In Britain, the term
popped out is used innocently to mean 'gone away for a short time'. Of course,
popped out has other connotations, but that's a future blog (pics included).
This item was prompted by the release of a new book by Peter Oborne:
The Triumph of the Political Class in which Oborne describes the insidious takeover of the traditional British Establishment by a new political elite. The central idea of this book is dear to the heart of The Impressionist, who has banged on about this sort of thing a lot, usually to an empty room.
Oborne's point is that politicians have insinuated themselves into our lives by reflecting the wishes and desires of that minority group which has the greatest impact at election time - the floating voters. The views of this group are endlessly canvassed with the result that the two main parties now have political agendas which are, to all intents and purposes, identically centre-right.
This should not come as a surprise to anyone. The cynicism of politicians has been accepted for a long time. That they should pick up the methods of business and commerce (whose success they admire) to sell their own product is inevitable.
What is less obvious is why we should have let them get away with it. As anyone who has tried to complain to a large company or corporation will know, getting a straight answer is well-nigh impossible. Perhaps a desire to see an end to the apparently counterproductive adversarial politics of earlier times led, in the minds of the focus groups, to the idea that consensus is always desirable. Dissent has become a cardinal sin in the PC age - the era of the smuggy-huggy is upon us.
Thus the old divisions of class, politics and wealth have been diminished by the pretence that we are all included. The pop culture is alive and well in politics and we're all invited to the party.
Sadly, reality rears its ugly and unfashionable head. Anodyne schemes of the sort touted by Gordon 'Greedy' Brown are very difficult to counter because they state the bleeding obvious. It's not easy to stand up and deny that sick people should have more resources. But talk to people who have recently endured health care in Britain and you'll soon find out that any additional resources have not gone into looking after the sick.
Oborne's hypothesis is probably true. But then it has always been true - in ape societies there will always be a group that enjoys higher status. The alpha male or Prime Minister; the matriarch or the Queen; the terms are different but the meaning is the same.
Pop concert audiences pay a lot of money to sit on hard seats for hours, stand in toilet queues and pay over the odds for junk food and teeshirts just to be part of a large crowd of the like minded. What luck for the populist Establishment that people are so easily manipulated.
The Impressionist has just popped out.