"High politics" revisited

I never liked the catty reactionarism of the Peterhouse school but I loved much of their approach to politics: the political elite seen as a semidetached speech community, a subculture in many ways distanced from the general public and hiding that distance with very deceptive, rationalizing public speech that was in fact full of codes and nuances referring to rather cynical and irrational power struggles below the surface. I think it's still a rather illuminating approach to many dark and hidden corners of the political world. But even then I thought that the social dimension is missing or neglected, that it is not a totally closed or totally cynical world. So, today coming accross this article was rather encouraging - there seems to be at least some signs of a synthesis maybe approaching:

'High politics' and the 'New political history'

I prefer Tolkien - elen sila lumenn' omentielvo

But it was a surprisingly narrow contest: I still am rather excited about George R. R. Martin, his initial vision, his brutal but fundamentally only too realistic description of ravaging, raping knights without any conceivable honour, of the pretty actual Middle Ages. Unfortunately Martin got lost though, got gigantism, albeit there is much greatness in that bizarrely complicated narrative even if ever less and less coherence.

Tolkien on the other hand, is all coherence: a beautiful, sad, nostalgic epic thought out to the last exhaustive detail. Leaf by Niggle. The great anti-modernist - so much of criticism simply misses his intentions, his majestic, traditional Christian vision of a fallen world, a true conservative vision. As little as I actually agree with this unreal world view, it is such a coherent view of the traditional Christian spiritus mundi. I still have the books in my bookshelf, ordered and bought decades ago when I was only 11 - he was my religion those early times: the magical, magically imagined world, the history, the languages, the breath taking adventure... And I still have them in my heart.

Two obsessed, odd, freak writers, the best of the genre showing what can be achieved by it. All amidst the spiritless, visionless counterfeits and bad copies that unfortunately dominate it.

Sveriges rikes lag

It has been a rather strange experience to witness this modern and so newly re-established Finnish national radicalism of these past few years, this present wave of only recently so safely retro sentiments. And how familiar they are for a long time history student: still going along the well trodden path of us not being a Nordic land, not being a Western liberal nation - in the 1930's the promised anti-enlightenment land was Germany and today it's Russia. Always orientating towards the strongest contemporary anti-liberal, anti-humanist, disgusting centre.

Well, fine, let us then really rehearse this battle once again: for we are a Nordic country, a country of laws and liberties, centuries old, a country of citizens, not subjects or pre-determined categories of people. There is a patriotic vision of hope and progress and there is a national-radical vision of hatred, ignorance and regression, so let us then rehearse this battle again.

As constant as the Northern Star

It does feel like such a privilege having burned and crashed, having braved, having unflinchingly confronted. At the nadir of my fortunes, I could not have believed it possible to have one day emerged into life. These might seem as rather pitifully small things to ask for, but I don't know: I don't believe it's that pitifully small at all in the final analysis. And in any case I did finally succeed in my endevours: finally burned, finally crashed, finally lived and continued living. A very twisted tale, but a tale of success, and with not totally favourable odds at all. No small thing.

The glory days of the Empire are over

I have been having an interesting debate with a friend about the Trump phenomenon - he thinks it's not much of a change for: a) the republic will endure in any case and b) it has always been corrupt. Well, I don't think so: there was much prudent leadership during the Cold War, much good will and patient wisdom in building the post-wars structures in the 40's and 50's that ended up defeating the state Stalin built. Corruption too, of course, but corruption held in check with many countering forces.

Now those forces have weakened, some becoming corrupt themselves. Now we have a large section of the media sowing hatred and ignorance, large religious movements that have forgotten what traditional Christianity is about, fractured, defensive and declining system of public education. Virtue not rewarded, greed and shortsightedness gifted with ever greater profits to ever fewer people.

Yes, the glory days are over and the federal government itself is now in the hands of a corrupt, ignorant thug and rabble rouser. Things have changed and centre is ever less holding.

To have kissed any person behind the fence where the nettles wither

To age is a weird experience: any perspective you gain might not be that trustworthy as it skews the original experience. And the regret you thus accumulate might be quite or partially mistaken. Well, in any case, there certainly were no kisses with no boys, almost no boys, no girls, in my early years, and there probably should have been many I now gather with this benefit of hindsight, this wisdom only too expensively earned surely. Though still thinking perhaps it was not only a loss - or is this too esoteric or elegiac a point to entertain? The absence in some respects being more meaningful than the presence at the time would have realistically been?

Of course talking in much wider sense than mere relationships - rather of that long life denying period of my late teens and early 20's, and, no, I well know that it wasn't a total loss and much was earned, even with a high price. Oh well, a rather beautiful song in the early morning hours led to this mostly fruitless observation.