Daily: PUPPET MASTERS, LOST GOLDEN AGES ...

Your opponents are lower than vermin. Politics is a righteous battle of absolute good against absolute evil. A secret cabal controls everything. And only a return to a past Eden can solve our problems. Why do these simplistic myths grip the Left so strongly, and can Labour ever free itself from them? Nick Cohen talks to Chris Clarke, author of The Dark Knight And The Puppet Master, about these fantasies of hidden power and betrayal are not just a Corbynist trait, how they lead Labour zealots to look for traitors not converts, and what the paranoid style on the Left shares with the populist far Right. 

• “The Dark Knight myth stops you understanding other people. The Puppet Master myth stops you understanding power. And the Golden Age myth stops you understanding change.”
• “Both right- and left-wing populists depend on these myths of golden ages and puppet masters.”
• “The idea of a glorious socialist past of banners and brass bands that was usurped by evil men in shiny suits is just not true.” 
• “When you talk about never kissing a Tory, you’re writing off huge swathes of the voters you need.”

Presented by Nick Cohen. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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