Cyncism Defined
Kim du Toit
May 7, 2008
10:00 AM EDT
· General
I was recently asked why I’ve been spending so much time on British politics and social issues over the past few months. There are really two answers to the question.
The first answer is that our domestic stuff here is pretty thin gruel. There’s a know-nothing stalemate in Congress, a do-nothing attitude at the White House, and frankly, the trench warfare in the Democrat primaries is as interesting to me as a John McCain bag of nothing stump speech. Frankly, I’m holding off on the American scene until something serious looks like happening.
The second answer to the question “Why Britain?” is simple, albeit ghastly: the wheels are starting to come off British society and government at an accelerating rate. The nation’s fabric, in other words and to add a metaphor, is unraveling. What’s happening is this:
- Rampant, uncontrollable crime. The desperation of the police is seen by the way they eagerly snatch at “simple” crimes—such as speeding motorists, people who sell merchandise in Imperial rather than metric units, or the poor guy mistakenly arrested for stealing a TV from Tesco—even as they are completely powerless to do anything about the violent hooliganism, robbery and brutal murder which have arisen from decades of criminal-coddling (and more recently, lax immigration controls). And all this despite increased police powers, reduced civil rights for citizens, and massive surveillance capability.
- Ordinary British citizens are as oppressed as they have been at any time in history. This may not be completely accurate in fact—but ask a Brit how he feels about constant police surveillance, about government oversight seemingly of his every action, about rampant, unfriendly regulation and indifferent, petty or hostile bureaucrats, about the feeling of being a stranger in his own country… and I’m sure my Brit Readers could add several more. Better still, ask someone in government to explain why so many Brits are emigrating and/or moving their capital out of the country.
- Sloppy, sycophantic media. The purpose of the media has always been to question authority. The problem is, when the vast majority of the Press are supporters of the ruling party’s philosophy, such questioning has been minor, and ineffectual. Precisely the same, by the way, is true of academia—and the detached viewing (and in some cases, active support) of the deterioration of the public interest by these two supposed “independent” pillars of a civilized society is going to go down as one of history’s most foul betrayals of the public trust.
- Loss of national identity. To an island nation once so proud of its identity, there has been a triple whammy:
- The loss of social identity, as the multiculti crowd have attempted to submerge British culture into some ghastly mixture of several, far lesser ones;
- A parallel attempt to submerge native-born Britons into a demographic minority (or less of a majority) by a feckless, irresponsible immigration policy; and finally,
- The loss of the social compact, which has simply been belittled, denigrated, sabotaged and destroyed by the simple (and erroneous) assumption that the compact’s maintenance belongs to the State, and not to the citizens thereof.
- Loss of national sovereignty. As more and more power has been devolved upward and outward, to a European parliament of unelected bureaucrats, Britain has become, quite clearly, a vassal state—and the recent plan to extinguish Britain and force its parts into some pan-European provinces is perhaps the final nail.
- The NuLabor Government has, quite clearly, run out of ideas and, almost as important, out of options. The answers to this crisis are not only nowhere to be found in NuLabor doctrine, but in antithetical public policy initiatives: lower personal taxes, less regulation, more individual freedom. Small wonder they are helpless, and flailing around like upended beetles. What remains for them? The final drive to extract as much as possible from an impossible situation.
That is why you have a development
like this:
‘Useless’ green levy on drivers rakes in £4bn
By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor
Last Updated: 8:03am BST 24/04/2008
The “green levy” on motorists announced in Alistair Darling’s first Budget will double car tax revenue to £4 billion but reduce vehicle emissions by less than one per cent, Treasury figures have showed.
Perhaps this betrays an innocence on the part of the headline writer, or a lack of cynicism. What it does betray is an appalling degree of cynicism on the part of the British government.
Of course the added tax was never going to reduce automobile usage. The tax was introduced to bring more revenue into a government treasury which sees a looming cataclysm of entitlement social spending and a bloated government payroll which will overwhelm tax revenues, and soon.
Expect many more like this in the near future. And do not expect government to have the best interests of the populace at heart. Faced with massive and skyrocketing alcoholism rates, the Blair government made the astounding decision to allow pubs to open 24/7—a move opposed even by publicans. The reason, of course, was simply so that the government could collect more sales- and excise taxes on increased consumption of alcohol.
Under ”cynicism” in the dictionary, the above two are just under the word.
Income tax rates may be increased, and all sorts of boutique taxes levied (such as the one on “expat” incomes), but the first is self-defeating (electoral calamity—the British version of our Stupid Party, the Tories, have a 20-point lead in the polls right now) and the second won’t contribute much: they never do (and indeed most often cost more money to collect than they generate).
What’s interesting is that anything the British Labour government does now (in accordance with their own policies, of course) is simply going to exacerbate the situation. Put metaphorically, the BritGov is facing an oncoming conflagration with cans of gasoline in hand, simply because their party doctrine insists that “anything wet will extinguish a fire”.
Imprisoned by policy, all the party apparatchiks can do is… more of the same. And when in doubt, stonewall. Check out this excellent performance by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury (a political appointee), in response to a simple question.
From a comment in this blog post:
Labour is simply imploding, due in no small part to believing their own propaganda. They really thought the economic boom of the last decade was down to them, when all they had done was ride the crest of the wave during the good times. Stormy weather has now broken upon them and they have no port in which to shelter.
We all know where this leads.
The question, of course, is whether the Tories (I can’t bring myself to call them any-case “c” conservative) can offer the radical solutions the situation demands, or whether they’d just offer mild palliatives (which won’t work).
What the Brits need is a new Thatcher. What they’ll get is anyone’s guess.
If they can’t engineer a soft reversal --and believe me, compared to the alternatives, a “neo-Thatcherite” revolution would be the softest—then history will provide the answer, and it’s an answer the Brits are not going to enjoy; and worst of all, nothing in their society will have prepared them for it, either.
We’ve been down this road in Europe before—only this time, I’m of the opinion we should let these guys find their own way out of the mess they’ve created.
I just wish I could offer sanctuary to my English friends, so that they could escape the gathering storm.
