Listening to Russell Brand’s ongoing podcast continues to stretch my knowledge about politics, as explained why here. The episode I am listening to currently did not fail to do so, as it brought my attention to the idea of centre politics being completely subjective to the political make up of an area.
Recently across the Western world, there has been a visible political shift to the right, seen in events like Donald Trump’s election and Brexit. But what actually is the right? To the Western world, the political horse shoe can sometimes be thought of as a model for all societies globally, with fascism being on the extreme right and communism on the extreme left. However this is not actually the case. If we think deeper, each country has an individual power regime and political mind set within its population. An example of this is Scandinavian countries, where socialism is their chosen democracy, Jeremy Corbyn is not seen as a crazy leftist, as thought by many Britons, but actually an ordinary centre politician. His calls for change regarding the National Health Service and the redistribution of wealth would not be seen as radical or extreme in their eyes. On the flip side, austerity belongs to the right in the UK whereas for much of Europe, it is common and seen as essential for stability.
As an avid labour supporter the idea that Jeremy Corbyn is seen as too extreme or too emotionally driven astonishes me, as his compassionate qualities that cause him to care about co operation and the need to look after each other to obtain an equal society, should not be a fuel used by Boris Johnson to describe him as a “mutton-headed old mugwump“. Since when did empathy and benevolence mean someone is incapable of running a country? Surely we want someone genuinely cares and maybe is a little less competent. What we have to realise is that competence is overrated in politics, as it means an individual can be ignorant and blind when it comes to decision making- as seen with Theresa May’s misleading rhetoric and recent snap election.
In the Western world we have become trapped in our own sphere of politics and are currently naïve to the fact that our model of politics is not set by the rest of the world- and that the arrogant patriarchal politician that we have come to normalise is not the only option for us. Freedom is to be created and change has always come from individuals like Jeremy Corbyn- who fight through malicious press who label him a “crazy lefty” whilst being completely benighted to the fact that the Western political horse shoe is not the be all and end all, and that in reality the political centre is completely and unquestionably subjective.
