Paul Kingsnorth: We Got Too Big for the World

[bronxiteforever]

3. The author is a Brexit man. Voted to leave.

He consistently wails against the global left while yearning for a mystic small world of hobbits. He reminds me of James Kunstler. Kunstler fell off the rails several years ago and now preaches a world made by hand with no liberals around.

"This is the power of the new populists. The likes of Stephen Bannon and Marine Le Pen understand the destructive energy of global capitalism as well as the left does, but they also understand what the left refuses to see: that the heart of the West’s current wound is cultural rather than economic."
Here is another quote:

On 24th June last year I woke up, made a cup of tea and turned on my computer, wondering by what margin the nation had voted to remain in the EU. On the BBC website, the headline seemed to take up the whole screen: BRITAIN VOTES TO LEAVE THE EUROPEAN UNION. Five months later, my morning seemed to repeat itself. I woke up again, made another cup of tea, wondered how many votes Clinton had won by, and then gaped at the margins of Trump’s victory. It was clear that the poles were shifting. Something big was going on.

On both occasions I can remember precisely how I felt. It was a feeling that had nothing to do with what might happen next, and it wasn’t really related to my opinions about any of the issues involved. The feeling was exhilaration. I suddenly realised that for the last decade I had believed, even though I had pretended not to believe, in the end of history. Now, the end of history was ending. Change was possible after all."