Anti Diss The Establishment Arianism

Make Dad Jokes Obscure Again

I am absolutely not writing about the results of the recent US election. Nah. No way. Uh uh. Not happening.

But I will write a post about two words in a recent missive from M’Learned Friend Ed Brenegar.

Dr Brenegar writes about Donald Trump vs Deleuzian Societies of Control. Using Gilles Deleuze in support of Donald Trump is exactly the kind of intellectual sodomy that Deleuze himself would have approved of. The thinking here is complex and I can’t be assed replying to the whole thing so I just want to focus on two words.

The Establishment (1).

This term originated in a 1955 article by British journalist, adulterer, and drunk (2) Henry Fairlie. You can read it here. Fairlie is writing about the scandalous defection (and subsequent cover up) of double agents Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean to the Soviet Union several years previously.

Fairlie (3) writes about a world of a relatively few wealthy families where everyone goes to a small number of exclusive private schools and two universities (4). This world protects each other and in doing so they protect themselves. This is The Establishment.

Fairlie himself was on the edge of The Establishment (Byron House, Highgate School, Oxford). He also ended up defecting - although he went in the opposite direction to Burgess & Maclean. In 1965, he moved to America.

Fairlie’s description of 50s Britain was probably valid. Things have changed but not as much as you would expect in 70 years. Kemi Badenoch may be a black woman but she is more unusual in being the first non-Oxbridge educated Leader of the Conservative Party since Iain Duncan-Smith in 2003.

It is important to note that Fairlie’s description is not a term of abuse. How could it be? It applied to him too. It is more a wry diagnosis of the nature of things. In the 50s, the majority of British people would have aspired to be part of The Establishment, even of they had no chance of achieving that goal.

Whether this term can apply to the US in quite the same way is another matter. America is far more heterogeneous than the UK. Yes, there are elite networks but they are less unified than the UK version. It makes more sense to talk multiple, overlapping Establishments in the USA.

To label Nepo Baby Donald Trump (Kew-Forest School, New York Military Academy, Wharton) and Elon Musk (Waterkloof House Preparatory School, Bryanston High School, Pretoria Boys High School, Wharton) as “Anti-Establishment” seems to be stretching the facts enough to make The Donald jealous (5). Rather what we are seeing here is an intra-mural dispute within The Establishments to, er, establish who gets control of the various apparatus of the state.

Both the Republican and Democrat parties are weak. The former was unable to prevent a takeover by an obviously unsuitable candidate. The latter was unable to jettison an obviously unsuitable candidate until too late. I would prefer that the US had stronger political parties that could channel the hopes and fears of the US populace more effectively. But that doesn’t seem to be an option right now.

Let the mayhem commence.

BTW Do I hate Donald Trump? No. But unlike every other presidential candidate during my lifetime, there’s no way I’d lend him any money and expect it back. I would expect him to get on stage and tell everyone that he’d just taken some money from an Aussie idiot and is definitely not giving it back. The crowd would then whoop and cheer because it was some Aussie idiot’s money that Trump had taken. In their overpriced Trump merch.

Oh.

F-.

(1) Not the Sydney bar. “Girls call this bar the "dry cleaners" because it's where you pick up suits, and men well, they just flock here and look ravenous.”

(2) TBF being there is nothing more UK 50s The Establishment than being an adulterer and a drunk.

(3) I think I deserve some kind of medal for avoiding a really obvious pun here.

(4) “Why, yes, we do have a diversity program. Charlotte went to Durham. Please don’t tell her you know.”

(5) It wasn’t until I did some background reading that I realized that both Trump and Musk have some curious overlaps in biography: Wharton, dodging military service, multiple disgruntled former wives and business partners, etc.