Monday, March 16, 2009

A note of optimism

There is no doubt that over the last few months I’ve been predicting a very bleak future for Britain and, indeed, the world. I make no apologies for that.

I seriously do not believe that the vast majority of people in this country have the slightest inkling of the scale of the disaster which is about to engulf us. The relative prosperity we have enjoyed since the end of World War 2 and particularly in the last fifteen years leaves most of us completely unprepared for what is about to happen. There are very few people around today who really understand what real poverty and real deprivation are. In a decades time I expect the vast majority to have more than just an understanding – they will have experienced it first hand.

This all sounds very bleak – and indeed it is – but I’d like to offer a note of optimism to my predictions of doom and gloom. You see, my belief is that the ultimate result of all this will be the emergence of a better nation.

I’m not convinced that Britain will come through it intact. In fact I believe it won’t. I’ve mentioned before that I believe the EU will collapse – well, I also believe that Scotland will cling onto the EU dream longer than England will want to. The resulting schism will see the break up of the Union – although only temporarily. Once the EU does collapse I believe that both the people of Scotland and England will recognise that they have a better future together than apart or as part of any other union.

I also believe it will be the end of progressive liberalism and everything associated with it – cultural Marxism, multiculturalism, welfarism, globalism and so on – and the return of the kind of benign nationalism which once dominated our political thinking and political parties.

I believe we will also see a return of social conservatism and personal responsibility. By that, I mean a rejection of the hedonistic and self-destructive lifestyles which have been more or less promoted over the last 50 years and a return to family values and marriage as the principle institution through which they are established.

I believe we will be a more moral society where self-restraint and moderation are once more considered attributes rather than faults and where immoral behaviours are once more frowned upon and carry a social stigma.

I believe we will become a well mannered and polite society once more where respect is something which is gained by showing respect and consideration to others and not something demanded under threat of violence.

I believe we will become a more self-reliant and self-sufficient nation once more where the majority of what we buy is produced in our own country, is of high quality and can more than hold its own in comparison to foreign produced goods.

I believe we will see the end of modern “environmentalism” and a return to proper environmental protection where we don’t carpet our green and pleasant land with ugly wind turbines and giant housing estates called “eco-towns”. I see a nation where environmentalism starts with looking after our own homes, gardens, streets, villages, towns, cities, farms, woodland, pastures, meadows, rivers, streams, lakes and so on and not about some made-up concern about something over which we have absolutely no control whatsoever.

I believe we will see a return of “aestheticism” – a rejection of modernist things for the sake of modernism. I believe we’ll see a rejection of the brutalist, modern, generic architecture which has blighted our towns and cities and a return to the more subtle and distinctively English styles that complement our landscape rather than dominate it.

I believe all this will happen in the coming fifty years. As a result, I believe the Britain of 2048 will feel more recognisably familiar to someone from 1948 than 2008 with all the benefits that modern life has to offer married to the values, norms and practices of a Britain from a bygone era.

I believe all this because I believe in this nation and its people.

4 comments:

North Northwester said...

I have to say I believe you - in the long run. But it's only going to work if those of us who want it to happen actually challenge the collectivist, anti-tradition stus quo.

And that's going to hurt us personally as we stick our necks out because the people who support our ruling class are financed by the taxpayer one way or another, and they won't let go readily.

We need to get the Tory Party back, for a kick-off - and that's not going to be fun.

Stan said...

Oh, I quite agree that it will be neither easy nor fun. There are some very difficult times ahead - economically and politically - but I view the outcome as almost inevitable. The only thing that can prevent it, in my opinion, is if the ruling class manage to find some way to salvage their doctrine from the wreckage of the global economic collapse. I don't think they will.

The Tory Party is finished, though NNW - as is Labour. I know that may seem inconceivable right now given the nature and state of our politics, but I believe it is true. Once the full scale of this problem becomes impossible to deny then neither party will ever be trusted by the electorate ever again. Cameron's weak apology is a sign that the emormity of what we face is starting to dawn on him and that he is now trying - with what will be increasing desperation over the next weeks and months - to distance the Tories from what both they and Labour have unleashed on this nation of ours through their policies over the last 30 years. Cameron knows what is coming, knows that he is most likely to be in power when the full force really hits home and knows that his current political doctrine has no answers. IF - and it is an almighty IF - you can get the Tory party "back" before the next election then they may just have a chance of surviving, but I seriously doubt that can happen - or even if it is best for Britain in the long run.

Anonymous said...

I am with you in dreaming!!
My childhood was in the early 40s and, Yes. We were bloody hungry. No kidding.
I have seen just sooo many 'improvements' in our lifestyle that it just isn't true. And yet we really are worse off in my opinion!
I have always held the socialists in contempt, believing Churchill's words that it is a creed of ignorance, it's aim being the equal sharing of misery. I was, for most of my years, a Conservative - until Ken Clarke and his arrogance when he was Chancellor, made me realise that they are litle better than the lefties.
Now - there is no hope. We elected these scum (I'm sorry, but that is precisely what they are1) into power and we shall have to put up with the bloody awful mess that they've got us into.
Gosh! Can you remember those electioneering words? 'We'll get rid of sleaze. You WILL have a vote on the E.U. Constitution' etc., etc., etc.
Liars. Thieves. And Traitors.
Sorry - didn't mean to go on!

North Northwester said...

I know, gentlemen; the road is long and it will be hard. And it may not be soon. But conservatism is real, even if the Tory Party's policy is not.

William F Buckley and Ronald Reagan took their time, and so must we, and build conservatism up brick by brick, blog by blog, day by day.

Buckley started in 1951 and Mister Nixon was only counted to have been elected in 1969, and President Reagan twenty years later.

We're clever and they are stupid and unless it goes nuclear or the Jihadists take over, we've got time.