Britain is not alone in her shallow, artistic commemorations of a dying culture. Western Europe’s official vision of itself largely boils down to that. I believe there are still many individuals in Europe – as distinct from the ruling precincts of political correctness and utopianism – who have the courage to forge a different future. But as a useful vehicle for what needs to be done, the continent’s official organizations, its governments and agencies, are beyond their expiration date. Too many of them do not serve the people now, but only indenture and discourage them.
Such a situation cannot endure. No amount of artistic entertainment can make fear, loss of purpose, and politically correct weakness noble or inspiring, much less invincible. The post-liberal culture and political idea of Europe are not in a position to triumph today. They are not even in a position to survive.
Some bonus material evoking what England once was. A poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson:
England and America in 1782*
O thou that sendest out the man
To rule by land and sea,
Strong mother of a lion-line,
Be proud of those strong sons of thine
Who wrenched their rights from thee!
What wonder if in noble heat
Those men thine arms withstood,
Retaught the lessons thou hadst taught,
And in thy spirit with thee fought –
Who sprang from English blood!
But thou rejoice with liberal joy,
Lift up thy rocky face,
And shatter, when the storms are black,
In many a streaming torrent back,
The seas that shock thy base!
Whatever harmonies of law
The growing world assume,
Thy work is thine – the single note
From that deep chord which Hampden smote
Will vibrate to the doom.
* G. Robert Stange, ed., The Poetical Works of Tennyson: Cambridge Edition (Boston. Houghton-Mifflin, 1974), p. 62 and note, p. 627)
Originally published at http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/07/28/olympic-opening-ceremonies-and-the-death-throes-of-a-civilization/