The New Authoritarians: Aesthetics And The Politics Of Remain – A Talk By Marc Glendening

About this event

The political culture that has sustained liberal democracy in Brit-ain is now eroding. The campaign to block and reverse Brexit is one manifestation of this, together with judicial activism, the at-tempt to limit free speech, and an emerging culture of intolerance.

The Marxian Frankfurt School in the context of the inter-war period sought to explore the cultural factors that had facilitated the rise of and then sustained fascism in Germany and Austria. In particular, Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch looked at how the Nazis had ‘aestheticised politics’.

The talk will put forward the hypothesis that Britain is also moving towards a post-rational style of politics in which the capacity to provoke emotional and tribe-based responses to political stimuli is taking effect. This is having extremely negative results. Democracy depends upon the maintenance of a self-denying ordinance when confronted by political opposition and the reality of defeat at the ballot box.

Combined with the closely associated postmodernist belief that ‘speech is power’, politics is being viewed increasingly as a zero-sum game in which rival forces must be censored and inconven-ient electoral results discarded. Brexit is providing a focal point for the emergence of an authoritarian alliance driven by a broad-ranging and unifying pan-Europeanist aesthetic.

Marc Glendening is a writer and artist who has been active in pro-independence groups for many years, most recently with the cross-party People’s Pledge. He lives in London and supports QPR.

Please expect a thought-provoking talk followed by audience ques-tions and comments. As with all our Brexit Creatives nights there will be plenty of time to socialise in the pub afterwards.
Doors open at 7pm and the discussion begins at 7:30, with the bar open until 11pm downstairs.
Suggested donation: £3 cash on the door.