Flat earth

An article in the New York Review of Books set me thinking about how to tackle populist politics of the right. One answer might of course be to have some popular politics on the left—well articulated and hopefully delivered by someone with a bit of charisma. But in Romania, which the article suggests suffers from a higher than average level of identity crisis, a rerun presidential election was won by a maths intellect who earned the slogan ‘I’m voting for the nerd.’ A reaction against the populist and absurd opportunism of his opponent. An opponent, by the way who even went so far as to embrace an ‘influencer’ who questioned whether the earth was actually flat. I think that should be a question posed to Nigel Fartage. ‘Do you believe in a flat earth?’ He may try to deny it, but the more often he is asked it and the more often he denies it the more people might want to question what he actually believes. Like Trump, whom he so ardently admires, Fartage cannot be taken at his word. More people might begin to question him. Like ‘What actual benefits have accrued to ordinary people thanks to Brexit?’ Another approach is to frame policies which appeal to the emotional rather than the intellectual (which is not to say that for those who are interested, an exploration of a policy’s intellectual heft wouldn’t be rewarding). Part of the reason for the greater volatility in electorates these days I think comes down to voters’ moods rather than their interest in facts, analysis and dialectical debate. We live in a society where immediate reward is sought and satisfied, and for many there is a great sense that occasionally one gets to satisfy that desire by giving one in the eye to the establishment. This apparently partly explains the success of our Romanian mathematician nerd.