Patrick West
A whole raft of new terminology has emerged since the Great Awokening ten years ago. Much of it suggests that politics has become increasingly superficial and inauthentic. ‘Virtue signalling’, ‘lifestyle leftism’, ‘elite cosmopolitanism’ and what Neil Davenport calls ‘the aesthetics of radicalism’ vie and jostle alongside that ubiquitous accusation: ‘performative’. In an age when the personal has become the political, striking a pose is now inextricably entwined with having a viewpoint on worldly affairs. Dying your hair pink, sporting a keffiyeh and curating your online profile to accommodate your preferred pronouns and flags of convenience: these are all contrived and combined declarations of selfhood and political creed.
It’s fitting that a non-binary member of the Green party should push the boundaries of credibility to breaking point
So it’s no surprise that in order to give credibility to their political philosophy, some in the corridors of power these days now face a greater temptation to curate their public image to make it align to their ideology. The latest figure to have been found doing so is Q Manivannan, the individual who earlier this month made headlines by becoming the Scottish Green party’s first self-identifying non-binary Holyrood MSP – despite being in the UK only on a student visa and so liable to be forced to leave before his tenure ends.
