The Politics of the Infantile

Syriza came to power on a lie. It’s promising to preserve the nation-state, and the nostalgic voters are so ignorant and deluded that they believe it is possible to check out of the rest of humanity and preserve a little secluded nation-state paradise in Greece.

Of course, there is enormous hypocrisy in this position. The Greeks are just as post-nation as anybody else. They sigh for the nation-state handouts yet agree that the defense of their nation-state should be a burden carried by the NATO.

We will now see many of these “parties of the especially infantile” who promise their voters that it is possible to preserve the goodies of the nation-state without having to experience any discomfort to do that. These parties or political leaders of the infantile will promise easy, snappy, pain-free fixes to the decline of the nation-state: abandon the Euro zone, refuse to pay debts, expel immigrants, create a multipolar world, cut governmental waste, etc.

The voters will love these easy, convenient, pain-free solutions because the logic of the market has taught them that a consumer should always have such solutions to extremely complex issues available for “three easy payments of $19.99”.  They are rebelling against the logic of the market that has robbed them of their nation-state, yet they are doing it within the logic of the market. And this tells us just how useless their struggle is.

2 thoughts on “The Politics of the Infantile

  1. I wonder if the Greeks will in fact aim not to experience any discomfort at all. You know, if the infantile refusal to experience discomfort is really as pervasive as you suggest, we are all in the same boat with it. Some people seem to have adapted to the new psychology, whereby people attempt to mould other people to suit their needs, rather than speaking to them directly, one person to another. This is the advance way of doing things now — but it is both advanced AND infantile at the same time.

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  2. Could I make the three easy payments of THREE ANDREW JACKSONS (wow, so cheap, keep the change from that), just so I could buy my way toward co-opting these political movements?

    I’ve been wanting to buy a block of voters, but everyone keeps telling me that it’s unethical, immoral, or simply illegal, to which I have to ask: why?

    If they’ll buy cheap rhetoric, why can’t I buy them cheaply so they’ll vote for my vastly more expensive variety? 🙂

    Oh, but it’s undemocratic … but of course, I can’t give a crap about this moral suasion bollocks that says that it’s all-righty to be bought and paid for via the Edward L Bernays Special Pleading Route, but not at all right simply to be bought and paid for as an economic participant in elections most people haven’t a clue about anyway …

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