A Simple Thing, Made Worse
Lifted from the comments, a little elaboration on an Ephemera item from yesterday. Specifically, an everyday scene from Ruislip, Greater London:
Queuing means the old, small and weak are treated fairly. Not all cultures queue. I saw this living abroad. pic.twitter.com/XAXOY5n5uq
— Larry Lemon (@larrylemonmaths) May 13, 2024
Note that the would-be bus passengers, the ones accustomed to queuing and now looking on in weary dismay, have varied shades of skin.
As Rafi adds in the comments,
Quite. And the fact that mentioning the degradation may result in scolding or social punishment of some kind is itself part of the degradation. Plenty of people are itching to seize upon any such transgression, thereby asserting their own high status. Above the likes of you.
And so, quite a lot of people who don’t much care about the skin tone of those doing the pushing and jostling, but who do think that politeness and queuing are good things, things that a society shouldn’t lose, are, by many progressives, pushed into the category of Incorrigible Bigot, as invalid by default. As if the grievance, the stated issue – “queuing means the old, small, and weak are treated fairly” – could only be about the pigmentation of the players, not their actual behaviour, to which attention has been drawn.
And with those who prefer politeness suitably cowed or demoralised, the degradation continues.
It should, I think, be pointed out that this suppressing and demoralising effect, the adding of insult to injury, has not gone unnoticed by many of those keen to do the suppressing and demoralising.
Some years ago, I mentioned a car journey in which, for reasons that escape me, I was distractedly listening to BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends – a sort of whimsical revue of chat, music, and substandard stand-up. The generic left-leaning comedian of the week, whose name I didn’t catch, was pleased by the taboos surrounding immigration and multiculturalism. Lots of code words were used – “Sun-reader,” and so forth – so that the disdain for working-class people and their fears wouldn’t be too overt.
The gist of the comedian’s punch line was, “Isn’t it hilarious that people who have concerns about mass immigration and failures to assimilate – the rapid and estranging transformation of their neighbourhoods – now have to be quiet because otherwise they’ll be called racists and possibly lose their jobs. Ha! We won!”
This triumphal non-joke – and it was blatantly triumphal – was deemed incredibly funny, or at least ideologically congenial, and much mannered clapping ensued. Of course, this was aired shortly before the uncovering of events in Rotherham and elsewhere, and before our immensely vibrant age of Congolese machete gangs.
And so, if that nice Mrs Wilson, the old dear two doors down, can no longer get on a bus, and dreads waiting for a bus because of the Third World scuffle that now ensues, and if she no longer feels she can complain about this without being thought racist, then this is totally fine, apparently. Indeed, it’s a basis for triumphal smugness by BBC comedians and BBC studio audiences.
Today’s word, since you ask, is alienation.
Update, via the comments:
sk60 adds,
Well, again, quite.
And the rate at which new arrivals materialise, their sheer numbers, will have an effect on how well, or how poorly, those new arrivals adapt to the customs and values of the host society. Indeed, it will have an effect on whether those new arrivals feel inclined, or obliged, to make any such attempt.
700,000 is equivalent to the entire population of Sheffield, by the way.
And yet, it seems we’re supposed to imagine that such massive, unprecedented immigration, seemingly indiscriminate immigration, both legal and otherwise, couldn’t possibly create problems. Things one might lament. Things lost and irretrievable.
If the word irretrievable sounds too emotive, consider the practicalities in the bus stop video. How does the customary courtesy prevail – how does it reassert itself – against a jostling mass of rude people? People whose attitude is screw the rules – and by extension, screw everyone else. The considerate, including the elderly or frail or physically unimposing, will either have to start jostling too, or just stand back in muted dismay and wait for the next bus. Probably in the hope that the same thing doesn’t happen, or happen quite so badly.
So, one more time. Some things, when lost, may be irretrievable.
And note, as in the case linked above, the progressives loudly denouncing as “hostile” any reservations about massive, unselective immigration can in the very next breath bemoan “societal breakdown,” as if the two things couldn’t ever, under any circumstances, be related.
Our betters, you know. They say so themselves.
Mrs Wilson isn’t the only person to dread getting a bus…now PC Wilson has cause, too! And for the same reason.
And they wonder why some people still drive in London.
Culture matters. Who knew?
Well, quite. Among other things, this came to mind:
And yet, it seems we’re supposed to imagine that this massive, unprecedented immigration, indiscriminate immigration, both legal and otherwise, couldn’t possibly create problems. Things one might lament. As irretrievable.
And note, as in the case linked above, the progressives loudly denouncing any reservations about massive, unselective immigration can in the very next breath bemoan “societal breakdown,” as if the two things couldn’t possibly, ever, under any circumstances, be related.
Our betters, you know. They say so themselves.
[ Post updated. ]
How long until this feature becomes useful for driving in London?
Progressives don’t need facts to be right. They just are.
Well, it’s interesting that none of the gushing judges or the gushing critics, or their editors, including those at the BBC, saw a need to question this central claim – which was quoted often – as being, shall we say, leading, or misleading, or implausible, or contestable, or not in accord with observable reality.
Considering the direction London is going, I was expecting an acid-splashing device, rather than a flamethrower.
Perhaps we should stick with the classics, and put spinning scythes on the wheels.
Pizza delivery man shoots armed robber.
Brother of dead robber asks why a pizza delivery man would be armed.
There is no curing the dindu nuffin mentality.
I really do miss the concept of shame.
“Our betters”
I’ve been re-reading the Aubrey-Maturin novels, and just ran across this example of that attitude:
For those incapable of shame: retribution and removal.
It really is a pity, as an immigrant here in the UK, to see how quickly and inevitably certain unique aspects of Britishness are vanishing.
And unique not just compared to poorer third world countries -where behaviour like this is understandable, if still unpleasant, poor infrastructure and income etc – but even most western cultures lack these unique “Anglo” cultural traits.
Queuing is just one of these. High degree of politeness, consideration for others while driving or walking, an amazing sense of humour.
Though I should add, it’s not just large scale immigration. Even the younger generation here, I have noticed, are lacking in manners and courtesy compared to their elders.
And attacks on that irreverent British sense of humour – the most precious thing that’s come out of this island – are led by upper class, been here for generations, white Brits mostly. In the name of anti racism, diversity, pc, etc.
That’s what I would miss the most, and which no other culture has.
Ah, well. We will still have Wodehouse, BBC sitcoms from the 60s and 70s and Monty Python I guess, to fall back on.
The bus-stop incident I recounted yesterday involved teenagers of various races. It was by no means a minority-only phenomenon. And I should add that it occurred in a leafy and respectable part of town, where such scenes would not normally be expected. Where the behaviour originated, or who made it acceptable, perhaps even cool, I could only speculate.
But the point remains that the customary courtesy will not prevail against a jostling mass of rude people. People whose attitude is screw the rules – and by extension, screw everyone else. The considerate, including the elderly or frail or physically unimposing, will either have to start jostling too, or just stand back in dismay and wait for the next bus. Probably in the hope that the same thing doesn’t happen, or happen quite so badly.
And again, some things, when lost, may not be retrieved.
“Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms such as you have named… but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.”
RAH, “Friday”
“If you were the pizza delivery guy… why were you armed?” White asked.
Apparently there’s a shortage of mirrors in the Houston area.
Or, How Dare You Defend Yourself From Feral Predation.
See also.
At a midpriced sit-down restaurant yesterday, a grizzled older Afghanistan war veteran struck up a conversation with another such veteran. They didn’t seem to know each other. How did they and I know that they were Afghanistan War veterans? By their respective hats. Which they were wearing while seated at the table. Granted, not grossly impolite but…once upon a time…I sensed my old man was looking down and shaking his head. I understand that military personnel are required to keep their “cover” on when in uniform but do they not teach civilian manners in the military anymore? There used to be training videos but I suppose those got tossed in favor of DEI training and how to walk in high heels.
Since we’re talking about queuing, here in Canada people can’t see to form a proper line when they’re ordering at a fast food restaurant. First, they’ll stand five or six feet from the cash, then the next person might not even stand behind them. It drives me nuts. I’ve gotten into more than one argument with some idiot who wasn’t even close to where a line should be because I lined up directly behind the person at the cash. Oh, and when you’re waiting for your food order at Costco people stand 10 to 15 feet away from the window. Why is this? Does it happen in other countries?</rant>
Did it start with Covid and the “social distancing” hysteria? Which raises another question, the “science” behind social distancing has taken such a beating in the US lately that even Fauci is trying to distance himself from it. Did the rest of the world follow the US’s lead on that?
Heh.
I’m glad but sad that it’s not just my imagination. That the visible, tangible deterioration of our culture and country is becoming more and more evident each and every day.
I tend to put it thus: there are no standards any more. Immigrants aren’t expected to learn the language or make any effort to fit in; schools don’t apply any kind of discipline (apart from to sinners who deviate from the Current Year orthodoxy); every institution is corrupted and thoroughly hostile to what went before.
Excellence is demonised, as is politeness, as is every other expression of Western Anglo culture. Hence the inclusive and racially diverse feral behaviour – the completely alien attitudes – of far too many young people. Gimmedat. Zero empathy; zero consideration. Here it’s jostling for a bus. Elsewhere it’s robbing someone at knifepoint, or just straight-up murdering them.
Truly, the past is a foreign country. And it’s fading from view.
[ Slides glass of disagreeably warm carbonated water to DingoWorrier. ]
Grrr, you reminded me they used to have 30 wings for 20 bucks, now it’s gone.
Bus queues being just the most visible embodiment of the local folk wisdom that quality of life is better when everyone holds off from competing for trifling advantages. We don’t feel enriched by this kind of immigrant moxie, we don’t think it’s more dynamic or efficient, it’s just friction that makes it harder to concentrate on more interesting things.
A prerequisite of assimilation is that the outsider feel at a numeric and moral disadvantage to the host nation. We call it “when in Rome”, they call it racist supremacist discrimination. Both the numeric and moral advantages of the English people have been systematically undermined for decades.
Quantity is a quality all of its own. An outsider who assimilates when in a minority can very well de-assimilate once he gathers enough co-ethnics around himself. If Indians are taking their social cues from other Indians, then the place is going to look like India.
As for the former norm-defining majority, they might be treated, as in the above video, as local background fauna outside of any moral framework where deference might be owed, or they might be reminded more forcefully that their home turf advantage is no more.
That.
Non-optimal female behavior/thinking.
This came to mind, on the British countryside being cluttered with all those white people:
The above strikes me as almost too obvious to need stating. Yet here we are.
As I type, The Other Half is watching Carry On Cleo.
Just sayin’.
[ Muffled chuckling. ]
Also, white majority ≠ white supremacy.
Did it start with Covid and the “social distancing” hysteria?
No. It’s always been this way. In Tim Hortons, I place I avoid like the plague, it’s like an actual plague of Monty Python Gumbys. “My brain hurts.”
Grrr, you reminded me they used to have 30 wings for 20 bucks, now it’s gone.
Still have the $1.50 hot dog and drink though, which makes it almost 40 cents cheaper than the US when adjusted for the currency.
Nah, bro. It’s the present that’s a foreign country.
It appears terrorists may not be the most reliable source of information. Who would have thought it?
You might find https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWMt5QHyE1s&t=0s entertaining.
Non-optimal female behavior/thinking.
As was pointed out repeatedly at the time, “No means no” was meaningless because no does not mean no, much of the time. It often means try harder, try again, buy me a drink first, or any of a number of other opening gambits in the back-and-forth seduction game. Replacing chaperones with this kind of minefield was not an improvement.
From the report:
What is it that some individuals just do not get that it is precisely because they are being obstreperous that creates the very ‘persecution’ they are trying to resist by being obstreperous?
The same judge later suggested that Agyemang “was difficult perhaps because she knew she had paid”.
But in her adult life she must be aware – as I am – that travel by public transport involves having a ticket checked and the correct response to being asked to show your ticket is to show it to the inspector.
It is emphatically not to explode into a fiery display of indignation as if the inspector had just called your mother a whore especially as it’s precisely that behaviour more than anything else that makes you suspect.
[ Post updated again. ]
Ah, but… the progressive response – as we’ve seen – is to abandon altogether any attempt at fare enforcement, such that a large and rapidly growing minority freeload with impunity and ever greater boldness. Until, that is, the minority becomes a majority – 70% – and the transport infrastructure becomes economically unsustainable.
At which point, accusations of racism will doubtless intensify, as opprobrium is displaced from the actual law-breakers, the freeloading parasites, to anyone sufficiently careless to notice such things.
If that sounds fanciful, do click on the link above.
They’re building an actual mad house.
See also looting from retailers.
It has a similarly dystopian air. The same unhappy trajectory.
And if you’re betting your society on the foresight and probity of progressives, on their moral competence and the righteousness of their instincts, then you really are screwed.
“Sike” – almost makes me nostalgic for the 1990s.
This is undeniably true.
But then there are multiple points and sides from which society has been actively broken down in the name of ‘progress’ to ‘a better future’.
And that active breaking down has been largely as a consequence of deliberate policy, as much, if not more so, as a result of wider causes of breakdown such as industrial decline.
The point I’m making is that Conservatism, as more a general attitude to living than a specific political doctrine, has by and large been crushed by several generations of Oxford and Cambridge graduates going back to the 1940s, many of whom once belonged to the Communist Party or to Trotskyiste, Stalinist, etc. variants.
Those same graduates, who have dominated the government and media since at least the 1960s, seem to have been actively opposed to any form of self-improvement that might smack of petit bourgeois values.
That kind of self-improvement would have been seen as selfishly individualistic and an obstacle to progress towards a socialist Britain.
So naturally, the mission then becomes how to gain control of the definition of that self-improvement and what a self-improved person looks like. Which, for the most part, means being a committed socialist working for proletarian revolution.
Note that in this opposition to self-improvement are these two notions:
The first is a traditionally aristocratic view of ‘the scum’, one which goes back to antiquity, that they should ‘know their place’.
So wearing a suit, listening to Mozart, going to Church on Sunday and so on are all, for the self-appointed betters, like watching so many chimpanzees in top hat and tails at a tea party. In this view, that’s to live an inauthentic life and to be actively engaged in alienating onself from true ‘happiness’ (εὐδαιμονία).
The second is therefore that in order to be authentic, to not be alienated from one’s true self, means the ideal ‘scum’ should be uneducated (i.e. ‘easier to control’) and ‘anti-authoritarian’ (i.e. drunk and violent in a way that challenges the State and, better yet, can be used to reveal the State as authoritarian and repressive).
At no point in this scheme is it questioned that the Oxbridge types might have no role in the management of the ‘scum’ – that, apparently, is seen as their natural inheritance.
And at no point is it considered that the so-called petit bourgeois version of self-improvement leads to better outcomes for the individual themselves and that the individual is fully aware of this and precisely why he or she does it.
After all, that would be like thinking a chimpanzee could do calculus – simply unthinkable!
In short, the “lacking in manners and courtesy” is not some accidental drift in behaviour that has just come about as a result of the sun setting on the British Empire.
It did not, but reader – I clicked anyway.
Yeah, I get that a lot.
[ Post updated yet again. ]
Go see. Shiny things.
Guardian columnists are in many ways insufficiently deterred.
Because they believe they are entitled to break any rules thanks to their race/ethnicity/religion–or just because they are born narcissists.
It is deeply disheartening that we have so many judges who eagerly enable such sociopathy. When our descendants are rebuilding society from the ruins, being a leftist should be grounds for banishment.
Roger Scruton has written extensively about conservatism being less a doctrine than an attitude–love of one’s home and community and culture and a desire to preserve these things.
I don’t know if any of the Monty Python crew were commies, but contempt for ordinary folks and bourgeois culture were a big part of their comedy. I’d be pretentiously lit-rary and say “a thread running through their humor” except that the thread was a fucking hawser. And now John Cleese is, too late, regretting the part they played in undermining that culture. (Not that it’s clear even now if he fully understands.)
[ Tips hat in respect ]
Virtually nobody I realizes that this is what is meant by “happiness” in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Not joy, not pleasure, but the concept of true happiness or fulfillment which the Classical Greeks pondered and debated so much. And in my youth the hippies and leftists used that passage in the Declaration of Independence to justify a life of hedonism. Shallow asswipes that they were.
Are you fluent in Greek and Latin? A wonderful thing.
In the middle of their street?
It is not irretrievable. It simply requires will. Countless in history are the times polite men have taken up arms and gone to war to create a space where they can, once again, live politely.
Thoughtcrime in Airstrip 1
This.
Things lost and irretrievable.
—————————————–
Which of you handwringing Anglo-Saxon pussies is willing to:
It’s not irretrievable.
The political critters of the Left will take any power you surrender out of fear or convenience.
It’s harder for them to muscle in when you and your community have already organized to address your own needs.
Definitely. Thanks for that. I never totally dropped out like the main character in that movie but there were times when I got fed up and just said “no”, not caring about the consequences. Initially I was surprised the first time that actually worked. Sometimes later it worked again, sometimes not. When it didn’t, I was ok with the consequences. The couple of times I was laid off in mass cuts, it amused me how the people doing the dirty work of letting me go seemed rather uncomfortable with how ok I was with it. The first time, I had to work really hard to restrain myself from cutting the conversation short by saying, “Check please”.
Guess what is upstream of culture?
Some minuscule quantity of fully assimilated foreigners (from the most agreeable and intelligent portion) does not justify the mass importation of their countrymen. If you want to live in Mumbai then move there and don’t expect others to accept Mumbai appearing in their own country.
And with all due respect to the terrible person that is MLK, he represents one part of the system of enforced tolerance.
Here in the US, there are lots of legal immigrants from India, china, S. Korea, Iran etc who come with education and are eager to fit in and are almost universally successful. There ae a dozen ethnic groups including even Nigerians whose mean family income is higher than whites. None of these cause social problems. But countries like Venezuela send all their prisoners here–saves them lots of money. Not good immigrants to be receiving.
Venezuela was once a source of decent people. The productive people would come to south Florida spending their petro-bucks back in the 80’s when I worked retail. Were even decent tippers. They came to the US to spend their money because they couldn’t buy decent stuff in Venezuela due to creeping socialism, protectionism, trade/tariffs/taxes, whatever. Once their government took over the petroleum industry the country finally went all the way downhill. Now as the rats have eaten all the seed corn, they are scattering here.
That was…interesting. Or so said my Other Half.
They played the archetypal role of trickster, an irreverent, disruptive, playful force that seeks to puncture puffery and dismantle overly regimented regimes.
They took the piss out of the BBC’s extreme formality and self-regard and poked fun at the aspects of British culture that took themselves entirely too seriously.
This is a healthy thing. The laughter was laughter at ourselves and our foibles. That doesn’t mean it was all goodness: tricksters sometimes go overboard and wreck things that need to be kept intact. But overall they were the Weasley brothers letting off a spectacular fireworks display at Hogwarts to chase out the tyrannical Dolores Umbridge and her rules-bound regime.
I think 4chan serves the same function sometimes. The way they troll feminists and other leftists can be truly genius. They also are capable of producing horrors. So. All in moderation.
Good Morning Britain asked viewers to answer their poll “Is multiculturalism working?” 5% said yes, 95% said no.
I’m assuming the large, normie audience for breakfast TV didn’t get the memo about pretending otherwise.
So multiculturalism isn’t working. What now? Is it actually possible to deport all those people?
Is it actually possible to deport all those people?
A question Canada is currently grappling with.
While I can understand the arguments for removing (Canadian) citizenship from citizens who possess dual citizenship, because they can always go to the other country, I am extremely wary of allowing any government to unperson its citizenry that way. To me it seems to be a much smaller step from “only if you have dual citizenship” to “if you annoy the regime”. Especially in Canada.
Leaving that aside for the moment, while it would be possible for any Western country to cancel every visa, slam the immigration doors shut, and embark on a massive “[country] for [countrians]” civic program, it would require a massive undertaking and would have to start with the gutting of most governmental departments. Because they’re On The Other Side, and will fight it tooth and claw. And that’s not even considering the inevitable Hawaiian judge who will just claim it’s illegal for no particular reason.
It may be possible in the US. It’s not practically possible in Canada, because the problem immigrants are concentrated in the cities, which dominate the voting in our parliamentary system. No government running on a nativist platform could get a majority, and if a majority government did embark on this program as a surprise it would be exiled to the political wilderness for a generation.
It took multiple successive governments dedicated to the annihilation of Canada to get us here; it would take multiple successive governments dedicated to rebuilding it just to get back to where we started, and building is a lot harder than destroying.
Take from our example what you will.
Agree, mostly, about the dual citizenship thing. I don’t think that would/should be necessary because (hopefully) the volume of dual citizens who are a problem is much lower. But you’re speaking of Canada and I don’t know how hard/easy achieving citizenship is there. I could see a case for doing so if citizenship requirements had recently been loosened with the explicit purpose of creating these problems. One could argue that the act of loosening was itself illegal/unconstitutional. But again, Canada. I wouldn’t know.
Does the Commonwealth membership complicate this matter for Canada as well?
Well, this is “progress”. And as I’m wont to point out, disease also progresses.