Someone once said that history always repeats – first as tragedy, then as farce. And now we can safely say that history is also repeating as a kind of cabaret.
We were all dimly aware
of the increasing incongruity of notions of 'substance', the
'narrative of history', 'progress', and 'essential truth', in modern
(and not-so-modern) society; how modernity has passed seamlessly to
post-modernity and a shifting chimera of identities no longer defined
by rigid positions in class, gender, and nation. But it's fair to say
we never expected the kind of morphing venality that we have seen so
far this year.
Already in 2017 we have
seen not only the breaking of international norms and widespread
political crises across the globe, but also the new terms of an
almost comical doublethink – 'fake news', and 'alternative facts'.
Lawyers, spy agencies, taxi drivers judges, and journalists have
become heroes in alliance, with Presidents, Prime Ministers, other
taxi drivers, other journalists and other spy agencies the villains;
the right and the far right circling each other in ever-decreasing
circles, leaders of the 'free world' denounced as racists and sexists
by neutral Parliamentary speakers, press barons fighting online
battles with children's authors, the Holocaust being tainted with the
brush of 'all lives matter' whitewashing, and Rabbis and Imans
standing shoulder to shoulder against measures that were ruled
illegal by federal courts which were subsequently denounced as 'fake'
by the President of the Unites States. In fact, the world has become
less of a planet orbiting the sun than a constantly rotating cabaret
of atrocity.
What are the features
of the Cabaret d'Atrocite? Well, the masks the performers use are
transient and contradictory, their dances and songs just a reflection
of their position in a constantly shifting narrative; there is no
plot, no storyline, no script; the actors change their roles in
constant flux, and with no emotion other than an impersonation of
that which they wish to emulate. Painted smiles and pointing fingers,
gestures of defiance and submission and control, torch songs and
ballads and shanties and anthems merging into a murderous medley. And
we are all now in the cheap seats.
It would be tempting to
regard the cabaret as pure entertainment, just images moving across
screens and disassociated reports of entertainment and escapades. But
it is not – it is a performance that plays with all our lives, and
in which we all have a part. And in it's savagery there is no
protection, no rules to work by, merely the buffers on which people's
attempts to oppress strain. This is the |Carnival of the Abuse of
Power – miniature pyres and guillotines, pogroms and massacres
chaotically executed and blandly reported.
But although the
performance is serious, it can still be enjoyed. Play your role with
passion, and skill; be fierce in opposition and pert in resistance.
Dance with passion, but carry a sword; fight with a smile intact.
Make your case, be ruthless, be demanding. Have fun, but be careful.
It's time to put on
your dancing shoes, warm up the pipes, put your best foot forward,
wear a big smile, and give these fuckers hell.
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