By Troy Southgate

What we are being told is a ‘cultural revolution’ in which the Left is targetting mediums of expression that do not meet with its ruthless iconoclastic standards is almost certain to have the opposite effect. Indeed, whilst leftists themselves probably think they are on the verge of some kind of Maoist uprising it seems clear to me that this is little more than a juvenile fantasy and that the Left itself is being handed a temporary pass by the Establishment in order for the current period of social unrest to justify a new form of tyranny that will come back to haunt its protagonists. What begins with the toppling of historical statues or the destruction of Classical art galleries, therefore, will surely herald a new age of state-sanctioned production that will determine the value of culture in the way that social media now decides what constitutes fake news.

None of this will be part of any ‘cultural revolution,’ either, but will amount to a suppression of all forms of artistic expression which do not have the approval of the System. Naturally, the Left will seize this opportunity to decorate a few public squares and school playgrounds in return for vacating the streets, but once again, no amount of African sculpture or rainbow-coloured murals will have any impact on the capitalist purse-strings whatsoever and will be as ‘revolutionary’ as the latest brand of washing powder. Perhaps the younger generation who are swept away by the illusion of emancipation should recall the words of William Wordsworth, who said of the French Revolution: “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, / But to be young was very heaven!” He, too, was to see his dreams of liberation vanquished by the forces of oppression.