The Upstart month

August takes its place in history again.


The traditional month for starting wars has not disappointed in 2008. Although the war in Georgia is hardly any more of a war than America's invasion of Panama was, it is equally shrouded in the veils of disinformation and breast-beating egotism that is part of the long tradition of the War on Neighbor that punctuates the trajectories of empires.

August also gave us the first Communist Olympiad in China and the wettest August in Europe for nearly 100 years. We saw the first person of color elected to lead the presidential bid of a major American political party and hundreds of thousands of people gathered at festivals around the world to celebrate the global appeal of neo-tribal, post-hippie techno dance music.

It's a funny old world, eh? Not sure whether to laugh, smile or cry at least half of the time.

The Democratic Party has made a strong bid for upstart status by nominating Barack Obama as their presidential candidate and they, like many of us, are not quite sure just how racist America really is. They have paired him with an old, white, silver-haired guy in the VP slot to see if that helps, but frankly nobody knows just how many people in battleground states will sit at home or vote against their interests, based simply on the inherited prejudices of their isolated social environments. It's quite a nailbiter really, just about everybody with at least half a brain and peripheral semi-awareness of the state of the nation and the state of the world, knows that another presidential term for the incumbent party would be at least disastrous and quite possibly catastrophic. It's quite surreal to watch the world's fate hang in the balance, to be decided by a handful of some of the most sheltered and ill-informed people on the face of the planet. (No wonder the Goths finally rode south to burn Rome.)

Funnily enough, the Olympics in Beijing threw up the same kind of questions about the state of national identity that have been blowing through the halls of Westminster and are now mixing with the confetti at the US party conferences. Just what kind of a state is China nowadays? It is certainly part capitalist, and that was the part that seemed to be on most prominent display in the fantastic physical and material achievements, wrought in such a short time, in that most ancient cities. Yet the ruling party still clings firmly to a self-identity as communists while simultaneously being unable to explain how the suppression of trade unions and massive corruption of the ruling elite are really part of a global enterprise whose core purpose should be the social welfare of the working proletariat.

These vexing questions of political identity are, by no means, the sole domain of the East. As Mr. Brown's Labour government in London is starting to resemble a paper bag left out in the rain, there are real questions about what the essential nature of the New Labour enterprise ever was. Now that it has reached a testing time, it seems unable to find the firm ground of principle or the guidance of established standards. Can it really be that, for the last decade, Mr. Blair and Mr. Brown's New Labour enterprise was always just a sham that rode a lucky wave of post-Thatcherite reactionism, while squandering the windfall revenues of North Sea oil and pandered to the business class as a substitute petticoat to cover up for a ball-less, soul-less political marketing rhetoric?

And now the final weeks of the 2008 American presidential campaign bring those same questions to the hallowed shores of that great continent. The good and the greats of the Democratic Party seem at their most confident and their most strident when they proclaim that there are clear and distinct differences that separate them from their Republican rivals and yet when they describe these differences, they point to different outcomes that will become manifest in the future, over the course of the coming president's term. Or sometimes they claim to be more "in touch" with the common man, or more attuned to the needs of the "middle" and working classes but somehow they escape the opportunity to be able to paint their political identity in a truly unique or markable fashion. This is not because they don't want to, it is because they don't know how to.

The Americans, just like the Europeans and the Chinese, are struggling to formulate or even conceptualize a principled political philosophy and identity that marries the hurtling pace of 21st century change with the massive and complex societies that we are coagulating into. Until this conundrum has a solution, we are left to witness the spectacle of power structures grappling infantilely with the building blocks of 20th century political philosophies in an attempt to reconstitute a coherent strategy for these modern times, and instead only producing Frankensteinly grotesque and ineffective, origami models.

So have some empathy for Mr. Obama, Mr. Brown and Mr. Jintao while they flail around in search of firmer ground and temper any enthusiasm you may feel for the apparently decisive nature of actors like Mr. Putin and Mr. Netanyahu, who have decided that they would rather seek solace on the discredited islands of yesterday's flawed and broken apparitions. Mr. Obama is certainly an inspirational leader, and it cheers the heart enormously to see a younger person commit themselves to the difficult task of improving the situations of many at a difficult time, the attempt alone is worthy of praise, rising, as it does, from a recent history of go along, get along ineptitude and inaction.

August has seen the flame of hope thrown up high on both sides of the planet but one can't help but feel that rather than setting the world alight, those flames will dim and fade just like the Olympic flame, not dead but kept burning in the background waiting for another chance. Without a coherent direction founded on principles even the inspiring leadership of Mr. Obama is unlikely to survive the tumult of the coming storm of internecine, elitist backstabbing that is the predominant feature of all political landscapes that are devoid of new ideas and new directions. We can but hope that his best visions prevail but we must not allow ourselves to fall victim again to the ill ordered sequence of dreaming and then awakening.

The summer has given us stuff for dreams but we must commit to fully awakening to the reality of our situation before we allow ourselves to dream again. A full and honest appraisal of where we are, what we have achieved, what we have failed to do and where we have completely screwed up, is a necessary precondition to fruitful future dreaming. One aspect of that wakefulness is reaching the understanding that we must forge a new political philosophy for the 21st century, based on sound principles that can provide the terra firma on which new leadership can stand and provide direction even in the midst of stormy seas and global warming.

A "thank you" to August for starting up the fires and a "tally ho" to all of us as we take the inspiration of those flames to our hearts and start our own enwakened dreaming of a future worthy of our destiny.