Brian Eno: 'We've been in decline for 40 years - Trump is a chance to rethink'
Brian Eno: Weve been in decline for 40 years Trump is a chance to rethink'
The revered producer has been at the centre of pop since the days of Roxy Music. But dont ask him about the past hes more interested in how to reorder society
Simon Hattenstone
Monday 23 January 2017 01.30 EST
<snip>
He has called himself an optimist. In the past. I ask him if he still is, post-2016. Yes, he says, there is a positive way to look at it. Most people I know felt that 2016 was the beginning of a long decline with Brexit, then Trump and all these nationalist movements in Europe. It looked like things were going to get worse and worse. I said: Well, what about thinking about it in a different way? Actually, its the end of a long decline. Weve been in decline for about 40 years since Thatcher and Reagan and the Ayn Rand infection spread through the political class, and perhaps weve bottomed out. My feeling about Brexit was not anger at anybody else, it was anger at myself for not realising what was going on. I thought that all those Ukip people and those National Fronty people were in a little bubble. Then I thought: Fuck, it was us, we were in the bubble, we didnt notice it. There was a revolution brewing and we didnt spot it because we didnt make it. We expected we were going to be the revolution.
He draws me a little diagram to explain how society has changed productivity and real wages rising in tandem till 1975, then productivity continuing to rise while real wages fell. It is easily summarised in that Joseph Stiglitz graph. The trouble now, he says, is the extremes of wealth and poverty. You have 62 people worth the amount the bottom three and a half billion people are worth. Sixty-two people! You could put them all in one bloody bus then crash it! He grins. Dont say that bit. (Since we meet, Oxfam publish a report suggesting that only eight men own as much wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion people in the world half the worlds population.)
Eno himself is a multimillionaire, largely because of his work as a producer.He wouldnt be one of the 62, would he, I ask. I certainly wouldnt be, he says with a thin smile. No, Im a long way off that.
He is still thinking about the political fallout of the past year. Actually, in retrospect, Ive started to think Im pleased about Trump and Im pleased about Brexit because it gives us a kick up the arse and we needed it because we werent going to change anything. Just imagine if Hillary Clinton had won and wed been business as usual, the whole structure shed inherited, the whole Clinton family myth. I dont know thats a future I would particularly want. It just seems that was grinding slowly to a halt, whereas now, with Trump, theres a chance of a proper crash, and a chance to really rethink.
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bettyellen
(47,209 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)still_one
(92,453 posts)Noam Chomsky has stated exactly why Eno is an ass:
"Chomsky attacked the arguments made by philosopher Slavoj Zizek, who argued that Trumps election would at least shake up the system and provide a real rallying point for the left.
[Zizek makes a] terrible point, Chomsky told Hasan. It was the same point that people like him said about Hitler in the early 30s
hell shake up the system in bad ways.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/11/noam-chomsky-progressives-who-refused-to-vote-for-hillary-clinton-made-a-bad-mistake/
I hope these assholes who refused to vote for Hillary, by either not voting, or voted third party, face the brunt of the pain that will happen in the next four years
Unfortunately, a lot of people who don't deserve will suffer along with them
milestogo
(16,829 posts)Give me a fucking break.
JudyM
(29,293 posts)crim son
(27,464 posts)I was wrong.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)"I hope Trump destroys everything so we can finally rebuild everything anew!" types