The commentariat keeping on telling us that Britain is not broken — “we’re in a state of transition, not collapse,” as Robert Colvile would have it in the Sunday Times. But I can tell you that it is indeed broken, it’s just that those in the know are keeping a lid on it, with gagging orders unofficially in place.
By the time people have realised just how bad everything really is, those with the power to change things will be long gone, patting themselves on the back for a job well done, as they take on their next big challenge in a new role elsewhere. And unfortunately, as always, the least powerful members of society will be scapegoated and blamed for all that has gone wrong.
Of course this was always the plan of the mendacious sadists who briefly fancied themselves as the populist voice of the voiceless, who long ago decided that apocalypse is the harbinger of utopia. Read what those wannabe politicians actually wrote in their long-term vision for the remaking of society. They have no shame in admitting that they look forward to the collapse, because they believe it will presage the far right utopia they yearn after.
Such men would be quite happy for the history of the twentieth-century to be repeated all over again. For the plebs to be sent off into pointless wars with global superpowers, in the name of seizing the economic wealth of other countries in order to maintain our way of life ad infinitum. As our energy needs transition from petro-carbons to rare-earth minerals, expect our talking-heads to come up with new terrorist threats in new places, whether Central Africa, South America or elsewhere.
Who dares recall that Britain has been engaged, more or less continuously, in Afghanistan for two hundred years, each time inventing a new threat and justification for our presence there? Study history and see what great games are being played there and elsewhere. No need to invest in conspiracy theories: just read the accounts of serious academics in the British Library. An enemy will always be invented in the service of our economic interests back home.
But no nation can be fixed by blaming others. Just as the prescription for the individual is to take themselves to account and strive towards personal reform, so too is that the answer for society as a whole. It’s time to take a look at ourselves in the mirror and decide what kind of society we want to be. A society that is fair and just, taking care of its most vulnerable, or one that is self-interested, greedy and unjust? The rich and powerful may yearn for the latter, pushing their war on woke to new extremes, but what of the common man?
The prophets of God were always sent to establish justice in the land. Their central mission was to build societies which put safety, health and fairness at their centre. This mission began with the individual, striving against their lowest selves to become honest, just, fair and compassionate. Collectively, those men and women built strong communities, which in turn established just societies. Here, the mission set for us.
If Britain is now broken — or in transition — then now is the time for good men and women to step forward to provide solutions, to counteract the designs of the mendacious. This is an opportunity, more than anything. Twenty-five years ago, I recognised that if I hadn’t been broken, I would never have sought to be fixed. Thus did I set out on this road of reform. So it is for society as a whole. First we must recognise that we are broken, then we must seek to be fixed.
Last modified: 17 August 2022
