Sixty Joyless De-Britished Uncrowned Commonpoor Years (1949-2009)

Elizabeth II Vice-Regal Saint: Remembering Paul Comtois (1895–1966), Lt.-Governor of Québec
Britannic Inheritance: Britain's proud legacy. What legacy will America leave?
English Debate: Daniel Hannan revels in making mince meat of Gordon Brown
Crazy Canucks: British MP banned from Canada on national security grounds
Happy St. Patrick's: Will Ireland ever return to the Commonwealth?
Voyage Through the Commonwealth: World cruise around the faded bits of pink.
No Queen for the Green: The Green Party of Canada votes to dispense with monarchy.
"Sir Edward Kennedy": The Queen has awarded the senator an honorary Knighthood.
President Obama: Hates Britain, but is keen to meet the Queen?
The Princess Royal: Princess Anne "outstanding" in Australia.
H.M.S. Victory: In 1744, 1000 sailors went down with a cargo of gold.
Queen's Commonwealth: Britain is letting the Commonwealth die.
Justice Kirby: His support for monarchy almost lost him appointment to High Court
Royal Military Academy: Sandhurst abolishes the Apostles' Creed.
Air Marshal Alec Maisner, R.I.P. Half Polish, half German and 100% British.
Cherie Blair: Not a vain, self regarding, shallow thinking viper after all.
Harry Potter: Celebrated rich kid thinks the Royals should not be celebrated
The Royal Jelly: A new king has been coronated, and his subjects are in a merry mood
Victoria Cross: Australian TROOPER MARK DONALDSON awarded the VC
Godless Buses: Royal Navy veteran, Ron Heather, refuses to drive his bus
Labour's Class War: To expunge those with the slightest pretensions to gentility
100 Top English Novels of All Time: The Essential Fictional Library
BIG BEN: Celebrating 150 Years of the Clock Tower

Wednesday 31 January 2007

Taking on Churchill's Mantle

The New York Sun today has an interesting review of Andrew Robert's new book, a History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900. It's over the top in its praise, mind you - to wit: "From every point of view, Mr. Roberts stands in comparison with the giant on whose shoulders he sits..." (ahem, not bloody likely) - but well worth the review all the same.

That Mr. Roberts dares to challenge the contemporary orthodoxy and anti-patriot "assumption that history is a matter of impersonal abstractions — globalization, secularization, decolonization, urbanization, or any number of others — rather than of individuals and peoples" of course resonates with me, as it would the followers of this blog. The book proclaims with confidence that the 21st century will belong to the "Anglosphere", just as the 20th belonged to America and the 19th belonged to the British Empire, which I suppose is a way of saying that whereas the 19th was an age of empires, the 20th that of nation-states, the 21st century will belong to the individual, now more self-reliant, mobile and technologically connected than ever before, more or less independently living and working within the confines of his or her own cultural-linguistic space. And what network civilisation values more the liberty, livelihood, creativity, capital and sovereignty of its people?

"Defending the British Crown Commonwealth and the English-Speaking Peoples" may sound anachronistic to all those who themselves, ironically enough, are stuck in a late 20th century frame of mind, one that values the pre-eminence of nation-states in the affairs of citizens. But the nation-state is in decline as an organising principle, a development that is to be welcomed in my opinion, save as a bulwark against the consolidating tyranny of global terrorism, continental statism, or even international bureaucratisation and world government. The point here is that while we recognize that all politics is local, as it should be, it is only natural for people to reach out past their immediate communities in a technological world, and interconnect in a culturally coherent way with others who also embrace the same shared language, history, habits and symbols.

Because modern nations do not own or have a monopoly on culture, or on connecting people to it - indeed, more often that not, they are brutal destroyers of it, undermining longheld tradition, habits and beliefs; emasculating our ancient symbols with cheap national logos; forgetting or revising history in a way that conforms to a new nationalist or transnationalist vision; and engaging in cultural protectionism that shields citizens from cross-border competition, stifling freedom and promoting mediocrity at home. But more than anything perhaps, has been the disturbing reliance by Western governments to use the power and apparatus of the state to enforce culturally relativistic ideas, to employ official "multiculturalism" as politically correct group thought - to, in effect, live in a state of cultural self-denial! And therein partly lies its undoing.

Just as Churchill was right to believe that a loosely bound, strongly interwoven people should not tolerate the assertions of a written constitution, which implies any dimunition to their liberty and independence, nor should they tolerate the assertions of a national government, which as a faction of Parliamentary democracy, has a disturbing ability to accrete unaccountable power to itself over time. Be that as it may, the unrivalled economic prosperity of our times is making government less and less relevant to its voters, who are wealthier, more mobile and more self-reliant than ever before, which is why the long gradual decline and fall of the nation-state is well under way.

So behold the realm of the sovereign individual. Like their Royal Sovereign Queen, may they forever reign supreme!

3 comments:

mrcawp said...

I think Andrew Roberts is fantastic. A brilliant historian. Thank God people like him are still about - traditionalist, reactionary, principled. Good stuff. Did you have to be mean about him?

BaronVonServers said...

The Anglosphere may be the acceptable term these days, but I tend to think it is really the current phase of the Empire (including the 'break-away rebellious US).

Her Majesty may be Head of State in only 16 of those Realms, but She is Head of the Commonwealth, and thus of the Anglosphere save those rebellious 'Americans'. Would to God that they would return to the fold.

I can identify with Her Majesty as my Queen in a personal way - just as all politics is local, all Allegiance is personal. Those in the Republics have no one to fix their allegiance on, and thus we see their constant strident divisions amongst themselves.

Long live the Commonwealth, Long Live Her Majesty, the Queen of ALL her realms, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith!

Anonymous said...

Baronvonservers said:

Her Majesty may be Head of State in only 16 of those Realms, but She is Head of the Commonwealth, and thus of the Anglosphere save those rebellious 'Americans'. Would to God that they would return to the fold.

You hope in vain, sir. For many of us who stand with the memory of Gen. Geo. Washington, we would rather conquer YOU and make you part of America, rather than be reigned by the usurping "Windsors".

Anti-Catholic though it is - and too often anti-Celtic - God save and forgive the Republic!