Surely, if there’s an ideology that has gained pre-eminence over the last decade it’s this worrying development – Me Tooism.
It’s a repeated criticism of Rudd’s campaign but it’s also nothing new. What we are seeing is merely the latest assimilating movement of capitalism coming to Australia a little late. According to the philosophy of Me Tooism, the obstacle to the unfettered reign of capitalism (the Left) is instead transformed into its positive impetus. What seems to actually moderate capitalism actually works better for it. Witness the Chinese communists presiding over the most explosive development of capitalism in recent history or the ideological shift made by Britain’s ‘Third Way’ social democracy.
What Blair did with his ‘Third Way’ was to take the chaotic, impulsive and unforeseeable Thatcher economic revolution and stabilise it, making it more palatable for voters by providing minimal safeguards and regulatory interventions. Indeed, a lot of commentators have noted that Blair has succeeded in forging consensus on and actually institutionalising Thatcher’s reforms.
My fear is that this is exactly what we are seeing with Rudd. ‘Howardism’ may not have existed before now but it wouldn’t surprise me if such a thing emerges after the election. Rudd is effectively repeating Howard’s economic conservatism and turning what before was a person into a concept, what before was contingency into necessity. The idea driving Rudd’s campaign is ‘we can do it better’ and by doing it ‘better’ he also further narrows the coordinates of the debate – now we are all ‘economic conservatives’.
Third Way social democracy from Clinton to Blair (and now Rudd) is in fact a model that ultimately works better for capitalism itself. Unfettered capitalism would lead to social chaos. Through moderation you indefinitely postpone the antagonisms of capital. The question is, as Slavoj Zizek notes: for how long?
