The press is currently obsessed with two types of "circles": the vultures circling a weakened political leader and the flashbulbs circling "golden boys" on the Bafta red carpet. They want you to believe these are signs of power. They aren't. They are symptoms of a vacuum.
When the headlines scream that "Labour leadership rivals are circling," the media is selling you a tired narrative of proactive ambition. They frame it as a chess match where the most "electable" face wins. In reality, what we are witnessing is a race to the bottom of a creative and intellectual well. The circling isn't a sign of strength; it’s a desperate attempt to claim a throne that has already lost its value.
The Leadership Myth: Why Circling is a Sign of Failure
The standard political analysis tells us that a party in flux is a party preparing for renewal. That’s a lie. Real renewal doesn't happen because three or four careerists decided to start "quietly sounding out donors" while the incumbent is still at the dispatch box.
I have spent years watching political machines from the inside. The moment "rivals" start circling, the party is dead for at least a decade. Why? Because the very act of circling proves they are beholden to the existing, broken structure. They aren't trying to change the game; they just want to be the ones holding the controller.
- The Consensus Trap: To win a leadership race, you must appeal to the base. To appeal to the base, you must repeat the slogans that caused the party to lose in the first place.
- The Donor Feedback Loop: Wealthy backers don't fund radicals. They fund "safe pairs of hands." A safe pair of hands is just code for "someone who won't fix the underlying rot."
- The Media Symbiosis: Journalists need the "civil war" narrative because it’s easy to write. It requires no deep policy dive. It’s just soap opera for people who wear suits.
If a rival were truly ready to lead, they wouldn't be "circling." They would be building a parallel power structure outside the party’s current orbit. They would be making themselves indispensable to the electorate, not the internal committee. By the time the media notices the circling, the opportunity for genuine transformation has already evaporated.
The Bafta Golden Boy Fallacy
While the political pages track the "rivals," the culture pages are swooning over the "Golden Boys" of the Baftas. The term itself—Golden Boys—is a patronizing relic. It suggests that success in the arts is a matter of being anointed by the right institutions and wearing the right velvet tuxedo.
The red carpet isn't a celebration of talent. It’s a trade show for luxury conglomerates.
When you see a young actor labeled a "Golden Boy," you aren't looking at the next Marlon Brando. You are looking at a highly optimized asset managed by a team of agents, stylists, and publicists whose sole job is to ensure the asset doesn't say anything interesting.
The Cost of Being "Golden"
The industry's obsession with these groomed, safe icons is killing the very art it claims to celebrate. We’ve traded the grit of the 1970s New Hollywood for a polished, sterile aesthetic that performs well on social media but leaves no lasting mark on the human psyche.
- Risk Aversion: A "Golden Boy" cannot afford a flop. Therefore, they only take roles in franchises or "prestige" biopics that are essentially feature-length Oscar bait.
- The Death of Mystery: We know their skincare routines, their workout splits, and their curated "relatable" opinions. There is no room for the transformative power of acting when the celebrity brand is always visible through the character.
- The Award Industrial Complex: Baftas, Oscars, and Golden Globes are not meritocracies. They are the result of multi-million dollar "For Your Consideration" campaigns. Winning doesn't mean you were the best; it means your studio spent the most on billboards in Los Angeles and London.
The Intersection of Boredom
What connects the political "rivals" and the red carpet "golden boys"? Both groups are terrified of the one thing that actually drives progress: Conflict.
Not the performative conflict of a Prime Minister’s Questions or a Twitter spat, but the genuine, uncomfortable clashing of worldviews.
The rivals circling the leadership don't want to offer a new vision for the country; they want to offer a slightly more competent version of the status quo. The actors on the red carpet don't want to challenge the industry’s power dynamics; they want to be the new face of the status quo.
We are living in an era of the "Pre-Approved Leader" and the "Market-Tested Star."
The Thought Experiment: The Invisible Candidate
Imagine a scenario where a political candidate refuses to participate in the "circling" ritual. They don't leak to the press. They don't court the traditional donors. Instead, they spend three years building a grassroots network that ignores the national media entirely, focusing on local, unsexy problems like regional logistics and energy independence.
When the leadership vacancy finally opens, this candidate doesn't "circle." They simply exist as a fait accompli.
The party would reject them instantly. Because the party—and the media that covers it—prefers the circle. It’s predictable. It keeps the same people in the same rooms, drinking the same lukewarm wine.
Stop Asking Who Is Next
The question "Who will lead the party?" or "Who will be the next big star?" is fundamentally flawed. It assumes the systems themselves are still functioning and just need a new driver.
They don't.
The political parties are shells. The film industry is a subsidiary of the fashion and tech worlds. Asking who is "circling" the leadership is like asking who will be the next captain of the Titanic after the iceberg has already been hit. It doesn't matter who is on the bridge if the hull is gone.
If you want to find the real future of politics or art, look where the cameras aren't. Look at the people who are being ignored by the "Golden Boy" narratives. Look at the movements that aren't "circling" but are instead building something entirely separate.
The "Golden Boys" will eventually tarnish. The "Rivals" will eventually be deposed by the next wave of mediocrity.
Stop looking at the red carpet. Stop reading the gossip about shadow cabinets. Both are distractions designed to make you believe that someone, somewhere, has a plan. They don't. They’re just waiting for their turn to stand in the light.
True power doesn't circle. It intercepts.
Go find the interceptors. Leave the circles to the vultures.
