I figure the Hotel California is a concept at this point, to be honest. The song itself is so odd -and probably a bit too musically complicated for mass folk reproduction- that I don't think it would have survived as a song, but the idea of the Hotel California as a sort of desert prison probably has, and it's probably been applied with more... theological purposes in mind. In fact, you're giving me an idea for a bit to talk about in the next update...
This seems like a good way to deal with it.
The only thing I know Powell for is the Rivers of Blood speech and thus his massive racism and that he was mainstream for a really incredibly long time (though I suppose since I'm speaking from the country that kept Strom Thurmond around until he died, that kept Steve King in office for eight years, and that has, well, its current government, I shouldn't throw stones). I assume he was also closet fash?
I’m not a Powell expert by any means, but insofar as I’ve done my Powell reading for Echoes here’s my take.
I don’t think Powell was cryptofash in any classical sense; he held such an odd collection of views that ran from proto-Thatcherism to old-school British imperialism (not that these are mutually exclusive) that I think the best you could draw is that he was undeniably fash-
adjacent. He was definitely adopted as a totemic figure for the far-right in the late 60s and 70s – a time when the British fash were becoming increasingly visible in political life anyway.
That said, I think what he proves is that imperialism in its classic British form absolutely flirts with fashy ideas. Above all else his ambition was the maintenance of the Empire – particularly India, whose governor-general he had wanted to be since he was about 12. (This is ultimately why he left a professorial chair in Australia to enlist as a private soldier back in Britain. He was still under 30 at the time and the youngest Classics professor
in the entire Commonwealth. He was also one of about three people to rise from private to brigadier over the course of the war.) He did venerate war (or
the War, anyway) to an almost nihilistic degree, going so far as wishing he had died at El Alamein, so you could make the argument about this being a fascist tendency – but again I think it’s more the imperialist overlap.
After India achieved independence he never really forgave the people who let it happen. For him I think whiteness was about keeping the Empire strong (ie, how can the African nations grow strong if their populations are coming over here?). Obviously this is the basic sociopolitical function that whiteness serves anyway, so really Powell was just saying the quiet parts out loud. His views were of the prewar world, but he was gifted (and frankly odd) enough to carve out a successful career after 45, so he hung around as this weird relic who was romantically attached to an Empire that was increasingly embarrassing and a nuisance to maintain. And obviously the longer this went on, the longer the absolute worst people in Britain saw him as their spokesman.
Had he got anywhere nearer to power after Rivers of Blood, we’d probably have seen for definite how close he would have skirted to the far-right in government. As it was, I think he was a symptom of a lot of quite ugly tendencies within British life that most people were (and are) happy to accept so long as they remain discreet.
