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Lovely article on Boris
Jul. 21st, 2019 12:55 pmin today's Observer: www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/21/boris-johnson-route-to-number-10
(The Observer is linked to the Guardian and is now, to all intents and purposes the Guardian on Sunday. But it has an older history. There is an extensive footnote to be written here, but right now I can't be bothered.)
Now Boris has always been a bit cavalier, according to sources; and that's fine as an amateur, bumbling on, wasting your inheritance on book-collecting while writing monographs on Catullus for the cognoscenti; but not really as an occupant of any of the great offices of state. There is a reason I never went into politics; there are pictures of me inhaling, snorting, jacking-up or whatever. And onstage in women's underwear too, IIRC. And I probably did have sex with that person, with the caveat that I am quite choosy, and they need to be grown up. And I'm cavalier, and am prepared to suspend strict truth for the sake of the narrative. All these led me to recognise that I'm not fit for governing folk, or even legislating for them; I don't think I have quite the moral qualities required to do the job properly - though these days I try hard. But Boris doesn't even try hard. He doesn't read his briefs - even poor old Winston read his briefs, or had someone read them to him; famously IIRC in the bathtub.
Now we need to find some sensible technicians who will work with Boris. But, at a bet, the gig will be up before the end of September and Boris will be among the set of those few unelected PMs with very short tenure. I wonder, will he retire with a PM's pension?
The one thing I have noticed is that the folk on the right of the centre are far more tolerant of appallingly bad behaviour by their leaders than folk on the left appear to be. The folk on the right may rail against homosexuality, abortion, promiscuity, drugs, prostitution, or perversion. But they can tolerate all of that in their politicians as long as the politicians accept their agenda. A remarkable and effective compromise given the nature of human fragility, no doubt. I sometimes wonder if they would accept me as a leader if I told them I'd never had an abortion? I guess that's why so many positions of power for folk on the right are held by men, at least they can be trusted.
But to drop the last sentence's sarcasm, I'm hugely surprised more chaps don't go around desperately trying to remove any stain of "manliness" from themselves. I'm doing my best to dissociate myself from the core patriarchal nonsense that has pervaded our cultures forever, but doing so without being stupidly strident about things is more difficult than it first appears. Poor old Bojo is still playing a C20th game, confined by narrow horizons and locked in past tropes without any of the opportunities of the new world. In this, he perfectly mirrors his constituents.
And, to some extent, this is why we have Brexit. And the criminal neglect of the North helped a little, obvs. But Boris the opportunist looks to have finally inherited the mantle of leadership he wanted on the first step to becoming King of the World. All he needs now is for the Aliens to invade, uncle Vlad to have a heart attack, Macron to fall to the yellow-vests, Mrs Merkel to find herself in hospital, and the Chinese to self-combust, and the world can welcome him as a unifying saviour.
I seem to have fallen into a parallel dimension with a great deal of background surrealism. I am reminded of the musicvid to "Black Hole Sun".
It was the best of times, it was the end of times...
(The Observer is linked to the Guardian and is now, to all intents and purposes the Guardian on Sunday. But it has an older history. There is an extensive footnote to be written here, but right now I can't be bothered.)
Now Boris has always been a bit cavalier, according to sources; and that's fine as an amateur, bumbling on, wasting your inheritance on book-collecting while writing monographs on Catullus for the cognoscenti; but not really as an occupant of any of the great offices of state. There is a reason I never went into politics; there are pictures of me inhaling, snorting, jacking-up or whatever. And onstage in women's underwear too, IIRC. And I probably did have sex with that person, with the caveat that I am quite choosy, and they need to be grown up. And I'm cavalier, and am prepared to suspend strict truth for the sake of the narrative. All these led me to recognise that I'm not fit for governing folk, or even legislating for them; I don't think I have quite the moral qualities required to do the job properly - though these days I try hard. But Boris doesn't even try hard. He doesn't read his briefs - even poor old Winston read his briefs, or had someone read them to him; famously IIRC in the bathtub.
Now we need to find some sensible technicians who will work with Boris. But, at a bet, the gig will be up before the end of September and Boris will be among the set of those few unelected PMs with very short tenure. I wonder, will he retire with a PM's pension?
The one thing I have noticed is that the folk on the right of the centre are far more tolerant of appallingly bad behaviour by their leaders than folk on the left appear to be. The folk on the right may rail against homosexuality, abortion, promiscuity, drugs, prostitution, or perversion. But they can tolerate all of that in their politicians as long as the politicians accept their agenda. A remarkable and effective compromise given the nature of human fragility, no doubt. I sometimes wonder if they would accept me as a leader if I told them I'd never had an abortion? I guess that's why so many positions of power for folk on the right are held by men, at least they can be trusted.
But to drop the last sentence's sarcasm, I'm hugely surprised more chaps don't go around desperately trying to remove any stain of "manliness" from themselves. I'm doing my best to dissociate myself from the core patriarchal nonsense that has pervaded our cultures forever, but doing so without being stupidly strident about things is more difficult than it first appears. Poor old Bojo is still playing a C20th game, confined by narrow horizons and locked in past tropes without any of the opportunities of the new world. In this, he perfectly mirrors his constituents.
And, to some extent, this is why we have Brexit. And the criminal neglect of the North helped a little, obvs. But Boris the opportunist looks to have finally inherited the mantle of leadership he wanted on the first step to becoming King of the World. All he needs now is for the Aliens to invade, uncle Vlad to have a heart attack, Macron to fall to the yellow-vests, Mrs Merkel to find herself in hospital, and the Chinese to self-combust, and the world can welcome him as a unifying saviour.
I seem to have fallen into a parallel dimension with a great deal of background surrealism. I am reminded of the musicvid to "Black Hole Sun".
It was the best of times, it was the end of times...
