Brexit Negotiations: "Over By Christmas."

In the previous blog, I mentioned (or dramatically if you prefer) 'revealed' an idea for my own reasons for pursuing an interesting in the affairs of politicians of the UK concerning Brexit: In a word: "Giri".

But there's that idea of "duty" and then there's blind stupidity or obedience in social hierarchy at a truly mass scale of people. When I think of this idea, it reminds me of the words and beliefs of all the so many people during the months from June-December 1914, a similar number and the same months in fact from June-December 2016, coincidentally:-

'We’ll be home by Christmas’: the departure of the 1st Battalion of the Mid-Kent Volunteers for the front from Royal Tunbridge Wells in 1914 Photo: Popperfoto/Getty Images


If we are to learn and improve, then we have to remember our mistakes. And before we remember our mistakes we have to be honest enough with ourselves to be able to see our mistakes for what they are first before we can accurately begin remembering them.

This is a process which is currently operating under the recent experience, almost still the present continuous of the Referendum of the UK on EU Membership and the result of that Referendum: Leave (aka British Exit "Brexit": The Withdrawal of the UK from the EU according to Article 50 community rules). To quote Dr. RAE North, Brexit: a year of opportunity:-

"Traditionally in this long interregnum between Christmas and the New Year, the newspapers fill their space with retrospectives. This year, there is plenty for them to write about, so much so that Brexit will be struggling to compete.

Much of what will be written about Brexit over the next weeks will be reheated material that was scarcely worth reading first time around, and so little does the media have to offer that even vaguely original articles have so little merit that one struggles to read to the end of them. And we can certainly do without the "project fear" still on offer from the Independent. 

Just occasionally, though, we see an article that is actually worth reading – even if one has to go to the New York Times for it."

A lot of blind egos will pop up at this stage and say stupid things: "Leaving was bad" (I was only just looking at the stupid twitter accounts of Scientists for EU who are talking to the equally stupid "leave everything now" twitter users: A sort of Red Cape + Bull Fight contest devolving into trivial posturing before your eyes...). Competition of egos for competition's sake? War for war's sake? How terribly stupid.

But this blog is not a pointless exercise in blind nostalgia nor brow-beating for the pleasure of pointing out how stupid people especially in large groups can act. Only today on the BBC iPlayer there is the Select Committees: Exiting The EU repeat viewing of David Davies doing a remarkably good impression of David Brent (The Office) in answering questions about Brexit. There's skill in both characters and hence that is not a lofty dig at David Davies competence or character, it's merely pointing out that there's been so many public relations announcements about Brexit that have turned upside down, gone back to front and then back again, U-turned, reversed and so on. It's a similar experience to the "Over by Christmas" mood of the beginning of the war here captured eloquently, the divergence of expectations:-

"War was romantic. War was colourful flags, spiked helmets and flashing sabers. War was an adventure. Those called to arms would be heroes, defending their homelands and way of life. Over By Christmas: August-December 1914 examines these romantic notions colliding with the harsh realities of war."

The real stupidity is that so many people continue to act as if blinded and unaware of all these contradictions. Or let's now get to the point: Most if not just about everyone will end up with "false memory" of how Brexit occurred and why. Instead it'll continue to drag out for many years to come until it's as normal as what is currently or was normal before: Being an EU member and all the mischaracterizations that the politicians previously used for that false memory:-

• At the heart of Europe
• In the EU but not run by the EU
• A major player in the club
• A seat at the top table
• A voice of reason for free trade, liberalization of red tape.
• An ally of Germany balancing against the socialist tendencies of France.

And all that fucking crap! You have to laugh at how quaint it's fast already becoming to hear those which were all such the rage only greater than 12 months ago. We'll begin a whole new phase of life for "more of the same"!

Poor Remain Voters: Politicians kept you flipped on your backs all this time when it was in their power to put you right and back under your own steam.

Pointing this out is one thing, funny as it is. But the worse of it is to come and mostly not this time so much for Remainers, but Leavers who should have done a lot better than they did in the Referendum: Here's why:

The opportunity of people during the Referendum to "take control" not of the EU but of UK Politics for themselves over their politicians was mostly spurned or confused as something else. Hence FLEXCIT as a plan was not so much The Plan, as an intelligent evidence of decision-making capacity before execution through a direct democracy process. Unfortunately this idea was simply too sophisticated or else the quality of people was too low for the idea (sophistication being relative).

Such an opportunity... passed by people for much lower order demands. The politicians return to centre stage back with their "Polyglot" methods (see above) which no doubt they're relieved worked on both sides in the Referendum and hence will continue to carry on using during the negotiation process (see David Brent Davies above). People and especially people who voted Leave, your contribution is now over by your own mistakes in dealing with our own politicians: At least see those mistakes for what they are and hence remember them (faithfully) so that in the future either your future selves or others don't make the same mistakes as you did.

It's Boxing Day today, and there's two final points to make: The Negotiations are going to go on for many years to come in various forms, seriousness and caution is needed. People might decide of their own accord that if politics seems to make no progress or that politicians speak a strange language as if from another alternative reality, then they might choose to take back power/control through a more disciplined approach:-

The Harrogate Agenda

The Fact of FLEXCIT: "Giri 義理 "

There's a couple of solid observations I've made since the Referendum, along the lines of how do people communicate their ideas and opinions and information about Brexit and the Referendum Question. There's two questions which can be rehearsed that mostly cover what should be reported:-

1. "So how did you get involved in Brexit/Referendum/politics?"
2. "So tell me how you voted / which was the correct result / make me feel better about the whole thing?"

I will get straight to the point: These questions only satisfy what little curiosity and understanding the questioner themselves currently holds, no matter what answer or information I provide, to which I have provided all sorts of varieties of answers to the above questions - all the while thinking how irrelevant such "trivia" is as if there's one answer which people think they can "lock onto". It's actually very frustrating.

The problem I notice is that any answer is treated as "trivia"; another piece of information which does not fit into their current models of understanding and you can see their response revert straight back to their previous closed conclusions: Emotionally not satisfied mostly is the result yet again arrived at. Even saying that any answer to the above won't satisfy them, is not satisfying to them or not treated seriously. Perhaps a big problem is the conditioning of answers in the form of exam answers or the newspaper "pro vs con" balanced argument? These forms are superficial to what Dr. North (2014) in his FLEXCIT speech in Dawlish pointed out is such a complex subject.

Complexity of Government/Governance: Comparing a telephone from 1950 to a modern smartphone 2014 - "there is no getting around it".

So what is so special about these two sorts of questions? Here it is: Providing an answer does not work with most people. It takes a lot more and in a lot more different ways to produce effective communication, is my finding anecdotally.

Just reading Pete North's latest review of the year: A year in Brexitland. I agree, personal life is more significant to me than politics and that is healthy attitude I think and feel. But I think there is more room for optimism than:-

"...but it will be the same people tinkering in the same old ways taking their cue from the media rather than dealing direct with the people. We will be governed through their distorted prism once more. The establishment is as healthy as ever it was. Brexit hasn't made a dent."

The fact is we know our starting point, because FLEXCIT is a "fact of existence". Thus we can begin "our future work". We also if you rewatch the video above, defeated FEAR or FUD. This is itself though the means were shoddy and somewhat through unrelated reasons, a very positive result in itself for the UK; ironic given many of the Remain voters greatest fear is to put hateful/angry people in power and thus did many such voters vote to Remain in the EU.

In the previous blog I broadly discussed the decay of politics and the sort of paralysis of inaction or ineffective response to change that erodes the wealth of nation (it's people's resourcefulness). The reverse attitude and values are needed if we are to create our own future politics, not a prisoner of history as The Great Deception suggests through so much research:-

"Giri (義理) is a Japanese value roughly corresponding to "duty", "obligation", or even "burden of obligation" in English. It is defined as "to serve one's superiors with a self-sacrificing devotion" by Namiko Abe. This value is so integral to Japanese culture that the conflict between giri and ninjō, or "human feeling", is said to have been the primary topic of Japanese drama since earlier periods in history. Today, social critics decry the diminishing influence of giri on shinjinrui, the new generations of Japan, who pursue an individualistic path in life that seems quite disparate from traditional Japanese culture."

Why should people choose to be part of a creative movement of politics when it is such a cynical arena to operate within? I can't answer for others, but for myself I'll point out the above concept from Japan of "Giri": The fact of FLEXCIT's existence, it's potent source of knowledge compels a duty to "spread" this knowledge in the ways that are effective and productive.

Creating those ways is the work that will hold most meaningful outcomes for our political futures. The forms they take will appear and be described historically as "revolutionary" if we succeed.

Politics For The People: Decay & Creation.

Brexit & EU Politics in the UK: A "Philip K. Dickian" sub-creation for voter consumption?

One of the major characteristics of our politics is the surreal and unreal "bubble effect" of the major arguments promoted between different groups and parties and support bases. This perogative to win the majority becomes the result as opposed to the arguments which hold the highest value to the most people.

This effect is old, described by Juvenal in Ancient Rome:-

"Bread and circuses" (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is metonymic for a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace, as an offered "palliative". Its originator, Juvenal, used the phrase to decry the selfishness of common people and their neglect of wider concerns. The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the commoner.

Change "Bread & Circuses" with "Economy/Consuming & TV/Distraction", today. Those in positions of leadership find ever more convoluted ways with which to distract and cajole citizens just long enough for their apparent support. To attempt to reverse the above trend, they have completely given up on as a sub-optimal strategy for holding onto power. In a previous comment elsewhere I pointed out the origin of the word "mafioso", a combination of arabic-italian which meant:

“acting as a protector against the arrogance of the powerful,”

Here is an example of a group using power to protect before devolving into a group who uses power for it's own profit, and the modern inheritance of that group today in Italy is "parasitic" on society in that failing nation collection of states. The British state nor the EU governance has not reached that extreme, but at least with respect to the EU, if one has read The Great Deception we see it as an organization that has fossilized in it's role of "protector" in an increasingly changing world. Instead as per Dr. RAE North (2014) at EUReferendum.com:-

Global governance: EU getting too big for its boots

Incidentally, just as write the above to the very seconds ticking away, listening to The Andrew Marr Show (he's actually not on the show today), the talk how the deal will be shaped by such as "leave voters' will never accept paying a single penny" on exiting deals or such like. THIS, dear readers is the image at the beginning of this blog, it is in the land of "alternate reality" or "sub-creation" of the pen and tongue not the "Global Reality" of the previous blog post. Again the very first and very last blog posts here (or penultimate now) pointed out this ruling principle: A change in how we think about things is the beginning from which we can make progress in politics and from which failing to do so, we end up with this Philip K. Dickian "red, white and blue Brexit" bollocks/bullshit shovelled in ever higher frequency distracting and confusing voters "on the hour every hour". It's a waste of energy, a waste of attention and hence a cost on useful work done by people in progressing in dealing with real problems successfully.

Meanwhile, coming back to the EU's new horizons and role as part of "Global Governance" as per the above link, let's consider this abstracted into a general form also, again as per Dr. RAE North (2015) at EUReferendum.com:

EU Referendum: the "better deal" fallacy

"This, however, is not the full extent of it. An equally powerful aid to understanding is Philip Selznick's theory of bureaucracy, in which he developed (if not actually coined) the principle of "self-maintenance" as a determinant of institutional behaviour. 

Distilled to its very essence, "self-maintenance" dictates that, wherever the founding principles of an organisation might be, its structure is shaped by the characteristic and commitments of participants and influences from the external environment. From this, over time, it develops means of self-defence. 

This self-defence develops into a series of activities which Selznick defines as self-maintenance, and his particular thesis is that these activities eventually become the superior goal. In effect, as with biological entities, the need to ensure its own survival emerges as the most powerful of driving forces - taking precedence over all else." 

Just as I write this we have Nick Robinson rambling on about "accepting Freedom of Movement" pinning down Diane Abbot as if he's sniffed out a stinking great "controversy" of Labour. Again, I'll repeat this is "sub-creation" as if the Nazis won the World War II and are ruling half of North America along with the Japanese Empire of the Rising Sun, taken from Dick's The Man In The High Castle for imagery of this idea of sub-creation (a word technically defined in use of fantasy writing by J.R.R. Tolkien). If you want an example, today, of this idea, again today's blog by Dr. RAE North recounts Christopher Booker's Sunday Telegraph column at EUReferendum.com provides an immediate illustration with reference to historic trend of such "mistakes" by "the great and good" (aka argument Appeal To Authority and the mass delusion that such strongly fault-ridden decision-making process entails): Brexit: eleven judges getting it wrong.

Now if we come back to Juvenal's insights about the dangers to Civic Society (aka the decay of the relationship between state and society) involving the population of citizens:

(1) "Consumption > Production" + "↑Distraction"

With the latter masquerading this growing imbalance in societies functioning (commentators over at EUReferendum.com often referred without realizing it, to this principle at the heart of the rise and fall of civilizations) and proactively encouraged and induced by the leadership who hold onto centralized power (their interests become parasitic to the host's interests: Instead of serving, subjugating) (note: the examples referenced above to support this assertion). If you take (1) then the picture created for Brexit/EU Politics is a bit like the title picture: The Word Cloud (actually in a cloud, rather neatly!) is a huge mess of mangled meanings creating a world that looks very different and behaves very differently. A huge distraction in effect from progressing arguments and resolving problems productively.

Is such distraction necessary, however? As said, if the "foundations" of society are not in place, or are eroded over time then this seems to dictate the resulting behaviour of our politicians in commandeering the EU Referendum Campaign to such dire levels of output - almost as if this was intentional - as we might rehearse saying for the umpteemth time again: "With the EU/Brexit nothing is as it seems". Mentioning the EU above, we also mentioned the UK system of governance and that needs looking at next. In a previous comment, I made two observations:-

1. I've never seen any reason to communicate with MP's: All I see is greedy social-manipulators working towards a group message control agenda.
2. As for the UK, again there's predominant "democracy is the least worst option" type of conventional resignation/wisdom"  assumed by 'everyone' of no more thinking required; whereas if you look at the contradiction of this made by The Harrogate Agenda (hence it's inclusion in FLEXCIT: Stage 6)

Currently, I'm listening the journalists contribution to the above consideration and it's all "being slapped down!" and two politicians bitching with each other in ritualized but empty rhetoric of "doing politics for the people" about "immigrashion" (note: Dick's writing was very effective at warping language with just the right nuance of alternate meaning in his alternate worlds!). To illustrate this danger of growing volume of words with lowering meaning:-

The Laughing Cavalier at The Wallace Collection

The above, I took on a recent visit to The Wallace Collection, for as with "Representative Democracy" which is mostly neither representative nor democratic, the The Laughing Cavlier is neither laughing nor is he a Cavalier, either!

Again we come full circle: The current Brexit news is ephemeral, it's probably indeed a smal cog within the great machinery of modern politics, that few are aware of an even fewer understand (if any?). To conceptualize it as a sub-creation to entertain and passify, as Juvenal says, a "palliative" that takes away the keeness of pain experienced without healing the decay that has crept into the "body politic". That negative feedback painful as it may be must be listened to however. So the surface level of events are entirely forgettable, the Supreme Court will likely finish it's circus act before long and be long forgotten in time too. On the other hand, lurking and latent within every person is an opportunity to rectify the poltical decay with creation towards a more healthy and productive politics where things are as they appear and words mean what they do more so too. If one looks at Brexit: It changes nothing, the political machinery will creak along (you could call the current phase an "inverse square law" relationship of reaction management by the politicians):-

(2) Intensity (of reaction) ∝ 1/Distance²

What the f! does that mean? It means several things which were already recorded in FLEXCIT but because of the failure of our political productivity, the proactive decay of politics by politicians and journalists (and others "in power") and the seemingly eternal distraction of people by the way in which society is structured (short-hand see Juvenal), these are:-

• Brexit as an event has been dominated by EGO not QED.
• Hence emotional reaction takes precedence over rational reception/acceptance.
• Due to the severity of the intensity both to the UK and the EU, it must be attenuated as a result (see distance relation above).
• As per FLEXCIT's prediction it's inevitable that it will amount to a transitional or interim phase of withdrawal.
• This will last years to decades.

If anyone reading has gotten this far, the above ideas about "fallacy of a 'better deal' " are seen to be what they really are: A mass delusion as part of a complex movement and management of power.

At the heart of this is the fear invoked by holding power disproportionately over others and the reactions and negative potential built up over time that this as we looked at at the beginning invariably leads to. However, Brexit itself may change nothing but: For people, some of these layers are being stripped away from central authority, and it's a question of how productively active and energized people choose to be at this juncture in time, place and people, that will lead to future results and future forms of our politics - an opportunity presents it's possible (not necessarily probable) success, with positive not negative potential:-

The Harrogate Agenda

"Our objective is to recover power. Our focus is on the acquisition of power. And once we ourselves, the people, hold the power, we can then attend to the many problems and injustices that plague modern society. But without power, there is only protest – and we achieve nothing of any lasting value. To help us acquire power, we are adopting the original strategy of the Chartists. Like them, we felt it was vital to frame a very limited number of achievable demands – six in number. These are listed below."