Be aware!

Jacob Rees-Mogg branded ‘completely ignorant’ over devolution claim – The National

Jacob Rees-Mogg is not ignorant. Nor is he stupid. Unless one thinks it stupid to so concisely state the line that the British state’s propaganda machine will be hosing us with over the coming weeks and months. Jacob Rees-Mogg knows what he is doing. He knows exactly what he is saying and why. It is as dangerous to assume ignorance and stupidity and incompetence on the part of established power as it is to assume that established power is benign. Established power is never benign. If you are thinking that established power is ignorant, stupid, incompetent and/or benign than it is because that is what established power wants you to think. Jacob Rees-Mogg represents established power.

The British state is established power. The dissenting tendency – encompassing, from the perspective of established power, the SNP as well as other pro-independence political parties, the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament, Scotland’s separate institutions, Scotland’s distinctive political culture, most of the Scottish electorate and Scotland’s national identity – is the principal dissenting tendency. Established power regards any dissenting tendency as at least an inconvenience and at most a possible threat. When a dissenting tendency has the potential to become a countervailing power that tendency comes to be regarded as a real and imminent threat to established power. When, or if, the countervailing power becomes organised the resulting organisation is regarded by established power in the same way as it would regard an enemy state.

Those who consider themselves part of the wave of democratic dissent risen in Scotland must decide whether they are content to remain a dissenting tendency within the British state or whether they want to be a countervailing power – and are prepared to organise accordingly.

Internally, the organisation which is the executive arm of the countervailing power cannot be democratic. It must be hierarchical and governed in order to function effectively. For the countervailing power to be considered democratic it must have democratic aims and operate in such a way as not to breach fundamental democratic principles.

Transforming democratic dissent into countervailing power requires that those who consider themselves part of that that democratic dissent must submit to organisation. They must do so willingly, however reluctantly. They must accept the authority of the organisation in managing the countervailing power’s campaigns against established power. If they cannot do this they cannot be part of the countervailing power and so can contribute less to the countervailing power’s campaign than they might.

Autonomous groups may exist as part of the dissenting tendency even as this tendency evolves into a countervailing power. Autonomous groups cannot exist within the organisation which becomes the executive which is essential to this evolution. That organisation must be monolithic and disciplined. Or it will be destroyed with ease by established power.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has done no more than reveal the ill-kept secret of the propaganda strategy which establish power is to deploy against the nascent countervailing power of Scotland’s Yes movement. They do not fear the SNP or the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliament or Scotland’s separate institutions. These can be managed with the powers assigned to the British state by the Union. They do fear Scotland’s distinctive political culture and the Scottish electorate. They fear an organised Yes movement. They fear a countervailing power that aims to end the Union. They fear a countervailing power that cannot be resisted or defeated by established power. Established power will deploy massive resources and all the trickery and chicanery learned over centuries in an effort to prevent such a countervailing power arising.

Here, we attend particularly to two strands of established power’s effort to kill the countervailing power before it fully emerges from the dissenting tendency. These are the propaganda strands most specifically revealed by Rees-Mogg’s comments – undermining Scotland’s political culture and manipulating Scotland’s electorate.

The British media is crucial to both these strands. Therefore, we cannot afford to be dismissive of what Jacob Rees-Mogg says. He is not ignorant. He is not stupid. He is fully aware of what he is doing. We must be equally aware if we are to meet the force of the British propaganda machine on the field of public perception defend adequately against it and defeat it.

---