What's the Ideal got to do with Brexit?

The philosophical concept of the Ideal, developed by Evald Ilyenkov, can help us understand what led to the vote for the UK to leave the European Union - better known as Brexit

Transcript

1. What is the Ideal?
   The Ideal is “a thought-out designation of a well-known category of
   phenomena that are absolutely independent of an individual. They are
   universal, commonly-held image-patterns, as opposed to the
   awareness of an individual ‘soul’.”
   (Dialectics of the Ideal)
   The content of The Ideal is precisely: “This sphere of phenomena – a
   collectively-built world of intellectual culture, an internally organised
   and disjointed world of historically-established and socially-established
   (‘institutionalised’) universal representations by people about the ‘real’
   world…”
   “Universal norms of that culture within which an individual awakens to
   conscious life, as well as requirements that he/she must internalise as
   a necessary law of his/her own life activity....”
   

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2. Characteristics of the Ideal
    Universal
    Objective
    Existing independently of consciousness and the ground
   on which it is formed
    Result of a law-governed negation process
    Self-developing
    Both itself and Other
   

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3. In summary…
   Even though it remains “an internal pattern of the activity of
   consciousness, as a pattern ‘immanent in consciousness’, Ideality can
   have only an illusory, phantasmal existence,” Ilyenkov notes. But it does
   become real in two quite opposite processes or movements: “In the
   course of its reification, objectification (and de-objectification),
   alienation and dis-alienation”.
   •Ideality embraces the dialectics of people’s developing self-
   consciousness
   •the Ideal is an objectification of human activity in universal social
   thought and not passive but a dialectical process AND practice
   •Contains aspirations as an absence, a restless presence in the Ideal
   •The Ideal is an active force that calls forth activity to transform the
   Real into the Ideal
   

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4. What’s the Ideal got to do with Brexit?
   “Brexit itself is the result of the invisible subsidence of the political order in recent
   decades … the deep uncertainties about the union after the Good Friday agreement
   of 1998 and the establishment of the Scottish parliament the following year; the
   consequent rise of English nationalism; the profound regional inequalities within
   England itself; the generational divergence of values and aspirations; the
   undermining of the welfare state and its promise of shared citizenship; the
   contempt for the poor and vulnerable expressed through austerity …David Cameron
   accidentally took the lid off by calling a referendum and asking people to endorse
   the status quo.
   …Brexit is much less about Britain’s relationship with the EU than it is about
   Britain’s relationship with itself… An archaic political system had carried on even
   while its foundations in a collective sense of belonging were crumbling. … The
   spectacle is ugly, but at least it shows that a fissiparous four-nation state cannot be
   governed without radical social and constitutional change.” Fintan O’Toole, Irish
   journalist and author
   

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5. Brexit is about an Ideal
   The state as the political entity of a nation is an objective Ideal, existing
   historically from generation to generation in constant evolution. It is a universal
   abstraction that is a representation of an ensemble of institutions that manifest
   ultimate power in society. The state in general is thus immediately
   contradictory. It is a thing which stands outside of us which has coercive power.
   It develops hegemonic notions that can speak on behalf of the “common
   interest” or “general will” in society. The state therefore contains within it the
   Ideal of democracy.
   The post-welfare, market-type of state is identified with unprecedented social
   inequality and polarisation; austerity resulting from the global financial crisis
   and recession; the weakening of welfare safeguards; the withdrawal from the
   provision of public goods in favour of private markets; mass surveillance of
   persons and communities; and an inability/refusal to tackle global issues such
   as climate change. As a result, an historic crisis of legitimacy now exists in
   many state systems.
   

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6. Brexit is about the Ideal of democracy
   Brexit is actually about a longing for the Ideal of a state and democracy that
   serves the people. The referendum was an activity driven by what was seen as an
   opportunity to achieve an Ideal in practice. It was:
   •A rejection of the status quo of both the UK state and the EU emerging state and
   their bureaucracies
   •A very British expression of independence based on cultural heritage
   •For the vast majority of the 52% (17.4 million) who voted there was no plan, no
   alternative
   •For many the “risk” of Brexit was outweighed by their declining social conditions
   – they had nothing to lose
   Inside this rejection, this longing, were many, often contradictory, sides:
   •‘Taking back control’ when there was no control to start with
   •That the UK Parliament would become powerful once more once free from
   Brussels
   •An illusion fostered by libertarian Tories that Britain would simply leave the EU
   and become a powerful, independent trading nation
   •The hope that leaving the EU might result in better conditions with a purely
   British capitalism (which doesn’t exist)
   •A view amongst some that fewer EU migrants would mean better conditions for
   UK citizens
   

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7. All these hopes, aspirations and illusions have had a reciprocal impact on the
   material conditions that gave rise to them, especially in the field of politics. Since
   the referendum:
   • The state has found it impossible to implement the result of the referendum (a
   deal with the EU was rejected in the House of Commons by 230 votes!)
   •A major political and constitutional crisis has emerged in Britain
   •Parliament is seeking to assume a power over the executive it has not had for
   160 years
   Momentum is building for Assemblies and Conventions to solve the crisis or
   come up with a new constitutional arrangement. The struggle for the Ideal of
   democracy is ongoing. Its outcome is not guaranteed.
   Brexit bites back
   

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