Societal Paralysis

[sadmanbarty]

Since as long as I can remember, I have been afraid of commiting myself fully to any activity that goes towards a serious vocation. Performance anxiety I guess. It scares me to death that I don't know how to break this, especially being 25 and feeling like potential is draining by the hour.

For me, the cocoon represents a supersedure of self-actualization. I gotta fucking break this, so if you have any tips, please tell.

entertainment's vocational paralysis. class paralysis in terms of declining social mobility. housing crisis means living with mum and dad ad infinitum.

botox face. fixed selfie smiles. poor old malania's fixed smile:



riga mortis. the joker's laughing gas victims:



Babies go into shock during circumcision, which though it looks like a quiet state, is actually the body's reaction to profound pain and distress. deer in the headlights.

paralysing social anxiety.

 

[sadmanbarty]

the film frozen:

Elsa flees to the North Mountain, where she finally acknowledges her powers, building a palace of ice in which to live a hermit life.

 

[luka]

Brexit is the most fiendish deadlock imaginable.

 

[sadmanbarty]

Brexit is the most fiendish deadlock imaginable.

see also the northern ireland assembly.

i said to you the other month that without a compromise/citizen's assembly-type solution there'll just be years of legislative deadlock. a lost decade of british public policy.

the civil service unable to give attention to anything. bills voted down by the remain and leave tribes in parliament. social care, the nhs and housing in disarray with no policy innovation to sort them out.

 

[sadmanbarty]

Brexit is the most fiendish deadlock imaginable.

this in part emerges from the equilibrium of the 52/48 vote and general elections producing very slim majorities and then no majority.

the syrian civil was was so bloody and protracted because of a similar equilibrium. decisive wars are often much shorter and as such produce less casualties.

 

[luka]

It's absolutely the result of the 50/50 split

 

[luka]

Dissensus is prone to magical thinking when it comes to politics and by and large they refuse to reckon with the fact that leave won a fair vote.

 

[sadmanbarty]

Dissensus is prone to magical thinking when it comes to politics and by and large they refuse to reckon with the fact that leave won a fair vote.

i'm leaving the house in a second, but was intending to post my journey from remoaner to rory stewart/nick boles at some point. see what the arch remainers of the forum think about it.

 

[sadmanbarty]

Dissensus is prone to magical thinking when it comes to politics and by and large they refuse to reckon with the fact that leave won a fair vote.

leavers likewise have to acknowledge they didn't win a resounding victory too. they've carried on as if they won 60% of the vote.

 

[sadmanbarty]

the 50/50-ness of the european elections was a big turning point in my thinking. it was the third vote in three years in which nothing had budged. in which the public dithered.

 

[comelately]

Fair is doing quite a lot of heavy lifting there, but as I said on another thread there is *something* to it.

We seem to have been slowly fed referenda as the answer to constitutional issues to the point that it seems like an act of bad faith to deny their legitimacy, but there is a reason why they are banned in Germany.

The problem is that what 'reckoning' with 'the fact' would really look like (unless it's Piers Morgan), and where would it actually get you? There is a qualitative difference between the 'loser's consent' needed after a general election, and the 'loser's consent' needed to implement a referendum result.

The further implication is that there was this somehow better 'lost future' squandered through this 'reckoning' not having taken place, which is not altogether convincing in my mind.

 

[luka]

not quite sure I understand that post.

 

[comelately]

You probably do; which bit is causing you doubt?

 

[luka]

I get That you can quibble about how fair it was, albeit it won't get you anywhere. (There might be a timeline in which Carol Codwaller discovers some watergate level ratfuckery and it ignites a massive revolution and Russell brand is made president for life, but it's probably not this one.)

It's really the last bit I don't get what you're saying.

 

[comelately]

In retrospect, my understanding of your point was probably somewhat clumsy and I inferred:

1) That the 'hive mind' of Dissensus could be extrapolated somewhat

2) that, regardless of 1), an opportunity was being missed through this refusal to recognise the referendum result

Whether it was fair or unfair is somewhat by the by I agree; Leave won. Deserve got nothing to do with it. I would suggest there's a pretty big difference between accepting that Leave won a vote, and accepting that Leave won a fair vote. The latter reckoning has the explicit possibility of moral/ethical implications (albeit vague af, which is a big problem with this approach), the former does not.

 

[baboon2004]

Dissensus is prone to magical thinking when it comes to politics and by and large they refuse to reckon with the fact that leave won a fair vote.

Er, no. Also deciding referendums without needing at least 60% of the vote is recklessly stupid, whatever side one is on.

 

[luka]

Well that's obvious now but it's a bit late innit

 

[baboon2004]

It was obvious at the time. It's just an important point to make, in terms of how ludicrous/needless this crisis is (and another way in which Cameron fucked everything, by not even setting the game up right with proper rules).

 

[version]

I think I've mentioned it before but there's a Peter Cook film called The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer where he plays some bloke who works in polling who manipulates his way to the top of British politics and finally assumes the role of dictator and the way he does it is by offering referenda on every single issue until the people become so fed up that he offers them one more: a referendum on whether or not he should become supreme leader and take every decision on their behalf. And of course they vote in favour.

It ends with him riding through the streets waving to the crowds as two people accidentally foil each other's assassination attempts and the final shot is him looking directly into the camera, smirking.

 

[luka]

Yeah but it doesn't help does it. It's already happened.