Politics is changing, suggests Douglas Carswell. The “internet thingy” means the barriers to political entry, or, at least, political comment are lower than they’ve ever been. Westminster, hidebound and wrapped in its own importance is threatened with extinction unless it moves with the times.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is hardly fresh stuff. It would have been stale in 2004. Perhaps even as early as 1994 this looked like old jobs. Must have been a quiet in the Telegraph office when it got commissioned. Yes, blogging and social media have brought the costs of a public platform down to the price of a broadband subscription and the amount of time one can sink into it. Millions of forces now have the opportunity to mouth off to their heart’s content. Amazingly, even my ravings have a modest following.
Yet has epolitics, for want of a better word, forced a big change in the way we do politics? Not really. Quickly surveying the landscape now vs four years ago, most politicians have a social media presence, all parties are plugged in and (theoretically) clued up about the new technologies and many millions more Britons check out their Twitter everyday – a good chunk of whom will have clicked on a politics-related hashtag from time to time.
The dam hasn’t burst though. Parties continue to obsessively media manage and the internet has not driven vast numbers of new people into political activity. The reflection on social media of UKIP’s rise is more an echo of the mainstream media presence Farage has carved out than the other way round. Millions remain alienated from normal politics. No one is loading and reloading YouTube clips of exciting speeches and policy announcements. Politics is still largely a spectator sport, and the ability to send 140 character-long rants out into the ether, at best, creates a simulation of participation.
Does Douglas have a point though? True, the plates beneath organised politics are in a state of upheaval, which UKIP reflects. However, it appears Douglas is paying little attention to this and is indulging in a spot of technological determinism. That somehow the weaving together of disparate statuses, tweets, tumblrs, reddits, blogs and re-blogs will affect big political change in and of themselves. It won’t. A politically disengaged but social media-savvy electorate will be a disengaged, social media-savvy electorate. If politics is to matter, it has to make itself more conducive to participation, to speak plainly and honestly, and keep its promises. And for that it requires the rude intrusion of masses of ‘new people’. Looks a bit chicken-and-the-egg, doesn’t it?
Perhaps this post could be such a small contribution to honesty in politics. Douglas is as libertarian as you get in the Tory party. He believes in individual sovereignty and free market fundamentalism. His political vision is of a devolved politics in which politicians, as such, no longer exist. It’s self-government by referenda, of policy decided by politics. To Douglas his government isn’t really a government at all, it’s a Twitter fall of petitions and survey monkeys. That’s not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but that is one side of the vision.
Hand in hand with very, very democratic governance stands the utter despotism of the marketplace. In this utopia, the majority of living, breathing individuals have to work in businesses and enterprises where there is no democracy, where the despotism of the employer goes unchecked, where the only accountability possible is whether people buy her or his goods and/or services. Individuals have to enter this relationship of unequals on pain of severe impoverishment and want, and yet because it involves consenting to it all is fine.
In reality Douglas’s world is a recipe for hell, of a society ground beneath the iron heel of oligarchy. That economic power is self-interested and, ultimately, opposed to people living free, autonomous lives, to the actual realisation of individual sovereignty does not compute.
No amount of tweeting, YouTube thumbs down, or strongly-worded blogs would undermine the power Douglas would grant his oligarchy. But good old-fashioned movements of real people might.
`No amount of tweeting, YouTube thumbs down, or strongly-worded blogs would undermine the power Douglas would grant his oligarchy. But good old-fashioned movements of real people might.’
And nothing can substitute for a revolutionary programme for the transition to socialism behind which a good old-fashioned movement of real people can unite. Otherwise all that social mediating is nothing but sectarian moralising and propaganda and hot air. UKIP’s message is simple which is why their on-line presence is effective: anti-EUism plus dog whistle racism. It’s more of a programme than the radical left are currently offering.
Where the “Internet Thingy” will change politics (eventually) is in the way it provides open access to information. Hansard, Blogs, Campaigning Groups, Independent souces of news, research papers, international organisations etc. It’s much harder to manage the message or hide malpractice now. I think people are becomming more aware now of the ills of society, they just haven’t quite decided what to do about it or found a representative political party yet. But it will happen and it probably won’t be Labour unless they engage more with the electorate.
No mention of 38degrees or other related platforms? If I am at all representative I have been disengaged from party politics for quite some time. What brought me back into the labour party was orgs like Avaaz and 38degrees. In many ways I trust these organisations to speak for me and share my concerns far more than my MP. Their ability to raise key issues, spread news and shine a harsh spotlight on dodgy politicians and corporations on an almost gigantic scale makes them a new political force to be reckoned with. I think we are still in the early stages of how social media is shaping politics and democracy.
But only the government can change legislation. And to what extent are the Tories influenced by media campaigns ? For example , how do we overturn the bedroom tax ? No amount of lobbyig the Tories will have an impact , only electing a Labour government.
I suppose there is a role for social media in setting the agenda and influencing Labour policy given that it’s internal methods are so clandestine.