![Print by James Gillray
In ‘Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837’ Linda Colley writes: ‘The Other in the shape of militant Catholicism, or a hostile Continental European power [France in historical context here], or an exotic overseas empire is no longer available to make Britons feel that - by contrast - they have an identity in common. The predictable result has been a revival of internal divisions among them’, (p. 7). Yet let’s bring Colley’s diagnosis up to date with a vengeance. The lack of a great Other to provide the British with a sense of common identity has not just resulted in internal division within the country but also has partly developed into a search for the great Other within Britain. When the search for the great Other turns internecine, it becomes an ugly, cancerous phenomenon that eats away at the body politic. An example of this is the Islamophobia of the English Defence League - othering and attacking Muslims gives the EDL an extreme sense of their own Englishness and of Eng-uh-land as a distinct nation which is their own and no other’s. Likewise, the identity of the respectable (conservative) British citizen was just recently forcibly shaped by the public othering and vilification of anarchists within Britain (see http://gu.com/p/3xv58). Though the London Metropolitan police later quite rightly climbed down on their targeting of anarchists (see http://gu.com/p/3xvkz), this phenomenon of isolating groups within Britain and setting them up as Other is deeply troubling.
For this practice of internecine othering determines that the British citizen, ultimately, is given by the state and by aggressive parties within the state a coercive negative image of the ideal individual they are expected to be. See it as the eerie shades and sepias of film negatives where identities and faces receive form through the definition of that which they are not: a Briton is (so it seems constructed these tragic, ignorant days): not Muslim, not an anarchist, not unemployed, not poor &c. The problem with the ‘ideal citizen’ arrived at through a systemic or even simply insidious practice of negative opposition and antagonism is that the ideal image of the citizen framed by these practices is an exclusive rather than inclusive identity and comfortably represents a very small and often elite section or strata of society. Whole social groups, so many people and so much street multiplicity and protean community brilliance is refused legitimation that alienation and anger over a fundamental lack of representation and political consideration develops in society and amongst the citizenry and is directed at the state, the original sire, really, of all this turmoil. With the Conservatives in power in Britain, and their ideological commitment to working hardest for the private, politically moderate monied capitalist individual so apparent, it is no wonder we are seeing this sense of alienation and anger hit new and profound registers of intensity. For if the Tories see the ideal ‘Briton’ as the individual I’ve outlined above, how many people do you know are accounted for and legitimated by this image?
We can refuse the identity suggested to us. We can rubbish the system of negative opposition that seeks to assert one common identity by targeting and attacking specific individuals, groups and minorities as Other. We must also fight to ensure that the state represent and legitimate every bloody citizen in the body politic with absolute and authentic attention and sincerity. Otherwise we have no democracy.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpee0h0xZR1qz6ehvo1_400.jpg)
Print by James Gillray
In ‘Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837’ Linda Colley writes: ‘The Other in the shape of militant Catholicism, or a hostile Continental European power [France in historical context here], or an exotic overseas empire is no longer available to make Britons feel that - by contrast - they have an identity in common. The predictable result has been a revival of internal divisions among them’, (p. 7). Yet let’s bring Colley’s diagnosis up to date with a vengeance. The lack of a great Other to provide the British with a sense of common identity has not just resulted in internal division within the country but also has partly developed into a search for the great Other within Britain. When the search for the great Other turns internecine, it becomes an ugly, cancerous phenomenon that eats away at the body politic. An example of this is the Islamophobia of the English Defence League - othering and attacking Muslims gives the EDL an extreme sense of their own Englishness and of Eng-uh-land as a distinct nation which is their own and no other’s. Likewise, the identity of the respectable (conservative) British citizen was just recently forcibly shaped by the public othering and vilification of anarchists within Britain (see http://gu.com/p/3xv58). Though the London Metropolitan police later quite rightly climbed down on their targeting of anarchists (see http://gu.com/p/3xvkz), this phenomenon of isolating groups within Britain and setting them up as Other is deeply troubling.
For this practice of internecine othering determines that the British citizen, ultimately, is given by the state and by aggressive parties within the state a coercive negative image of the ideal individual they are expected to be. See it as the eerie shades and sepias of film negatives where identities and faces receive form through the definition of that which they are not: a Briton is (so it seems constructed these tragic, ignorant days): not Muslim, not an anarchist, not unemployed, not poor &c. The problem with the ‘ideal citizen’ arrived at through a systemic or even simply insidious practice of negative opposition and antagonism is that the ideal image of the citizen framed by these practices is an exclusive rather than inclusive identity and comfortably represents a very small and often elite section or strata of society. Whole social groups, so many people and so much street multiplicity and protean community brilliance is refused legitimation that alienation and anger over a fundamental lack of representation and political consideration develops in society and amongst the citizenry and is directed at the state, the original sire, really, of all this turmoil. With the Conservatives in power in Britain, and their ideological commitment to working hardest for the private, politically moderate monied capitalist individual so apparent, it is no wonder we are seeing this sense of alienation and anger hit new and profound registers of intensity. For if the Tories see the ideal ‘Briton’ as the individual I’ve outlined above, how many people do you know are accounted for and legitimated by this image?
We can refuse the identity suggested to us. We can rubbish the system of negative opposition that seeks to assert one common identity by targeting and attacking specific individuals, groups and minorities as Other. We must also fight to ensure that the state represent and legitimate every bloody citizen in the body politic with absolute and authentic attention and sincerity. Otherwise we have no democracy.
-
chattanooga5 liked this
-
peter-morelli posted this
