Standing up for British Values!!

Yes!! There are many British values worth fighting for!

Social justice! – Our ancestors fought for social justice – for workers’ right. The greedy elite did not give out annual holidays, good work conditions, 40 hour weeks, health and safety, pensions, maternity leave etc. without a fight! Then there’s the right for everyone to vote! That’s a British value worth fighting for!

Equality – That too was hard fought for. A short while ago only the rich could vote and had rights. We created a judicial system that was fair for all. First men and then women got the vote. We brought in race fairness so that people could not be abused or discriminated against because of their skin colour, hair colour, race, religion or creed.

Tolerance – A great British value. We have a society that tolerates differences! That is truly multicultural, where women are equals. I like that. Our culture and language is rich because we have incorporated so many other great aspects from other cultures.

Empathy and Compassion – we are a generous country, giving to foreign aid to help others. I think of Live Aid and the appeals for help. I think of how, throughout history, we took in persecuted people Huguenots, Jews and recently Afghans and Ukrainians. I’m proud of that.

Freedom – freedom to speak, write, read and practice whatever religion, sexual orientation or creed (as long as it does not hurt others). I’m opposed to hate and division but I want to live in a country that allows me to do and be what I want to be. I greatly value that.

Justice – The right to have the laws of the land upheld, to be protected from the violent, cruel and nasty.

Love of Nature – I hate cruelty to animals, destruction of the environment and am grateful that I live i n a country that values nature and protects animals

These are the British values I fight for.

I do NOT support patriotism or nationalism. I am human, part of the world, and I know there are good and bad people everywhere. We are no better or worse. We just had ancestors who struggled to create the right values here and created a civilised country with values and laws based on the above.

I do NOT support the greed of the elites who set out to fill their own coffers by conquering the world and setting up colonies and Empire. I think they are greedy bastards who did a lot of evil things – murder, slavery and suppression. I despise their arrogance, elitism and sense of entitlement. In my eyes they are scum.

I do NOT support the bloodthirsty generals who waged wars on behalf of that elite. They supported a hierarchical regime that I despise. I spit on them.

I do NOT support the class system and privilege that controls the system and has used its wealth to maintain its power. That system gives privilege to the wealthy, privilege that is not earnt or based on any meritocracy but is bought! The monarchy have inherited their wealth and power from evil robber barons who slew and threatened, robbed and murdered.

So forget your stupid flags of St George and Union Jacks. They represent a myth and support a system of repression. Forget your religious doctrines and class system. They are not British. They are impositions of foreign elites and foreign religions! Our monarchs didn’t even speak English! They aren’t English! Forget your Turkish/Palestinian knight who for reasons unknown was adopted as our patron saint. There were no dragons and he is no more English than Montezuma.

I Stand For REAL British values!!

Is Fascism on the rise?

Looks like it.

We seem to be importing Trumpist fascism.

The media bleats on and on about Farage – giving him oxygen. Strangely we don’t hear about his tax evasion or the tax avoidance on his ÂŁ880,000 house purchase (Angela Raynor was sacked for far less!)! We don’t hear about his being on the far-right gravy train in the USA instead of representing Clacton. He’s not described as a sleazy fascist conman making a fortune out of division but a prime minister in waiting. Looks like the wealthy elite are pushing for someone who’ll make them more money – by privatising the NHS perhaps?

The media constantly undermines the government – highlighting its faults and glossing over any successes.

The far-right football hooligan Tommy Robinson(fresh from a fight in a London station) – a racist conman who is making money from his far-right connections – leads a Unity march to disrupt and disunite the country.

Elon ‘I’m an evil, slimy wannabe dictator’ Musk is stirring up hate and division and attempting to bring down democracy. He wants to import Trump’s insurrection into the UK. He can profit from it!

Then we have this other new Trumpist import – the fanatical, evangelical Christian Nationalists. They wave their flags of St George and carry crosses. Forget Christian vales of love and tolerance, they preach hate and division and want to drive the scourge of UnBritish/UnAmerican values out of the country – whatever the hell those values are – sounds like women back in the house doing housework and having babies and an intolerant imposition of restrictive crap on everybody.

In the USA (bastion of freedom of speech – not!) they are banning and burning books. They are spreading hate and conspiracy. They are waging a war to promote their limited views on everyone – controlling education, the media and undermining the democratic process. Anybody who disagrees with them is labelled an enemy of the state.

This is the garbage we are importing!

This is the obnoxious immigration of fascist ideology – it’s far worse than the immigration of people!

In America people are saying that they had never realised just how many obnoxious, racist, nasty people there are. It was an eye-opener!

We’re beginning to feel the same here. When I see these Neanderthal thugs, draped in Union Jacks and flags of St George, supporting conmen, slimy opportunist turds like Trump, Farage, Tice and Tommy Robinson, I wonder just how far can Britain sink?

Once we were a nation of values – freedom, tolerance and democratic rights.

We’re rapidly becoming a broken nation of nationalistic, racist thugs.

We fought the 2nd World War to rid ourselves of this! Don’t we ever learn?

Flags Anthems and Pledges – A poem about brainwashing

Flags, Anthems and Pledges

 

Flags, anthems and pledges

Brainwashing instruments

That restrict freedoms.

Nationalist fascism,

Flaky around the edges,

Warlords and fiefdoms.

Tying us in to allegiance

To forces that exploit our desires.

Strangulating our freedoms

With their economic empires.

Consumer units under control

Slotted into the patriotic hole.

 

Opher 26.12.2017

 

 

As Samuel Johnson said – Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Patriotism, with its entire flag waving tribalism, is nothing more than a fiction to manipulate people by. It comes straight out of its partner nationalism and is the cause of much war and conflict.

Populist politicians use it to gain power. Businessmen harness it to gain profit.

It is visceral not cerebral and it panders to the gut rather than the brain. Many a brave lad full of ideals has been beguiled and used. Many a brave lad has returned with his legs blown off, his mind scrambled and his future in tatters all for the love of a notion of country.

To quote the great Wilfred Owen (himself a victim twice over) – The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

Nations are outmoded artificiall created obstacles to progress.

What is a nation?

It’s a territory occupied by a people with a shared culture, history, language or descent. Or is it?

Well increasingly in this multicultural world it isn’t.

Nations are artificial constructs created by people. They are political constructs artificially drawn on maps. Some are mere political decisions as with most of Africa and the Middle East. Some are the result of conquest by various robber-barons and empires like most of Europe. Some were established by colonialization – like the USA, Canada and Australia.

Nations are not stable. They change. Their boundaries alter. They fall apart and are split up. A study of old maps show this very clearly.

Within any nation – such as the USA or the UK – there are many languages spoken, many religions followed, many cultures incorporated, many races and creeds. There is nothing uniform or homogenous.

The cultural identity of a nation is a product of many different cultures and it is never fixed; it changes constantly.

Nations try to create an identity for themselves and glue people together with flags, national anthems, national costume, constitutions, pledges of allegiance, kings, Presidents, prayers, pageantry, national identity, military displays and other artificial psychological ploys to create a mass psychology that binds people together.

It is totally artificial. It is also extremely transparent.

The whole idea of nations has no real substance.

I would suggest that it is holding us back; that we need to think more globally and not be restricted to this outmoded idea of nationalism. All people are important. The whole planet is important. We need to solve problems universally. Competition between these artificial groupings causes wars, poverty and stops us solving the huge environmental problems, crime, terrorism and religious fanaticism that are assailing us.

Let’s do away with nations!

Flags, Anthems and Pledges! – Poetry

All this patriotic jingoism coupled with brainwashing mechanisms seem so outdated to me. I don’t give blind allegiance to anything, anyone or any country. I weigh up what is right myself. Not for me ‘my country right or wrong’.

I find the practice of saluting flags, pledging allegiance, standing for national anthems or singing along a complete anathema.

It amuses me. I find it contrived – a psychological ploy. I don’t fall for it. I don’t support the Queen or desperately want to save her. Neither do I support all the actions of my country. I’m selective about what I give my support to.

Flags, Anthems and Pledges

Flags anthems and pledges

Brainwashing instruments

That restrict freedoms.

Nationalistic fascism

Flakey around the edges

Warlords and fiefdoms.

Tying us to blind allegiance

To forces that exploit our desires

Strangulating our freedoms

With their economic empires.

Consumer units under control

Slotted into the patriotic hole.

 

Opher 26.12.2017