The decay of dissent

You know how, when you have a row with somebody, almost always it is about something trivial, something that, in slightly different circumstances would go unnoticed? A thousand words of laser-guided invective can come from a missed appointment. When a bombshell comes, I am often lost for words. When really big things happen, I find myself unable to speak. Somebody tells me they are dying of cancer - my ego deflates to the size of an amoeba and my mouth opens and closes, but is mute.

And so it is with the litany of MPs expenses revelations this week. This is huge, it goes to the heart of our civilisation, our heritage and our sense of what we are as a society. As Daniel Hannan puts it:

This affair has now gone beyond sleaze or election results or individual resignations. Nothing less than the legitimacy of our way of government is at stake.

This affair has been a bombshell revelation to me. Not that some MPs are bent as nine-bob notes, but that they nearly all are and they have milked the system beyond the limit, into the realms of fraud, then theft, then treason. The latter being the despicable and mendacious way that the Government moved heaven and earth to prevent publication of the facts about how our money is spent.

They have forgotten that society is a de facto social construct. We all have to agree to go along with it. But for how much longer? When will the Sans Culottes take to the streets? When will ordinary people simply cease to believe in the chimera that is now Democracy?

The beginning of the Twenty First Century has not been auspicious. We appear to be on course for top-down fragmentation of trust and, more importantly, honesty. The way to deal with the expenses problem is simple, to institute a system of payments that is transparent and unequivocal. Unfortunately it has gone beyond this scandal into bursting the bubble of public propriety and order, whilst at the same time, those who are stealing from us have introduced draconian powers of command and control. The most telling response to the debacle has been for the Government to call in the police to hound the whistleblower. If they go down that route, be afraid. It is merely another act, of hundreds, meted out to those who simply, and without danger to national security, dare to dissent.

Sadly, there will be no riots. There will be no heads rolling in Westminster. The BBC will not suddenly take on the mantle of public advocate. The mainstream media will not exhort the masses to rise up. And the reason is, ourselves. We are, at heart, content with our lot. Yes, we sigh and we curse, but we also watch, struck dumb and paralyzed by our own complacency. Where are the student campuses ablaze with youthful ardour for change? Where are the radical speakers? Where are the movements, the rallies, the sense of there being an unstoppable force for change? Where are the ordinary people who can make the changes?

They are sitting at home, watching television, and hoping to catch the revolution on the Ten o'clock News.

3 comments:

Spartan said...

l too can see no mass demonstrations forthcoming. We lived through the revolution of the 60's and changed so much but those very same fruits we gained have now become our mortal enemy.

Where are the revolutionaries of today? They fight their battles nowadays in the virtual world of gaming on mobiles,pc's, x-box, playstation and the like. They have everything that they want ... cars, holidays abroad, festivals, movies on 50" flatscreens etc etc

This is Shelley's Frankenstein brought up to date.

l could go on but l'll leave the final words to Fripp :-

"Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules.
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools.

Confusion will be my epitaph.
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it we can all sit back
and laugh.
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying,
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying"

Wrinkled Weasel said...

Thanks for that. It caused me to fish out "In the Court of the Crimson King" and listen to the track.

Fausty said...

In previous decades, the majority of demonstrators were students. That was back in the days when integrity mattered.

Today's youth, have had dumbed down schooling, virtually devoid of traditional history lessons. They were brought up on celebrity gossip and their diet of 'news' is spoonfed to them by the TV.

They are encouraged to believe that government knows what's best for them and they feel entitled to government hand-outs.

They are too scared to think outside of the box because they've been programmed to accept the politically correct pap by their leftie teachers and the chatterati meeja.

These are not the people who populated Britain 20 years ago. They are the new, alien nation of Britain.

That is why we middle-aged people are aghast at the country's complacency. Our youth are pliable.

I shudder to think of what this country will be like when we die off.