The election by a tiny group of party insiders of Boris Johnson to lead Britain’s ruling Conservative Party may be bad news for the British people, but it will surely usher in a golden age for cartoonists, satirists and standup comics. Mr. Johnson is not only not a serious political leader, he doesn’t even pretend to be one. He is first and foremost a performer, an entertainer, who has chosen politics as his stage.
I think we can now conclude that the worldwide political movement is not populism but absurdism. The central role of humor in politics has been established once and for all. Forms of leadership have passed through many historical phases: the age of warlords and tribal chieftains, the age of kings and emperors, and the recent late-lamented age of democracy. Now we have entered the age of comedy, when the main role of a national leader is to keep the people amused.
Europe led the way. A famous French comedian called Coluche announced his candidacy for the French presidential election back in 1980, and he immediately attracted the support of 16% of the potential voters, and the support kept growing. Unfortunately he was persuaded to stand down by serious politicians who could see their election prospects evaporating before their eyes. Coluche was before his time, but now the time of the comedians has come.
As examples we may cite the comical actor Beppe Grillo, the unsavory but popular leader of the Five Star movement in Italy. Volodymyr Zelensky the president of Ukraine, a popular television comedian. Marjan Sarec, prime minister of Slovenia, a satirist, and Jimmy Morales, a comic actor, who is president of Guatemala. You may be able to think of other examples of actors and TV performers who have risen to power.
There are still serious professional statesmen around who are not at all amusing: President Macron, Chancellor Merkel, President Xi Jinping in China, and President Putin (although I’m not completely sure about Putin, he sometimes seems to be enjoying a private joke at our expense).
The absurdification of politics has been a long-term trend, accelerated by television and social media that tell us, 24 hours a day that we deserve to be amused and shouldn’t think about anything seriously. The qualifications for a statesman have changed. Grim and sedate leaders like Washington and Lincoln would never get elected now. They would never even get past the primaries.
Now, I’m all in favor of a little humor, as long as it doesn’t cross the boundary into satire. But politics is getting beyond a joke. We have come to value entertainment, above everything so that, in public life, entertainers have an unfair advantage. Politics was always a bit of a show. Now it has become a pure spectacle.
Nevertheless I wish Boris Johnson luck as Britain’s new prime minister. He has taken on an impossible job and made a whole lot of impossible promises. If anything can save him it will be a sense of humor – not his, but ours.
Copyright: David Bouchier
