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

Tuesday 25 March 2008

Type 4: "Progressive"

Democracy has passed into the abnoxious worldview of the politically correct modernist, where truth is routinely murdered and people are ridiculed for their beliefs. Politics has become so vastly compromised that all mainstream parties feel the need to self-censor and conform to the degenerate assumptions of the Progressive. The result is political brand loyalty hokum, partisan roll playing and spin doctoring bunk in which a de facto one party state hands off leaders in an election every four years.

Romans_of_the_DecadenceMindset: Government cannot be all things to all people, however I support all the existing unproductive government programs because I am a compassionate and tolerant person. And tolerance is the highest of high temple virtues.

Resulting Government: De facto one party state - Liberal Labour Tory, same old Big Government story. All levels of government all told take about half of our earnings to pay for whatever it is they do, plus about 17 cents each to run the monarchy.

Intellectual: The brilliant Aldous Huxley long ago predicted our dystopia in Brave New World, where (and I'm paraphrasing here) humanity is carefree, healthy and technologically advanced; where warfare and poverty have been eliminated in the West and everyone is permanently happy due to government-provided stimulation, which is achieved by social engineering and eliminating things once considered central to our identity — family, history, culture, art, literature, science, religion and philosophy. The hedonist nihilism of society beckons toward a painless, amusement-sodden, and stress-free consensus rendering a truly blissed-out and vacant servitude where no serious history is taught or remembered. Read Christopher Hitchens on why Americans are not taught history.

Manifestations: Religious secularism, postmodernism, materialism, utilitarianism, cosmopolitanism, transnational progressivism, moral relativism, multiculturalism, Gorish environmentalism, peacekeeping pacifism, nihilism, narcisism... socially, it's 'Cool Britannia', our poisonous mingled celeb culture and ageing rock stars like Sir John Elton, Sir Mick Jaegar and other esteemed nobles of the 'Aristorockracy'; it's globe-trotting 'starchitects' with their abnoxious designs; it's the institutionalization of the 'Bob and Doug MacKenzie' "I-Am-Canadian" beer commercials mentality, etc. where not taking anything too seriously represents the highest form of sophistication. It's politicians who embrace our proseltyzing gay culture in public by marching in parades/riding on floats to show how tolerant they are. Politicians who don't ride in gay floats or engage in ethnic pandering are considered to be ipso facto homophobic and racist.

Poll Question: Do you favour getting rid of the Queen? Response: "We have a Queen??? Yes, I support getting rid of the Queen." Anectodal: Staffers of former Prime Minister Paul Martin who were aware we have a Queen and a Queen's representative were reported to have shown up at the residence of the Governor-General in jeans and sneakers to meet with Her Excellency. I guess they didn't think much of the position.

Practitioners: Bill Clinton, Paul Keating, Tony Blair, Paul Martin, Jean Chretien, Kim Campbell, Joe Clark, Pierre Trudeau, ...you get the idea. It's the forever young Bono crowd (remember Trudeau meeting Lenon), the need to be modern, hip and cool. Barbara Streisand eat your heart out.

Contemporary: With few exceptions, this mindset is shared more or less by all modern day politicians, mainstream media and popular culture icons...Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Kevin Rudd, Helen Clark, Nicolas Sarkozy, Romano Prodi, Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe, Dalton McGuinty...though there does seem to be a welcome retreating of late in regards to multiculturalism, 'human rights' and Sharia Law.

Not Included: Obviously the Teddy Roosevelt who pronounced himself a 'Progressive' a century ago is a very different thing to what we have today. Modern day exceptions to the 'type 4' mindset might be George Bush, John Howard, Stephen Harper and Jacques Chirac, though they all lead governments that result in marginal difference from the status quo.

Comments: This political mindset that lends itself to compassionate, tolerant, mediocre and decadent statism cannot be broken over night, only bent ever so slightly over time. What we have today is nothing more than Machiavellian partisan gangism/gangsterism organized for the selfish purpose of winning power and to take the reigns of the modern super state. No real principles here, mainly just power for power's sake.

20 comments:

gillespk said...

I agree with pretty much everything you said here, except for the fact that you didn't include Stephen Harper. He's obviously not as bad as Paul Martin and Jean Chretien, but I would probably still count him as being in this category. The same goes for any other politician in Canada today. But hopefully this will change...

J.K. Baltzersen said...

"Lord Beaverbrook," wouldn't you include Woodrow Wilson?

mrcawp said...

Magnificent post - especially the intro! Laughed my lungs out; but it's all so true, too...

Beaverbrook said...

JKB: Yes I would, as well as all the democratic idealist proponents of the Euston Manifesto, who are kind of like modern day Wilsonians. They may be at the intellectually honest end of Progressive thought, but at the end of the day it is still internationalist idealism disconnected from reality and divorced from any chance of what we might consider true progress.

Beaverbrook said...

Gilles, Stephen Harper is not the kind of guy who will ride in gay floats and suffer fools gladly. But you're right, he has proven to be exceedingly malleable to hold onto power, and I don't think he brings a terribly different program than any of his challengers. He sometimes makes the right noises, but I'm not sure much will ever come of his incrementalist approach.

Anonymous said...

I would likewise contest the inclusion of Sarkozy. While he is somewhat enamoured of the celebrity culture, as far as I've seen his presidency has been a sort of sea change for France (relatively speaking, of course).

J.K. Baltzersen said...

I would likewise contest the inclusion of Sarkozy. While he is somewhat enamoured of the celebrity culture, as far as I've seen his presidency has been a sort of sea change for France (relatively speaking, of course).

I thought for a split second I read "sea of change" there. :-)

Beaverbrook said...

Juan, you're right about Sarkozy. A playboy prince, yes, but I just read his address to the British Parliament and was quite impressed, although I can't say I appreciate his attempt to suck Britain into the E.U. sinkhole.

David Byers said...

It might surprise readers but I strongly believe in a secular society, religion is a personal thing and has absolutely no empirical evidence to back it up. The Australian Constitution, thought it does mention God, is a secular constitution and it works great. Not all progressive things are bad, what is the alternative “regression” “stagnation”?

I do believe in the afterlife and a higher power but now believe in it due to what science is telling us, but that's a different subject.

Beaverbrook said...

You noticed I said "religious secularism", which implies that it has taken the form of a kind of state church in and of itself, which is not what we mean by secularism. We once believed in religious freedom and tolerance, but the amount of beneath the surface anti-Christian bigotry is not the kind of secular society I or anyone else should stand for.

mrcawp said...

I think Burke was very wise on the separation of Church and state. Why should we want to do it? Shouldn't we wish to consecrate all our daily national business, and fix all politicking, on the loftiest of ideals and honesty?

David Byers said...

"religious secularism", good point Beverbrook. Thanks for clearing that up.

David Byers said...

Scott, I suppose I can only talk regarding the Secular State we have in Australia that does work well for us.

Anonymous said...

May i humbly ask where the Monarchies of Old stand?,i mean like Russia after the Duma,Imperial Germany,Pre-WWI Japan,the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary,because they obviously arent type 2,3 and 4,but i dont think they should count as type 1

Lord Best said...

To be honest I'm not sure Kevin Rudd should be included, yet, as he has not had much time to do anything yet, for better or worse.
I would include the Howard government. High taxing, fiscally irresponsible (non-means tested handouts announced a few months before an election for Gods sake, very Progressive) and for a supposed Monarchist he seemed to do his damnedest to usurp the Governor Generals position at any public event where it might benefit him. Relegating the GG to a background role is hardly loyaly to the Monarchy, in my opinion at least.

Beaverbrook said...

Samuel, all in good time.

Lord Best, John Howard doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that would enjoy the company of Bono. I think he has a different mindset. I would more put him under type 5 as a kind of 'Battlers' populist. It's early in the game, so who knows where to put Kevin Rudd, though he does strike me as the kind of guy that would gladly chum with Bono in public.

David Byers said...

Lord Best, as I have said before, if you prefer Mr Rudd over Mr Howard, please write to him to tell him you support the Crown. That way he does not think it is just "Howard huggers" who support the monarchy.

Lord Best said...

I already have, Mr Byers. I think it is vitally important that we keep the Crown above politics, and that includes doing everything we can to combat the perception that support for the Crown equals support for the Liberals, or Labor, or any other party.

David Byers said...

I agree with you Lord Best. The Crown is above party politics and so must any argument for its retention.

Did you get a reply from our new PM?

Lord Best said...

Not yet, I imagine he is rather busy.