I want to begin by stating that this essay does not exist as yet another white, cis, straight, man attacking idpol. There’s already enough high profile, low profile, intelligent, and pseudo-intelligent ‘philosophers’ who have do this as a means of preying on disenfranchised young men, if anything this is an attack on them, a direct attack on their own “ideology”.

My own journey through the world of the many fractions of the contemporary British left has opened me up of course to it’s incredible kindness and hope, but even more so to its flaws, this essay will reflect more so upon the latter.

This excercise stems from how I have analysed, first feeling somewhat taken in by, then frustrated with, and now dismissive of, the late Mark Fisher’s somewhat controversial essay Exiting the Vampire Castle. In the only three posts on my blog I’ve made at least two references to Mark Fisher, his essays on depression, on music, even his essays on politics largely, are amongst the most poignant, articulate, and spot on things I’ve ever read, and continue to read time and time again. I didn’t know Mark, but I feel something akin to the loss of friend, in as much as often times I read his work and feel as though he is having a frank, and welcoming conversation with me in the smoking area at some hipster bar, he is without a doubt one of my heroes. However the essay I intend to analyse and use as a microcosmic reference for some of the bad takes on idpol in the contemporary left, and post-left social circles is a tough read, even for the more liberal or more hard-line leftist Fisher fans.

Someone once said in a Facebook group, on a thread in which the subject was the aforementioned Fisher essay “this guy spends a lot of time defending Katie Perry’s ex husband”. Obviously I don’t know the context surrounding this essay for Mark, I don’t know all his experiences, but I feel like I have lived ones that run parallel, or at the very least experiences extremely similar. When I initially read Vampire Castle I had a number of friends and acquaintances that sprang to mind, and though I don’t really know the scope of my readership at the moment, if you’re reading this essay, and feel that I’m calling you out at some point for whatever reason, then chances are I probably am, whether it’s for your co-opting of identity politics as a means of enforcing alternate hierarchies, or your dismissing of identity for a greater goal.

To place some context, I’ve tried since defecting from any organised forms of leftism, to view idpol as a sometimes misrepresented area of thought on the left. As I stated in the opening of this essay I fall under the banner of being extremely privileged, and so any scathing analysis of identity politics would, in my own view neither be fair, nor necessary for me to undertake. My own viewpoint on identity politics is that it can often times as Fisher rightly argues, be a negative thing when growing unity in the group movements, and I feel that we ought always to be critical of it, however far more importantly we must maintain self-awareness regarding the ways societal identity constructs affect us individually, because they do, and to pretend that identity exists in a vacuum, beyond capitalism, and beyond leftism, is really silly.

Identity is justified by the context that surrounds it.

I do however glean some kinship with Fisher’s thoughts on idpol, in as much as I have a number of stories in which people who are self-described as ‘outside of British culture’ have claimed numerous times that the “the British are obsessed with class!” This observation always leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, yeah we fucking are, and if you’re on the left” and not obsessed with class then you probably have very little self-awareness, and as Fisher argues, many of these types of people, are undoubtedly middle class. Perhaps what I’m getting at with this is that on the Anglo-left and within it’s many fractions we need to reclaim our British identity. I’ve made no secret with this blog that I have a warm personal relationship with my own Britishness, in particular my Northerness. By reclaiming our sense of place in the world we can erode patriotism and replace it with a sense of national culture not defined by a little Englander neo-colonialist attitudes, but take some sense of pride from where we have come from and who we are beyond this, not in a manner that lessens those who aren’t defined in the same manner to ourselves.

One key thing missing from Vampire Castle is it’s lack of surrounding context, the constant defence of Russel Brand seems to side step the fact that, yes he is a multi-millionaire. I don’t necessarily believe he is under obligation to rid himself of all his wealth, however it must remain contextualised that all that Fisher defends in Brand is quite easily dismissed because of the context of his money. Class is undeniably something that runs deeper than money, but a fluctuation within contemporary class structures is far too easily dismissed in neo-Marxist analysis, the lens that Fisher often analysed from. Brand is working class, his humour is steeped in class consciousness, and as he ages he does become more self-aware, apologising for past mistakes and this is gratefully received, however he is still just a millionaire spouting his opinion on things that largely no longer affect him directly.

Class as much as identity, does not happen in a vacuum. 

I have personally experienced some the flaws in the parties of the contemporary British left, and have a number of stories about the grooming and taking advantage of people with severe learning disabilities, stories of dogmatic attitudes that isolate people who don’t share the same heard mentality, anti-feminist and often times racist talks in organised meetings that were allowed to just hang in the air, and yes the evident problem of anti-semitism which definitely does exist, and pretending that it doesn’t is what allows it to continue, allowing it to be a problem that simply will not end until it is tackled head on! The list of stories I have could endlessly go on, but I already feel like this is getting far too long and rambling.

Consider this a laying down of my reasons for removing myself from the organised contemporary left. Having always defined myself as an anarchist I’ve definitely been on the fringes of leftism and have many stories about actively being isolated in organised movements. Recently I’ve fallen into a more life-stylist camp and I’m comfortable knowing that this is my current identity, and to be quite honest, even without all this considered I also just get fed up of tankies trying to guilt me into voting for some shitty local representative.

All the above is not in any way intended to be read as an attack on those that find solace in their identity and their labels, if I were to punch down I would make myself a hypocrite, all I wish to espouse with this exercise is the idea that perhaps we ought to consider how our own frames of reference differ from that of others. 

What I have experienced contextualises my world view, your world view would be utterly alien to me so please, be kind, and don’t be a dick.

References

Fisher, M (2013) Exiting the Vampire Castle. Open Democracy. Accessed at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/exiting-vampire-castle/

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