Earlier today I took a peach of a coffee table from the free loppis at the återviningscentral recycling centre which should be good for, I would say six or seven canvases. I swooped in and took it from under the noses of a gaggle of four or five old browsers one of which I recognised as the owner of the large loppis behind Lindris. A two story barn affair which seems to really bring home the bacon. It is often full and has become for my family and others I suspect, somewhat of an attraction. The owner is a small lady of round account1 who scuttles between the maze of nooks, crannies and lanes of the loppis with insect speed, arranging and putting things to right like Oblomov's Agafya.2 She is Finnish and it shows apparently, Helen tells me that when speaking Swedish she has a rough manner and a dishonest edge lurking just beneath her strained smile. That sounds like a dealer to me, a merchant, and you know she decides all prices on the spot and only after having looked you up and down to judge your wealth and toughness. One can hear her gears turning as she pretends to be thinking before throwing out a price accompanied by her well rehearsed gesture that seems to say 'oh okay Ill give it you for nothing'.
With this wave of the hand she will rob you blind! An old ikea lamp...100kr! A carved wooden spoon....80kr! A copper pot...120kr!
Well when all is said and done she is a character and she is different and perhaps because she is not a Swede she has failed to mask herself completely and one can see underneath something real. Perhaps that is harsh but it does seem to be accurate at least from where I stand as a pure observer. In any case today I caught this merchant at the free loppis loading up with all manner of quality goods that I have no doubt she intends to sell for a personal profit. Naughty. Naughty. Naughty. But this dodgy dealing will not put me off visiting again and in fact her shameless looting of the loppis today was a display of 'fuck offness' that only increases my interest in her and her enterprise. I look forward to my next fleecing.
Well today the Doing went fast and loose and in accordance with our new gospel of speed. A size thirty view of the large farmhouse that sits about five hundred meters from the yellow house and which people refer to as Vestakullar. The house is at the top of the composition which is otherwise dominated by greenery of the overgrown area around the fake lake.3 Check: to say 'overgrown area' is wrong and quite insulting. It is actually a wonderfully rich and varied mixture of grass-like plants and reeds which in the height of summer produce a majestic flowering meadow. In the view in hand however we show the beginning of the outgrowth of the soon to be meadow in a succession of stump like marks sweeping across the middle third. The foreground shows the ploughed field in which we stood, piled on in clumps of violet, umber and prussian. Stiff reeds at the waters edge, streaked on in a cool green. The water has been modified towards pink to compliment the numerous greens and rhyme with the house red. The tree line stuck on in two or three salvos and the sky viciously attacked and left lying there. In short our second work executed according to our gospel of speed was as exhilarating and rewarding as the first and leaves one with a tremendous sense of being alive and that is no small potato and quite trumps the tranquil pleasures of the Cezannian way, at least that is how it feels to me now.
Look here, I have been quite unable to shut off an unproductive brooding on the subject of the alt right, even as I worked it nagged. Of course I have committed to trying to think my creative practice together with the wider socio-political context which we all live through and I am aware that ones work becomes stronger, and more interesting as a result of reflecting the times, it just seems that this crisis is a little too close to the brain bone. I think what I am driving at is that in the pre-crisis world of neoliberal frenzy there was some pleasure in thinking through and learning about the complexities and mysteries of advanced capitalism as an abstract entity, all of which revealed by some fashionable critical seer. It seemed like an adventure. Today however the object of critique has become very real. I mean those Trumpian SD rotters4 are putting up their posters at Trästa Bron!! I defaced them, naturally, by scrawling 'racism' across their message but even that gave me no sense of clarity. I found myself realising that the negativity of my action had no positive flip side. I mean there is no party that I feel like I can advocate with any confidence to mount the necessary challenge to the new politics of the alt right. I can only protest at the spectacle and be panicked into feeling relieved if ANY party which has not grown from neo fascist roots (like SD) takes power. It seems the pro left politicians are banking on it all going away or hoping that their existing liberalism is enough but it is not! What is being done to win back people who have drifted for whatever reason to the alt/far right? And I am quite sure the conservatives of Sweden see just the same land of opportunity by playing in the alt right fire pit as the British twats do.
Calmer heads label all this 'populist right politics' but that neglects the danger and potential violence that I believe is around the corner. No, the populist label will not do. It gets used by the talking heads on the media in a way that wants to keep what is happening within the standard realm of politics as usual but it does not get near to giving credit to the gravity of what we are witnessing which is closer to a contemporary fascist turn in the book of many. Now I am one that does not share the 'kill the grey zone'5 attitude of many of the anti fascist groups and the reason is that while the roots of many alt right parties are fascist and violent they are also expert at manipulating events and people into a state of confusion and hyperbole into which many good people have been sucked and I believe that these people can be won back but it must be done with more intelligence and finesse than is often offered by the far left.
But who to support from a leftist perspective? I do not passionately support any party, I suppose because I am thinking of the bigger global anti capitalist picture but the quite understandable 'vote for no-one' Russel Brand position6 of yestercapitalism7 is not a goer these days. So what to do? If I just wanted rid of the SD am I to tactically vote for whichever party may best oust them regardless of their politics? Probably not. Do I vote ideologically for a left sided party that will not much impact the situation? More likely, but not with any confidence, not least due to the slow witted and nonchalant attitude of the left sided parties to the new politics of the right which has the left in a sleeper hold,8 at least as far as the working class is concerned. So for me one can still credibly make the case for thinking outside of the realm of national politics...for an anticapitalist position. There I said it. It has for me been a journey, a long and winding road over the past few years where I have had my doubts about the worthwhile nature of speaking again of anticapitalism when the national politics developing in the context of austerity was so urgent but I have come around again. To talk about anticapitalism today could provide at least a way to bridge the gap, to begin reconciliation from outside of the party political polemics. Anticapitalsim after all can be approached from the right as well as the left and so saying we can understand that we suffer the same illness even if our diagnosis and proposed treatment are radically different.
Well yet more confused wading through the muddy mind but we really must try soon to gather this all into some response to the five themes which after all I have agreed to tackle but it seems a little early for resolve. Like a singer who is perhaps not yet feeling the vibe I think it wise that we go round again a few more times.9
Tommorow,
John
1 It is probable that this should read 'a round lady of small account'.
2 Oblomov's housekeeper whom he eventually married. Oblomov was mesmerised by her speed and efficiency.
3 Refers to the man made lake close to John's house in Bergby.
4 The meaning of the term Trumpian is not clear but in allocating this term to the Sweden Democrat party it would seem be a broard term for alternative right wing parties.
5 Used in an anti fascist context meaning the elimination of compromise (with fascism).
6 Refusing to vote in the belief that the system itself is corrupt and voting only helps sustain this corruption. The celebrity comedien Russell Brand is known for espousing this position on the Newsnight program.
7 We cannot find any reference to the term.
8 The sleeper hold, also known as the sleeper, or rear-naked choke, is a submission move that is commonly used in martial arts as a submission technique.
9 The 12 bars.