Thought for the Day from a Pessimistic Patriot
Civitas, 29 April 2008
Patriotic history harmful to pupils; St George’s Day celebrations cancelled over spurious health and safety concerns; postal voting fraud on epidemic scale; Britain being carved up by Brussels into a set of regions of which the parts of some lie across the Channel.… With each day comes news of some fresh assault on the body-politic of this once great country.
What is the cause of this spiral of self-destruction into which Britain seems lately to have chosen to descend? How could such a once justly proud nation so speedily have reduced itself to a herd of bewildered sheep being tamely led by a pack of Scottish sheep-dogs acting upon the silent whistles of some far-off European shepherd?
continued on the Centre for Social Cohesion blog.
The catalyst for patriotism appears to be a Government which decides to create a coherent national purpose: an ideal where people see themselves as part of a community of shared ideals which is larger than themselves.
Subsequently, implementation is by the economic and social system of rewards and penalties at Government’s disposal.
Whatever the rights or wrongs of patriotism, comparison of Britain with a resurgent China and Russia is startling.
In our country, one could not imagine a Government acting to create greater fragmentation. It disowns and is an apologist for its history, ignores and racially discriminates against its poorer indigenous groups and illustrates tenets on which the country’s culture is built (fairness, justice, and freedom of speech et al) can be treated expediently.
Inject such ideology into the veins of public policy, to insist others are persuaded to act in due accordance, with appropriate rewards and censures, and we have the situation today: Patriotism is not felt by many. For many others, it is not worth being accused of a thought crime for.
My hope, our hope, comes in seeing not a reversal, but in forms of direct democracy not yet seen. Perhaps the new “collective purpose” will be to re-win the battle for democracy.