Public displays of empty gestures are no substitute for action. Politics is the art of the symbolic gesture. The successful symbolic gesture gains gravitas by crystallizing a narrative that attracts a consensus that then powers policies of substance. The politics-as-usual gesture is empty of substance, serving only to mask collusion and failure. Soaring Rhetoric(tm) is carefully engineered to mimic successful symbolic gestures of the past, but the purpose isn’t to power positive policies: the goal is to distract the audience by making them feel that participating in empty gestures is a substitute for real-world actions of substance. The net result is we now inhabit a culture that relies on empty gestures and feel-good appeals to past glories. This reliance on empty gestures and appeals to past glories typifies regimes in decline.
This post was published at Charles Hugh Smith on MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016.
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