Britain has been broken, splintered from every corner and they can’t quite put all the pieces back together again. This shot of a ‘gaffer tape union jack’ could not be a more appropriate visual metaphor, and all the other pictures this week symbolically represented the distorted,and subsequently divisive, perception of our national identity. Monday’s shot was an image that reflected the “great” days of the British Empire. Tuesday was a street art portrait of the Queen in her headscarf, looking like an ordinary elderly woman, the flag behind her, sprayed onto a shutter of a shop closed for business. Wednesday was a woman kneeling in front of the English flag, shadows closing in around her, seemingly defeated whilst a sign in the window states: ‘Take the risk, or lose the chance’. And then yesterday, a shot of a newspaper (yesterday) which cruelly echoed the famous headline that appeared after the first massive wave of European immigrants into this country: “Will the last person in Poland please switch off the lights?”
A lot of people freaked out when so many Eastern Europeans came over here but there is only one statistic that was ever relevant in relation in immigration: they put more in than they take out. So what was the problem exactly? A threat to our sovereignty? What even is that? Why are we defined by the country we were born in? We could have been born anywhere. Why do we need to take up everything it stands for, lock, stock and barrel? Everyone’s been banging on about sovereignty but all I know is you can’t pay your rent with it and you can’t eat it.
The attempt to preserve our national identity in the face of a globalised existence has brought this country to its knees but it doesn’t really exist. It is a concept. It is not real. In the highly enlightening book ‘Sapiens’ by Yuval Noah he explains how societies are held together with ‘imagined belief systems’ which are ideas that everyone agrees to follow so that we can all get along and function. Religion, capitalism, national and cultural identity are all ‘imagined belief systems that people adhere to so that their society doesn’ fall apart at the seams. When people stop believing in the same thing, it all starts to fragment and divisions emerge and hostility between different belief systems takes hold. This is where we are at. In order for harmony to be reinstated we would need to create a new belief system. The question is, what could we all unite over? What do we now all believe? In a post-truth world of fake news where opinion carries more weight that fact, it will be hard to find anything we all agree on. Even the flat earth theory is back for fuck’s sake. Now that little nugget of truth arrived many moons ago so the fact it is now in question again shows how demented things have got. Devolution is officially in effect.
The only thing we could all agree on, if everyone was to accept the data and what they know deep down to be happening is that it is all a distraction from the climate emergency that is taking over this planet. This is thr common enemy that will affect everyone and could be the one thing that would finally unite us as a single tribe where we would see beyond identity, race, gender, religion, politics and just see a single species in desperate need of unification to defeat this threat to our survival…if only people could agree it existed. Acceptance will lead to a solution. And we do need a solution. Nothing else matters…not even Brexshit.
I went to my first ever Extinction Rebellion this week. It was very encouraging to meet people who are not just going to sit back and wait for nothing to happen. They are galvanising into a global organisation that will do anything it can to raise the issue so that they declare it the level of emergency that it truly is. They are organising a massive demonstration/shut down of London on April 15th but are planning things all over the world. There are groups springing up everywhere. If there isn’t one local to you, start one. Time to get on board cos they’re ain’t no other train leaving the station. We have to fight. We cannot go from denial to defeat and skip the solution bit. We inherited a working planet and an environment contusive to our species. We must do everything we can to pass that on to future generations. Join the resistance: https://rebellion.earth
The time for ignoring this shit is over…
Here here Emmitt! I think it really boils down to whether you are willing to admit,accept and discuss that we are heading towards disaster or not. if we stay on this path which will ultimately lead to vast chunks of the planet becoming uninhabitable and the ensuing chaos this will create for all of us. An isolationist mentality will not be able to protect you. Blaming the ‘other’ will not save you. Withdrawal is not a solution.
I am actually past the point when i can keep pretending everything is ok. The science is in, the effects are already in action, and hoping it will all go away is pure delusion. But if we can shake ourselves out of our paralysis, we can start to create a new path. One that includes the knowledge that we have to now actively work towards ensuring that this environment stays conducive to our species. It is not a given. Not by any means. Vive la rebelution!
well said
I’m over here in the states looking at the Brexit psychosis and shaking my head – I say psychosis in the sense that if the UK was a person it would be hearing voices in its head and doing various forms of violence to itself and one could say “wow! that UK needs some serious help! It needs meds and some serious therapy and supervision. Someone should do something! Someone should help!” …only, there is no one who can help. Poor UK has to figure this out on its own. I am sure many different bits of the brains in that poor psychotic entity are talking sense, maybe – each operating within some self consistent logical frame – but overall the effect is broken-ness – like a ranting person of indeterminate age and gender wandering down the middle of a busy highway waving at imagined fairies with one hand while desperately holding down their aluminium foil hat/brain shield with the other – something bad is going to happen.
meanwhile here I am sitting inside another sad situation – equally demented – I am afraid to talk to other brain cell clusters around me because they keep saying things like “MAGA” and “no ‘clusion” – it’s not even language – it’s just an echoey din of reflected bad memes and sound bites. It’s hard for my little cluster of cells to self diagnose the malady from within, but some form of psychopathological psychosis would probably cover it. The only group here that seems to make sense are too young to vote.
there are a lot of mentally dis-ordered “people-states” wandering about with axes and pitchforks and worse
I think we need an invasion from outer space or some serious existential threat to come up on us fast to make us snap out of it before we really start doing damage to ourselves and each other – climate change is sneaking up on us all – the frogs in charge will happy deny until we are all cooked – people all over the world are on the move because the places where they are now are becoming unlivable due to combinations of corruption, greed, floods, drought, a whole list of ‘isms to long to list out. We’re beating on and blaming people who are being forced out of their homes instead of doing something to help them stay there and live their lives where they would be happy to stay if they only could.
there are so many things we should be doing instead of self immolation.
when is that moment of clarity going to come – we need to blow away the fog of divisiveness and the smoke screens of lies and the nonsense of denialism
join the resistance – fan away the fumes – where ever you are