20 April 2024
It's about "the culture wars", the failure of multiculturism, but much more. The idea that most people feel they have a vote but not a voice, they are not listened to anymore. There is "a new elite" from the universities who make a clean sweep of all the institutions with their "woke" ideology that has appeal only within this haughty new ruling group.
So people, ordinary folk, 80% maybe of voters, switch off as they are baffled and "unherd".
Immigration is the most obvious thwarting of the popular will. But all the woke ideologies stuff favouring minorities or denigrating our past irk most people.
Especially when you consider that reality for most of us is elsewhere - tax rises and service cuts, inflation and tricky stats, house prices and wage stagnation. Savage wars on countries that do not threaten us, when the real enemy is seen as within. Immigration and culture shifts are not welcome, stability and managed change is wanted.
Not that Starmer's New Labour is any better - I'm just waiting to hear how they've abandoned their traditional values - and so voters - too. Betrayed, really.
Political scientists like to talk about a "realignment", they'll tell you about Thatcher and Blair and now Woke v. Populism - the culture wars, they observe we are in "a time of transition". If you're mystified or annoyed by the politics of this new elite, shouldn't you focus on the previous values that you hold to and emphasise them? If you've got your own clear set of values then you have a yardstick by which to judge any new proposals.
To me this is what is going wrong because in the schools and universities the new values are being proselytised, but there isn't any presentation of the deeper and longer-lasting values that the British people hold - these are values built up slowly bottom-up over the centuries from our experience. Our values that blowins won't understand or appreciate or accept and will instead try to overthrow in order to pull the quilt over their side of the bed.
So without going into a long exploration of traditional British values, we do need to be clear and certain of just what are our beliefs and our values, we need to renew our understanding and faith in:
Economic liberalism*
A belief in free market capitalism where government intervention in economic affairs is minimised. Small govt.
Individual responsibility*
ie that individuals are accountable for their own actions and welfare. Work not welfare. Self-sufficiency.
Law and order*
means the management and enforcement of laws to ensure public safety and societal stability. Eg the boatloads of illegals is so flagrant and destructive of our infrastructure and stability.
National sovereignty*
means the authority of a state to govern itself without external interference from eg the EU, also much more critical of the US and NATO.
Traditional values*
And lastly, traditional values tell us what historically has got us here and what has worked for us - the importance of heritage, cultural norms, societal structures that define British society historically. We should fight for the family, moral standards, the monarchy even, and so on, stuff that has stood the test of time.
You may not staunchly agree with all of this, hopefully anyway you are open to change, but if you want to change things, you consider that it must be done slowly, bit by bit, and with the consent of the people ... managed competently ...not foisted upon us by outsiders or upstarts in a massive shift that lacks legitimacy and proper change management control.
Most important of all is that we should face reality directly. It is a hard and competitive world and waving a woke agenda all the time is a distraction that is blowing us onto the rocks. Reality is economics (debt, inequality) and war (stop this playground bully and figure out Security Treaties and Arms Limitations) and our national heritage culture (make clear our national character beliefs and values, stop diluting and diversifying) - in that order. Focus on that.
LINKS
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/10/31/why-the-culture-war-matters/
Unherd
New Culture Forum
