1 Introducing Emotion, Identity and the Play of Political Culture
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Notes 1 Introducing Emotion, Identity and the Play of Political Culture 1. Psychosocial Studies at UEL was first developedby Michael Rustin, Barry Richards, Mike Smee and Amal Treacher alongsidecolleagues at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in North London. For a discussion of the Psychosocial Studies field, its history and its differences: see, Day Sclater, Jones, Price, and Yates (2009), and the Special Issue of the journal, Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, 2008, Volume 13, Issue 4, 2008: 339–385. 2. John Street has defined popular culture ‘as a form of entertainment that is mass produced or is made available to large numbers of people’ (1997: 7). 3. An advantage of using digital posters to promote a political party is that they are cheap to produce, and can respondquickly to issues and themes raised onthecampaign (Nikkaha, 2010). 4. For this and other posters of the UK 2010 National Election Campaign, see Guardian.co.uk(2010)‘Election Campaign: General Election Campaign 2010 in Pictures’, 15 April 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/gallery/ 2010/mar/30/general-election-2010-labour#/?picture=361777434&index, date accessed 18 January 2014. 5. “Gene Hunt” was a detective in the popular BBC 1 television drama Ashes to Ashes (2008–2010). 6. To view this image, click on the linkhttp://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/ 47582000/jpg/_47582724_cameronhunt466.jpg, accessed 23 July, 2015. 7. See: www.mumsnet.com, date accessed 12 February 2015. 8. The discourse of austerity, which is underpinned by the message of non-state intervention and the so-called ‘hidden hand’ of the market, has a strong ideological dimension to it that chimes in with the values of neoliberal ‘revolution’ that is tracedback to the monetarist policies whichbegan to take shape in the 1970s (Harvey, 2007) and to its cultural formation as a hegemonic project (Hall, 2011). 9. Here, I am referring to the promotional review comments on the back of Johnson’s (2014) book. See also Peter Mandelson (2011) The Third Man; Life at the Heart of New Labour, or the political diaries of the self-effacing Chris Mullen (2010) Decline and Fall; Diaries 2005–2010, or the emotive diaries of ‘spin doctor’ Alistair Campbell (2008). 10. See also: Bremner, Bird and Fortune (1999–2010, Channel 4), 10 O’Clock Live (Channel 4, 2011–) andquiz shows on television such as, Have I Got News for You (BBC2, 1990–2000; BBC1, 2000–); comedy drama series The Thick of It (BBC4, 2005–2007; BBC2 2007–2012) adapted as a feature film: In the Loop (2009) and the television comedy series Yes Minister (1980–1984) and Yes, Prime Minister (1986–1987), which, for the timeframe under discussion in this book, was also staged as a play in London theatres in 2010–2011. Yes, Prime Minister was later revived in 2013 on the ‘Gold’ television channel. 141 142 Notes 11. This is a tradition that has been critically documentedbycultural studies scholars from Raymond Williams (1983) onwards. See Street (1997: 162–166) for further discussion of this critique. 12. The notion of the ‘post political moment’ is a contested term within the field of philosophy and cultural studies. It broadly refers to decline of progressive social democratic politics in the West and the triumph of neoliberalism in all aspects contemporary life (Fisher, 2009; Mouffe, 2005). 13. See, for example, Tracey Jensen’s (2014) analysis of this genre at work, through programmes such as We Pay Your Benefits (BBC1 2013). 14. Foucault (2008) traces the origins of the term, back to a meeting attended by German economist Friedrich Hayek and economist andphilosopher Ludwig von Mises. He discusses its use in the German economic texts of the 1930s and 1940s, through to the monetarist economics of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School in the 1950s and 1960s, which advocated the need for gov- ernments to create the necessary conditions for the market driven neoliberal values andpractices to flourish(Wilson, 2014).Gilbert (2013) remindsus that the Chicago School provided the model for Pinochet’s Chillian gov- ernment, which is widely recognised to bethe first government to combine neoliberal economics with a system of neoliberal governance. It was against this backdrop that the emergence of neoliberalism really took hold in the 1980s, when Thatcher and Reagan promoted neoliberal economics and socialpolicy. 15. As cultural studies scholars have argued, against the backdrop of the credit crunch, a new politics of austerity has emerged, where the Second World War slogan ‘Keep Calmand Carry On’has been co-opted once more in thecon- text of consumer culture – albeit in a ‘post ironic’ mode in order to reinforce a masochistic message that following on the from the economic deficit, we should take our medicine and accept the pain of austerity as ‘we’ brought it on ourselves and thus somehow deserve it (Gilbert, 2011). 16. In her discussion of paranoia on television, Woodhouse Hart (2014: 137–138) says that, ‘paranoia can be recognised clinically as featuring anxiety states that are delusional, persecutory, aggressive and threatening. “Something (or someone) is out to get me”, would be a typical example of its presentation’. 17. See Woodhouse Hart’s (2014) elaboration of this psychoanalytic analysis of paranoia and its linkstotelevision entertainment. 18. See, for example, Russell Brand on the BBC 1 political discussion panel show Question Time, 21 June 2013. 19. The movement is also linked to the Spanish Indignago movement in 2011 and before that, to the Arab Spring uprising in 2010. 20. Well-known parodies of UK politicians include, on YouTube: ‘Cassette Boy – Cameron’s Conference Rap’, 1 October 2014, https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=0YBumQHPAeU; ‘The Nick Clegg Apology Song’, 19September, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUDjRZ30SNo& list=RDKUDjRZ30SNo; ‘Gordon’s Smile’, 26 April 2009, http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Vor03-uUeuM&feature=fvwrel; all the above links accessed 12 December, 2014. 21. See Russell Brand’s ‘The Trews’, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list= PL5BY9veyhGt46KMmgAJYi1LF0EUkpqcrX, date accessed 27 December 2014. Notes 143 22. See Brand’s (2014) entry entitled: ‘New Era For All’, http://www.russellbrand. com/tag/new-era-estate/, date accessed 28 December 2014. 23. The working class women on that estate have publicallypraised Brand for his support (Withnail, 2014). 24. See, for example, the 2014 YouTube video, ‘Listen You, Let Me Talk’, broadcast on 13 February, that contains Russell Brand’s interview with Chan- nel 4television broadcaster, Jon Snow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= VrVe7jJE__M, date accessed 27 December 2014. 2 Spinning the Unconscious and the Play of Flirtation inPolitical Culture 1. Parts of this chapter have been published as an article in the journal Subjectivity, 2010, Vol.3, 3: 282–302. 2. These terms, as usedhere, are very loosely based on Mansfield’s (2006)dis- cussion of metrosexual and sexual masculinities, which he discusses in terms of new and old masculinities respectively. 3. Fourth-wave feminism is a contested term, but it is associated with the current generation of young feminists who use social networks to pro- mote feminist campaigns, often focusing on issues of intersectionality and the marginalisation of ordinary women from mainstream political debate (Munro, 2014). 4. Who, at the time, was his advisor on teaching mathematics. 5. See: ‘David Cameron: Webcameron Highlights’,YouTube, http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=qxh1YhHytDk, date accessed 21 February 2014. 6. For further details of the poster campaign, see the BBC web page ‘On this day, 1950–2004’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/ 30/newsid_2530000/2530933.stm, date accessed 25 February 2014. 7. See, for example, Alan Clarke, who in diary entry for 28 March 1990, reports of the ‘privileged access’ enjoyed by ‘certain key unelected advisors’ (Clark, 2002: 407). 8. The Social Democratic Settlement refers to the postwar consensus that emerged in the wake of the BeveridgeReport of 1942 that was put in place by the 1945 Labour government, which championed the values of equality of opportunity, and some redistribution of wealth as underpinned by the safety net of the Welfare State (Hall, 2011). 9. See ‘British Gas Ad Tell Sid Postman’, YouTube, 2011, http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=nedVpG-GjkE, date accessed 25 February 2014. 10. This theme of patriotism echoed the message of the Conservative Partypolit- ical broadcasts of the time in which, as the Guardian caustically reported: ‘Land of Hope and Glory was belted out over a mistypicture of Big Ben’ (Brown, 2012). 11. See ‘UK Party Political Broadcast – May 1987’, YouTube, http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=p-3OscH1qK0, date accessed 23 February 2014. 12. Resentiment is a contested term and its different uses are related to different philosophical traditions. From a psychoanalytic perspective, resentiment can be used in a similar way to Melanie Klein’s concepts of envy and projective identification. For further discussion see: Clarke, Hoggett and Thompson (eds) (2006). 144 Notes 13. See http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/, date accessed 27 December 2014. 14. As when, in 2002, News of theWorld journalists hacked into the voicemail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, giving the impression to thepolice and her family that she might be alive. For further details, see the above endnote. 15. The counsel, Robert Jay, began to attract a kind of celebrity following in the press and on Twitter, as the style of his questioning, which often involved the use of obscure long words, was viewed as highly seductive and his encounters with the witnesses became an object of fascination for those watching the events unfold (Kennedy, 2012). 16. In particular, see Melanie Klein, who discussed at length the linkbetween the mature love in the ‘depressive position’ mourning andloss (1940). 17. See Green’s (2006) critical essay ‘Addendum to Lecture’ on the flirtatious cruelty of the psychoanalyst Masud Khan.