Why We Turned National Politics into a Farce

~ Clarissa

The reason why the presidential election looks geriatric and disappointing is that we are trying to convince ourselves to let go of the nation-state. We are all collectively putting on this embarrassing spectacle to make the loss not only palatable but desired.

This is why there are no younger, fresher candidates. This is why voting feels useless. Together, as a group of 320 million, we want national politics to be farcical. We really, really want it because we need an excuse to throw away the nation-state. The very first, the most successful, the most impressive nation-state in history has chosen to be the first in pulling itself apart.

Published by Clarissa

8 thoughts on “Why We Turned National Politics into a Farce”

  2. Arestovich re the US debates and about Ukraine’s goals for the future:
    https://t.me/O_Arestovich_official/5829

    For not Russian speakers, he mentions “decades of wars” as the old post-Cold War world order is breaking down. In yesterday’s YouTube discussion with Олег Хомяк and Romanenko, Arestovich said that one of his goals is to keep Ukraine out of those future wars, similar to Spain during World War II, which managed not to enter war despite geographically being at the center of the conflict.

    He also compared Ukrainian policy to ‘collective Biden’ – behavior of empty declarations and slogans w/o ability to back them up. F.e. Biden’s “Russia must be stopped” w/o sending sufficient weapons or Ukrainian “we’ll return to 1991 borders” w/o the ability to achieve this goal.

    During YouTube discussion, they mentioned Israel and Taiwan as also being specially influenced by those developments, similar to Ukraine.

    Btw, this summer feels horrible so far. While the war in Gaza is still going on, Israel-Lebanon war is approaching and may (will!) start by surprise at any second. The Islamic Republic’s UN mission promises “an obliterating war” with all Iranian proxies joining in case of Israel attacking Lebanon.

    Meanwhile, our government is entering a new, this time internal, crisis after the High Court’s ruling 4 days ago (more details at the link):

    In historic ruling, High Court says government must draft Haredi men into IDF.

    Unanimous decision also says state is barred from financially supporting yeshivas whose students are eligible for the draft, noting, ‘Burden of inequality is more acute than ever’
    …
    Although the government could in theory re-legislate the blanket exemptions, doing so would be politically difficult since several Likud MKs have already said they will not vote for them and since the country is engaged in active fighting on numerous fronts.

    Just a few days ago I read about the bill to raise by one year the age of exemption from reserve duty in order to have more soldiers. Hasn’t passed yet, but the idea is clear…

    An analyst on Haredi matters says that:

    The ultra-Orthodox will not compromise on draft bill at the cost of leaving the coalition
    …

    The ultra-Orthodox in Israel will be forced to learn to survive without state budgets, just as their peers are doing abroad. They are also preparing to lose their benefits and subsidies, including a discount on property tax, a discount on social security payments and a discount on day care centers. Regardless of who will lead the next government, the ultra-Orthodox know the current situation cannot continue.

    …

    The ultra-Orthodox members of Knesset do not decide anything regarding the Haredi draft and their opinions on the matter are irrelevant. Those who decide whether the ultra-Orthodox youth will enlist in the Israel Defense Forces are the religious leaders of the ultra-Orthodox parties according to “daat Torah,” which gives authority to leading rabbis for deciding matters secular and spiritual alike. No Haredi rabbi will approve the recruitment of young people from Haredi homes, even if they are not really Haredi and even if they are semi-secular.

    …
    Meanwhile, ultra-Orthodox rabbis have embarked on a fundraising campaign in the U.S., which should help the yeshivas in the short run after their generous budgets are cut. Donations will be limited because the ultra-Orthodox in the diaspora also have educational institutions that need money.

    …

    The most important question is whether the rabbis will issue a directive forbidding them from enlisting in the IDF, including those not enrolled in yeshiva. Doing that might cease funding for all yeshivas. The ultra-Orthodox leadership will examine whether enlisting 3,000-4,000 young Haredim will satisfy the Supreme Court and help fund yeshivas or if will worsen the crisis. If the Supreme Court is satisfied with these enlistment numbers, the Haredim may be able to stomach mere thousands.

    The parts in bold sound too good to be true, unfortunately.

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  3. One of major newspapers “Yedioth Ahronoth” (Latest News), which is seen as centrist and is “Israel’s largest paid newspaper by sales and circulation”, was sold a few days ago with (ads covering ?) the front page :

    (what I remember, saw it on the street and didn’t photograph)

    “15 000 dead, 48 (or 72?) hours w/o electricity, not too late to stop the war with Lebanon”

    😦 😦

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  4. “collectively putting on this embarrassing spectacle”

    It seems less like unconscious collective goal-directed action and more like…. nudging*.

    One of the very obvious things about windows 11 is how it makes certain things a little more awkward and time consuming, not impossible or hugely difficult but… a little more awkward. Most of these that I’ve noticed make it more difficult to organize your files…. the intent I think is to nudge users to use ‘the cloud’ (ie someone else’s computer rather than one’s own) to store data.

    That’s what the current clusterfuck meltdown of the US political system seems like… a nudge trying to convince people to disengage from the political process.

    I’m not going to speculate here about who or why is behind it…. I suspect it is mostly unconscience by the techno-wonk class who dream of being able to ignore existing laws and the public so they can craft their superhuman policy solutions in peace.

    *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudge_theory

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      1. “the will of the people”

        The goal is to make rule of technocrat the accepted CW.

        I’m reminded of an online interaction with a russian a year or so ago. I ventured that the insanely psychotic rhetoric on russian state tv was not what those screaming it actually believed or even what most vatniks believe…. it’s a show to convince the majority that politics in russia is a cesspool that it’s best to stay clear of.

        That’s exactly the vibe I’m getting now from the US: “Do you seriously want to get involved in a fight between two crazy old men who don’t understand anything about daily reality?”

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        1. Seems plausible.

          Too bad the technofuture will suck. I am not looking forward to work bonuses being awarded as in-game virtual scrip that can only be spent to buy mods for my avatar.

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