Kinesis.

In a society so fast-moving it could almost be described as hyper kinetic, you could be forgiven for thinking that this progress could positively affect the populace. However, much of this motion is taken up with consumption and with the pursuit of the purely material, the economic zeitgeist, “miracle” of the 1980’s which still has political precedence in the 21^st century. The end of collectivism/community, the rise of the individual and the triumph of the market and by extension the marketer, has, to this writer’s mind, caused a massive, seismic retrogression which impacts on our cultural life at all levels. Apathy and the consensus politics which grew out of the New Labour “project”, has marginalised dissent, whilst still giving the illusion of freedom. We live in an age where surveillance has never been so widespread, from the seemingly benign store loyalty card, which logs your consumer preferences to the CCTV which to all intents and purposes is there to protect retail outlets. Freedom? The freedom to be a faithful work unit, in the knowledge that any deviation will probably bring about termination of employment, being as you are unprotected by a trades union, most of whom were neutered in the Thatcherite purges. If you do end up out of work in this society, unemployment and ill health have been so successfully almost criminalised, that claiming due benefits are actively discouraged. And all of this impacts on the arts, just think of the artistic/literary booms of the last twenty five years; nearly all market-led. Saatchi’s taste effectively becomes the zeitgeist, the marketer as patron, ergo nothing really changes. The rebirth of Tolkein; atavistic, anodyne dreamscapes which provide a necessary escape, a dementia that today’s adult children seem to require. Waking up from this self-induced coma may evidence the shock not of the new but of the old, lapsing back into some Golden Age phantasy, backward-looking and simplistic. Again nothing really changes.

All of this feeds into the lie of U.S-led hyper capitalism, that any of this is tyranny-free, that this is effectively the end-point of history; liberal democracy has won. Even detractors appear to be toothless in the face of such a beast, Michael Moore for one seems to be the clown prince of modern political satire; stating the obvious and cosying up to the establishment to get distribution, whilst not actually providing an alternative, beyond nebulous hints and knowing winks. More a PR victory with a media hungry persona, than a genuine radical with a coherent polemic. Chomsky is meanwhile pushed further to the margins and less and less seem aware of his work. It seems that rigourous intellectual scrutiny of the New Right is far from de rigueur in a world dominated by playstations and alternate televised “realities”. Which brings me back to the arts, how can they flourish in world where celebrity is seen as being the apotheosis of human endeavour and even the so-called quality broadsheets are seduced by such a lie? Subjective this all may be but it does seem that there is need for derangement in a world where aspiration is child-like and materially driven. When a society fragments and neo-conservative social Darwinism is the reductionist philosophy of the day, it is no wonder we get the artists and entertainment we deserve. In fact much of today’s art is entertainment, as is politics, the stand-up comedy de jour. This is where derangement comes in, when people come back from their daily, uninspiring grind nodding off with a few life sweeteners aboard, is what suits the system, as it stops the festering reality from filtering in. It is thus a necessary derangement. Ever thought it was strange that one of the organisations that actively discourages alcoholic over-indulgence, the Portman Group, is actually a representative of the drinks industry? Does this mean that there are no voices of dissent or unfettered creatives at work? Well, no, but those that are remain on the very outer edges of Western society, no doubt suffering to stay at the cutting edge. Most take the soup, to use an old Irish expression, in order to survive or give up completely. Again this is the triumph of the marketer. Using the market as means to an end, is obviously the lesser of two evils, but the market as an end in itself…