Sunday, March 17, 2024

WRONG WAY ROUND


It has long been obvious to me that I am wildly out of sympathy with the contemporary world and that I harbour many dated attitudes and expectations. I ascribed much of this to old age and general geriatric irritability but I now realise that the world I once knew, the liberal-democratic West, is indeed breaking up rapidly, if it is not already broken. A last-minute jailbreak, as in a Hollywood action movie, is required before the process is irreversible! OMG!


             Wanton Russian destruction in Ukraine

What are we to make of the following list of recent peculiar absurdities?

(1)    Harry Potter author J K Rowling is in apparent danger of being prosecuted for denying transsexual broadcaster India Willoughby’s assertion that “he” is a woman.

(2)    King Charles is pressed to apologise to Prince Harry for mistreating him in his youth and undermining Meghan Markle’s position in royal circles.

(3)    Britain is expected to eat humble pie and pay huge reparations to Caribbean nations for the historic institution of Slavery in the 16th to 18th Centuries.

(4)    The unelected UK House of Lords seeks to frustrate all attempts by the UK government to deport illegal immigrants or fly them to Rwanda for assessment.

(5)    The discredited Metropolitan Police manage to arrest a demonstrator waving a sign saying “Hamas are Terrorists” - pro-Hamas demonstrators in their thousands are untouched.

(6)     British Jews live in fear of violence from Islamist fanatics and their Leftist supporters on the streets of London. The MP for Golders Green (Mike Freer) is standing down due to intimidation.

(7)    US Presidential candidate Donald Trump praises Putin (“genius” and “savvy”) and privately speaks well of Xi and Hitler. He leads in all the polls.

(8)    Pope Francis enrages Ukraine by advising her to wave the white flag and negotiate peace with Russia to end the war.

(9)    Chinese influences and money stifle debate about that country’s aggressive policies and repression of dissenters.

(10)                        UK media and advertisers continue to peddle the myth that Britain has very substantial black and Asian minorities. The 2021 census figures are a mere 4% and 9% respectively.


      Pro-Palestinian demos in the streets of London

All the above are examples of the distortions of thinking and erratic behaviour prevalent in the West, weakening its hard-won Liberties and dimming the warm glow of our Enlightenment.

Going back to first principles, most Britons believe in toleration, giving much latitude to a wide range of opinions. People should be able to express their views in any way, within certain limits. Those limits forbid the use of violence or intimidation or expressions of racial, sectarian or tribal hatreds. We have built a long-established system of parliamentary democracy which must change with the times, but preferably gradually and with a broad measure of electoral and public support. The judiciary must apply the law with integrity and be uninfluenced by political pressures.


    

                                         “Activist” vandalizes Balfour portrait at Cambridge University

The problem of social disintegration in the West, viewed from my admittedly geriatric ivory tower, is that our society has lost its moral compass. But I am truly talking about people who have no moral compass and to whom “morality” is a mere joke. How can we explain a cash economy to avoid VAT, practiced by every tradesman, too many politicians “on the make” in US, UK and Europe grasping at bribes, or ruthless company directors gaily committing grand larceny as if it were their “entitlement”? Where does morality sit with those civil servants and academics who “cancel” all dissenting voices with unrelenting malice, and are complicit in the distortion of historical fact?

To be sure, we in the West need to reset our priorities. It is too easy to blame governments in office. Rishi Sunak is an honourable fellow but his country has tired of his party. Joe Biden is too old, but who isn’t? Macron, Scholz and Meloni may be somewhat uninspiring, but new leaders are just outside the door, - the West has so much in its favour. It may not have the manpower of China and Russia, but the West has the brains, the technology and the resources to overcome all her foes.


The West’s priorities, not unlike those at the start of the Cold War, are rearmament and advanced technology. Her industrial work-forces need to be mobilised and energetically managed. Climate targets, high welfare payments, triple locks, unaffordable health services and immigration policies will have to take a back seat meanwhile or be drastically reformed.

Our large educated elites, need to show our people the way forward, to lead, galvanise and inspire. Step forward now!

 

 

SMD

17.03.24

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2024

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