Your religion and nationality do not make you smarter, more entitled, chosen or better than any one else

See the light

I am British and a Roman Catholic. I can think of nothing else I'd rather be, either as a nationality or for a faith. If push came to shove, I'd like to think I'd put my life on the line for either, although who knows until you are confronted by such a choice, what decisions you would really make.  Both work for me rather well. Both are irrelevant to what I have to say next, but I wanted to put that there, so you can read what I have to say, being informed of where I stand. 

Being born in a Western, Liberal Democracy is the nearest thing you can get to being born with a winning lottery ticket in life. For me, it means that I got a free education, a nutritious school dinner when I was hungry, free milk at school, a life untouched by war and civil insurrection, free medical care, access to the library, access to pubs, the ability to buy the records that I wanted to buy and the books I wanted to read. Such things, which us people born in Edgware General hospital in 1962 took for granted, are for some people only things to dream of. In fact, even in this country, people born a few years before me or after me will not have access to all of them. I took it all for granted and perhaps, you could say, my generation have squandered it and pulled up the drawbridge behind us. Did it make me smarter? I wish I could say it did, but I think, if anything, it made me a bit lazier than my father's generation. When he was born in 1917, most of those things were not available. His generation fought a war, so that we could have a better life. We stand on the shoulders of those giants. I see so many pages on the web misappropriating the imagery of WWII, claiming that our mollycoddled generation are in some way the same. We are not. It is for each generation to build on the achievements of our forefathers, and I can see very few nations that my generation can claim to have done that in. When we say we have pride in our country, we rarely are referring to our country now. Most people who claim to be "proud patriots" have little pride in our current generation. Not so long ago, the country was ablaze with anti immigrant riots. To my mind, terrorising women and children in hotels is despicable, when I see it compared to my fathers generation facing down Panzer tanks and Fokker Wulf fighters, I feel sick. As far as a I am concerned, you can only consider yourself a patriot if you left the country a better place than you born into. If you have made a difference somewhere, then sure, call yourself a patriot. If you just like the idea of being a British patriot is because your Dads Uncle Tony flew a Boulton Paul Defiant during the Blitz, you are just sad and deluded. JFK once said "Ask what I can do for my country, not what my country can do for me". That was his definition of being a patriot. We've lost our free milk and our free education, they want to take away our free NHS, shut our libraries and tell us what is OK to read and listen to. If you really are a Patriot, those are the things you should care about. 

When you kids say "What did you do when they wanted to charge us for education, health, when they shut our libraries and restricted our reading, listening and viewing choices" what will be your answer? If it is "nothing", you can post all the Union Jack emoji's that you like, but you are not a patriot and you have let your country down.

And then we come to religion. Belonging to a religious group can be a life enhancing experience. Many people who have faith give huge amounts of time, money and energy in the cause of making the world a better place. Many lay down their lives for the cause of peace and justice. Some of the best people I've ever met, have made massive contributions to the wellbeing of their fellow man and this was inspired by faith. But it was not 'being religious' that made them good people. It was the fact that they put something back into society. Sadly, for too many in our society, being religious is simply an excuse to pretend they are chosen, they are better or they have wisdom denied to the rest of us. Such people give religion a bad name. Their entitled attitudes and their sense of being the part of a chosen minority, for me, is sickening. I am not directing this at any one faith. All major religions, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, etc have zealots who think visibly identifying themselves and shouting loudly about their sense of entitlement is enough. They don't have compassion or feeling for their fellow man, the lesser, non chosen ones. I am not a theologian, but I do believe that God will take a very dim view of those that exploit religion for political ends, to the detriment of fellow human beings. I am perfectly happy for people to chose their attire according to their beliefs, their tribe or their musical tastes. I am comfortable with people making diet choices based on medieval texts and holy books. If people want to believe in what I consider to be completely bonkers nonsense, that is fine. Where it is not fine is when such people start feeling and acting as if they are superior to the rest of us. They are not. If God has chosen you and you have faith, all you have been chosen for is to join a particular club with like minded people. If you believe you are enlightened, it is your job to persuade the rest of us that your chosen path is right and that your lifestyle is exemplary do it by making choices that all decent human beings will applaud, not just like minded zealots in your little club. If I look at you and see someone who has something good to bring to Planet Earth, you have my respect. If your religion is simply a tool to wield power and influence that your actions do not deserve, then you are the opposite of what you purport to be. There is a saying that God moves in mysterious ways. As far as I am concerned though, the devil does not. The devil seeks to corrupt by tempting us with power and influence. Perhaps his biggest and best trick is to persuade those who claim to be ultra religious to act like complete dickheads to the rest of us (treat that as a metaphor if you are an atheist). 

In short your religion and nationality do not make you smarter, more entitled, chosen or better than any one else. It is your actions and efforts for your fellow man that you should be judged by. I happen to believe that there are too many small minded people, living in echo chambers, populated by other small minded people, reinforcing each other in the stupidity, shouting down the voices of reason. I happen to believe that most are not evil or bad. They have just insulated themselves from information and data that contradicts their viewpoint. It took me a long time to realise that the reason many people hold what I believe to be stupid and idiotic views is not that they are stupid and idiotic. It's just that the only information and data they are exposed to is data that supports their stupidity. Let me explain. For millennia, even the wisest and best educated scientists and astronomers believed the earth to be flat and the centre of the universe. There was no credible data to contradict this, so it was a perfectly reasonable and sensible view. When the likes of Copernicus proposed otherwise, wise people listened to his argument but religious authorities called on him to recant. That is the difference between closed and open minds and it tells you everything you need to know. 

My question to you is whether you are on the side of Copernicus and reason or are you on the side of the zealots of the day who persecuted him. I started this by saying I am a Roman Catholic and proud of it. I am not proud of the Catholic zealots in my religion who persecuted Copernicus and whatever religion you belong to, you should not be proud of such zealots in your faith who similarly bring it into disrepute. 

What is patriotism?

A trip to Twitter (or whatever it's called now) and a search on the subject of the riots will reveal a lot of posts from people with handles like @englishpatriot1534 (I made this one up). They will have profile of pictures with lions roaring, St Georges flags and all manner of other things that the right perceive as English (oddly no old ladies having cups of tea, Vicars on their bicycles or rained off cricket matches, I wonder why?). It got me wondering, what exactly is a patriot. I've always considered myself a patriot. I'd put my life on the line to defend our country against an attack, as my Dad did when he flew bombers in WW2 to protect us from the Nazis. He drummed it in to me that the most important thing you can do is protect the people you love from aggressors. His generation volunteered in huge numbers to put themselves at risk. When the job was done, the lucky ones came home to their families and rebuilt our country. My had been a prisoner of war and so had seen a repressive regime at first hand. I was surprised when he told me that the German and Romanians he met in the POW camp were decent people, who just happened to be on a different side. It was clear the war was lost in 1944 when he was shot down. They just wanted it to end and the carnage to stop. 

My Dad suffered personal loss as his best mate, his plane's rear gunner Spud Murphy was killed when he was shot down. The Romanian air force buried Spud and the pilot who'd shot them down was there, paying respects. My father appreciated the gesture. The fighter pilot told my Dad that the rear gunners were the bravest of the brave, as they were always the first target. As a child I found it hard to understand, how my Father could admire an enemy who'd killed his best mate. Now I understand completely. It wasn't personal, they were all doing their job. After Spud was buried, my Dad commented at how sad it was that so many allied airmen were in the graveyard. The air force commander who was looking after him, asked if he wanted to see the Romanian Airforce cemetery. It was three times as big. He paid his respects. The Romanian Airforce them gave him dinner and a drink. It was the last decent meal he had until he escaped two months later and made it back to Italy, where his squadron's base was.

In 1978, I bought a Rock Against Racism badge, as the UK music community united in horror when Eric Clapton made racist comments supporting the National Front. When Dad saw it, the subject of the NF came up (The National Front, not Nigel Farage). We had a long chat. Dad expressed his total disdain for organisations that promote disharmony. He had seen the end result first hand. He had even less time for people who affect military symbols but who haven't served in the forces. As he died in 1987, Twitter and Facebook didn't exist. All we saw was pictures on the news. The stories usually started with fattish blokes marching with flags, and ended with shops being looted and cars burning. Dad commented that most rioters did it for a new colour telly rather than any deep rooted political beliefs. These days, it seems that nicking pies from Greggs is the order of the day. 

Dad explained to me that his view is that someone who is a patriot is someone who contributes positively to the country they live in, not for gain, but because they want it to be the best place to live. They have jobs, they work hard, they support local charities, they run local clubs and other organisations. They support the rule of law and respect the outcome of democratic elections, especially when they don't agree with them. As he said, there will always be another election and if your side are saying the right things, they win. 

Which brings us to @englishpatriot1534 and all his mates on Twitter etc. Now we live in a country where freedom of speech is the order of the day. I may not like what he has to say, but so long as he's not inciting anyone to acts of violence, he can say what he likes, have any profile picture he likes and paint his house with any flag he likes. That's his business. When he starts encouraging people to break the law, then it is a different matter. Ass far as a am concerned, the most cowardly thing anyone can do is go with hundreds of your mates and try and burn down hotels, housing defenceless women and children.  That is not brave, it is supremely cowardly. It is not Patriotic. The English believe in fair play and huge baying mobs attacking people unable to defend themselves is the opposite of fair play.

If you want to change the law or the government, you do it the English way. You vote in a new government when you can. As that will be in four years, you use your time campaigning for that. I've stood for the local council several times. Often, I've met people who violently disagreed with me, were of what Sir Keir Starmer calls "Hard Right". I am always polite and reasonable. The conversation is always the same "I don't vote, there is no point". In all the elections I've stood in, there has either been BNP, UKIP or Reform. I ask why they won't vote for them? "There's no point". These people refuse to engage with democracy and then complain that they can't win. On a couple of occasions I've asked why they don't go out and knock on a few doors, the answer "It's pointless". I then point out that I'm a Lib Dem and it's highly unlikely I'll get in but I consider it my patriotic duty to get off my bum and make the case for what I believe in. This usually highly irritates them. It is odd though that people who call themselves English Patriots will not engage with the political system that we developed, which has made the UK a rich nation that people which people want to live in, but will engage in lawless thuggery, which is the antithesis of what our armed forces fought so hard and many gave their lives to oppose. 

The most patriotic thing any Englishman can do is to state their case calmly and rationally and not resort to violence when they don't get their way.