What has happened to the British people? We used to be a subversive unruly lot who would never embrace the absurdity and puffed-up insipidness of government. If we didn’t like what we heard, we would tell them. Have thirteen years under the boot of pretend-Socialism finally broken our spirit?
Have we taken-on the dull-eyed pallor and mindless compliance of a population finally beaten into submission by a few self-serving , cheating, accident-prone Westminster administrators? Have we allowed ourselves to become a great nation ruled by the new God of Mediocrity and leaders who excel in nothing more than incompetence??
Indifference and passableness are what drive us, whereas it used to be a clear-eyed unconquerable spirit. It was the British “no shit” attitude which conquered the world. Nowadays, it is management by empty words, insipid meetings , inquiries and commissions – and we like it!
We are led by “little people” masquerading as rulers who have somehow forgotten that we hired them. They constantly demonstrate their ineffectiveness and ineffectuality. They govern through the medium of crisis management by fighting a series of self-imposed rearguard actions, fuelled by the humdrum and combined slimy flavours of self-justification, blame and excuses.
They say that a country has the government that it deserves. Do we deserve this one?
The banking crisis was managed from a position of unanticipated weakness and over one-year later, the government maintains its half-frozen position – as if waiting for us to put it out of its misery. The invasion of Iraq and the subsequent murder of tens of thousands of civilians morphed into a televisual entertainment and through the Chilcot Inquiry, has now created the best show in town. The 2011 BAFTA has probably been cast in readiness. The Afghan conflict is now an announcement, a flight, a Wootton Bassett procession and a Westminster “tribute”. We appreciate routine.
War and tragedy appear to have joined sport, cooking and the talent show. They are a diversion. An entertainment.
Haiti was a one-week show that we became bored-with – we are not even outraged by this week’s spectacle of poor black children being kidnapped by American Baptists waving the twin bogus banners of God and Christianity.
We have all become mentally-obese, gutless “do-nothings”.
There was a time when a 2p rise in the price of a litre of petrol created dissent which led to boycott, protest and demonstrations. That was only two years ago. Nowadays all that we have is the energy to sigh and shake our heads in meek acceptance.
The Race Riots of the sixties, the anti-war demonstrations, the anti-nuclear protests, the feminist bra-burning and the hundreds of other marches and demos have given way to the 140-character cyber-protests, online petitions or the occasional armchair Visa-donation .
The deterioration has been swift.
Leave a Reply