the appropriation of the imagery of resistance to a former colonising power, this romance of martyrdom is mobilized as defiance of the EU. (...) Europe’s role in this weird psychodrama is entirely pre-scripted. It does not greatly matter what the European Union is or what it is doing – its function in the plot is to be a more insidious form of nazism.
Meanwhile, this article sums it up shorter, but also to the point: Brexit fantasy going down in tears.
Given I have a lot of British friends whose life will get worse and worse and worse now, I really do wish this were all a tv or radio show, safely fictional. But it's not. Speaking of powerful symbols pertaining to nations, though, I discovered/was reminded again that one of those things I myself am sentimental about is the French-German post WWII relationship. Yes, our two countries have their problems and flaws. (Do they ever.) But dipping into pre and during WWI literature again, it struck me once more how ever present and insidious the assumption of a national feud was, and how self evident today (unless, of course, you're Marine Le Pen or Alexander Gauland) the alliance and friendship. (It's also encouraging to me when the way hatred is whipped up again today not just between nations but within nations makes me wonder how on earth all this tribalism should be overcome. Note to self: it's been done. Fait Accompli.) Macron and Merkel at Compiegne, where the WWI truce was made, was a great illustration for this. (As had been, decades earlier, Kohl and Mitterand at Verdun.) It was also, to me, an illustration of how to deal with a war anniversary without glamourizing the evilness of war in any way (and that war isn't glamorous and heroic but awful is to me the lesson that public consciousness first grasped with the WWI catastrophe, even though it seems we keep having to learn). So, have a few vids from that other reality show, Frankreich et L'Allemagne: c'est possible:
Macron and Merkel at Compiegne (btw, whoever choreographed everything really was extremely thoughtful; note that when they're sitting at the table where the truce was negotiated, they're not sitting opposed to each other, as their historical counterparts did, but at the head of the table, together):
Summary of the entire weekend:
Macron and Merkel at the Peace Forum afterwards:
And to end on a fun note, here's the 101 years old lady excited to meet the President who thought Angela Merkel was Brigitte Macron and, after being told that she was the chancellor of Germany, said "'c'est fantastique':
More seriously, as an explanation of how the insanity across the channel came into being, this article putting Britain on the couch provides as good an explanation as any as to what went on in the murky depths of (a part of) the public subsconsciousness:
What’s striking is that we can begin to see in this hysterical rhetoric the outlines of two notions that would become crucial to Brexit discourse. One is the comparison of pro-European Brits to quislings, collaborators, appeasers and traitors. (...) But the other idea is the fever-dream of an English Resistance, and its weird corollary: a desire to have actually been invaded so that one could – gloriously – resist. And not just resist but, in the ultimate apotheosis of masochism, die. Part of the allure of romantic anti-imperial nationalism is martyrdom. The executed leaders of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, for example, stand as resonant examples of the potency of the myth of blood sacrifice. But in the ironic reversal of zombie imperialism, the appropriation of the imagery of resistance to a former colonising power, this romance of martyrdom is mobilized as defiance of the EU. (...) Europe’s role in this weird psychodrama is entirely pre-scripted. It does not greatly matter what the European Union is or what it is doing – its function in the plot is to be a more insidious form of nazism.
Meanwhile, this article sums it up shorter, but also to the point: Brexit fantasy going down in tears.
Given I have a lot of British friends whose life will get worse and worse and worse now, I really do wish this were all a tv or radio show, safely fictional. But it's not. Speaking of powerful symbols pertaining to nations, though, I discovered/was reminded again that one of those things I myself am sentimental about is the French-German post WWII relationship. Yes, our two countries have their problems and flaws. (Do they ever.) But dipping into pre and during WWI literature again, it struck me once more how ever present and insidious the assumption of a national feud was, and how self evident today (unless, of course, you're Marine Le Pen or Alexander Gauland) the alliance and friendship. (It's also encouraging to me when the way hatred is whipped up again today not just between nations but within nations makes me wonder how on earth all this tribalism should be overcome. Note to self: it's been done. Fait Accompli.) Macron and Merkel at Compiegne, where the WWI truce was made, was a great illustration for this. (As had been, decades earlier, Kohl and Mitterand at Verdun.) It was also, to me, an illustration of how to deal with a war anniversary without glamourizing the evilness of war in any way (and that war isn't glamorous and heroic but awful is to me the lesson that public consciousness first grasped with the WWI catastrophe, even though it seems we keep having to learn). So, have a few vids from that other reality show, Frankreich et L'Allemagne: c'est possible:
Macron and Merkel at Compiegne (btw, whoever choreographed everything really was extremely thoughtful; note that when they're sitting at the table where the truce was negotiated, they're not sitting opposed to each other, as their historical counterparts did, but at the head of the table, together):
Summary of the entire weekend:
Macron and Merkel at the Peace Forum afterwards:
And to end on a fun note, here's the 101 years old lady excited to meet the President who thought Angela Merkel was Brigitte Macron and, after being told that she was the chancellor of Germany, said "'c'est fantastique':
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The old lady in the last vid is so sweet.
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