Touching From A Distance

The new tide of neo-Conservatism and Islamism has brought about a new splinter group in the already fragmented Left. It's characterised by being fierce Secular, anti-tyrannist and non-apologetic. Amongst its more vocal supporters come a who's who in the world of the old Left; Hitchens, Aaronovitch and Cohen. Whether they are new or continuation of the old standards of Socialism is for you to decide, but they stand firmly against the Stop The War coalition's most ardent supporters, and in most cases their old friends and allies..

What happened to turn one time comrades against one another is a little more complex. A simple explanation to be made for this new tide in politcs is the rise of Islamism, and one I will focus on in the course of this essay. Since the Soviets have packed up shop and turned into slightly more benevolent leaders of the old order, focus has firmly be squared at another threat, coming a little more East of Moscow. Al Qaeda sought and achieved a series of attacks on its new adversary, the USA and its Allies, and make its aims clear, the end of American influence in Muslim lands, and the return of the Caliphate (even in non-Muslim Spain and Portugal). In the areas it occupied, a regime of terror was established, with their Muhajadeen friends. Afghanistan was transformed from a moderately progressive country before Soviet intervention into a gruesome fairground attraction for all militant Islamists. Stoning, amputation and all the evils of Salafist interpretation of Sharia brought about a society living in fear, and a depressing blanket uniformity gripped the country. Women were forced to stay at home, and when they rarely did venture out were forced to wear the all covering burqa uniform. Homosexual men were stoned to death and worse, with a ban on such trivial pastimes as music and kite-flying, it bared all the hallmarks of everything the Left stood against.

At the same time in America, a new force bore fruit, neo-Conservatism, again a reactionary political force which aimed to use interventionism to fulfil its goals. Inside America in aimed to return to the glory days of Christian values, which was endemic in the 1950s, and aimed to undo much of, what some would say, failures of Liberalism, whilst still retaining the principles of freedom and democracy. Its foreign policy was one which was the most influential. Intervention when was needed, an end to tyranny, and unyielding support for democratic forces across the world. Eastern Europe, particulalry Poland, the Baltic states and Ukraine became the poster children of what people could achieve without violence and stood against the values of cultural relativism which was endemic amongst Liberals at the time..

Europe was gripped by both of these ideologies. In many of the Mosques across Western European cities came the cry of Jihad, whilst many Leftists took up the gauntlet of no surrender against authoritarianism, no matter what mask it wears. Britain's mosques became a haven for Wahabbism and a breeding ground for Islamism, while the old Left made alliances with many of the Imams linked to radical interpretations of Islam, and lived up to the Arabic saying 'My enemy's enemy is my friend'.

It's interesting to point out that the new Left attached themselves to the principles of Socialism favourite son, George Orwell. From Orwell's literature and writings is an expression of all the qualities that the new Left came to associate themselves with: a hatred for dictatorships, violent targeting of civilians, economic inequality, racism, distrust of the clergy and the principles of Zionism, and when necessary fight for their beliefs.

It is quite ironic that they attached themselves to probably America's most right-wing and militantly Christian administration, but Bush's uncompromising stance on authoritarian figures was a policy to hard to ignore. After past genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia, they saw a need for a democratic superpower to take a strong line against any other genocidal dictators, and when necessary use military action. The obvious link here is to the Iraq War were many were hoodwinked by fake intelligence reports and naive opinions of what a democratic Iraq would look like.

A further swing in popular opinion and of what many of the intellegisia wrote and fought ardently for was the ideology of atheism and secularism. A balanced attack of all religions followed from the likes of Hitchens, be they Muslim fanatics, Christian fundamentalists or Jewish settlers, a belief that religion and superstition were key to the problems today.

It is interesting in what direction the New Left will follow now. The Iraq war proved largely to be a largely disastrous expedition, and the threat of Iran and its nuclear weapons programme now constitutes to being one of the worlds biggest threats to world peace. A need to settling the wrongs in Palestine seems to be the obvious solution for the Left to pursue, to show the Arab world and moderate Muslims around the globe that the Iraq, although a disaster, was a misjudged plan to help the Arab world, not hinder it. A plan to spread democracy, not to create (what many Arabs see it as) a puppet government. And a plan to help to people of Iraq achieve unity and pride, not to create the catalyst for an inhumane and degrading Civil War. Once this is achieved America and the West will stand once again as the model of liberty and civil rights, and the political apparatus all will want to follow, slowly strangling fundamentalism and authoritarianism once and for all.

I am British. Although I have my fair share of Irish ancestry, in the modern sense of citizenship I believe I am British, and so do most people from these islands, whether they are first generation Brits or can trace their bloodline back to the Norman invasions. I do not need to have a Union Jack on my wall to believe I'm British, or the words of the National anthem, nor all the works of Shakespeare, which is essentially, well, a fairly healthy British trait of coyness and apathy towards patriotism.

Since New Labour's rise to power, national identity has become something of an obsession to this government and perhaps it could be something to do with Blair's intense admiration for our trans-Atlantic cousins. In the USA you see a genuine pride for their flag, a people who will give one of the most rousing renditions of their national anthems you're likely to hear since Nazi Germany and a fairly uniformed idea of what being an American is. When you live abroad and meet Americans, there is something which strikes a twinge of jealousy in you, that they are quite comfortable with their nationality and take great pride in it, and it is a fairly rare form of nationalism.

This is obviously the approach our government has long sought after since 1997, from New Labour must come a new Britain, and after the death of Cool Britannia Labour have looked for a new way of forging excitement and pride in our country. Unfortunately for them, the British have always been very much reluctant to become flag-waving, 'hip-hip-hooray' for the Queen, and anthem-belching robots, unless of coarse there is a new British musical movement, new youthful identity, a just war or Britain winning some major sporting event, but lets face it, none of them are likely to happen for a long time.

Blair's Britain, whether directly or indirectly, did create a new youthful social movement, the new identity for teenage, disillusioned teenagers: chavs/scallies/neds (delete as appropriate). Youth culture is not something new, and although this form maybe a major problem, the government obviously nurtures the age old image of what kids used to be like; always polite, respectful of bobbies and the most evil they would inflict is steal apples from Mrs. Dalloway's blooming big apple tree. Now look at them! When they're not mugging old ladies and burning down schools they're blowing themselves up on buses.

Their answer to cure Britain of these social ills is to make all school leavers pass a Citizenship Ceremony and swear allegiance to the Queen, because the decline in popularity of the Monarchy is obviously a link to the decline in youths' attitude to authority, not anything to do with the amount of scandals they've got themselves into and the drain it takes on taxpayers money when our NHS hospitals are going to the dogs. The idea is so ludicrous that it would appear they hired Alf Garnett as a researcher, but no, this is from Lord Goldsmith.

British youth obviously lack the loyalty to their country that our forefathers had, but the answer is a lot more complex than a lack of respect for the Monarchy. Thatcherism did create a society of greed. It dismantled the idea of civic pride and the privatisation of most Public industries, hand-in-hand with the insecurities that mass unemployment and the recession caused, that have created the first generation post-Thatcher kids who feel, quite frankly, lost. At first we were told that the Union Jack is a symbol of the National Front and colonialism, now we're told that we should be wrapping it round ourselved and pop down to the Proms with our multi-ethnic friends. We were brought up that greed is good, look after ourselves and nobody else, now that we should be engaging in community service and talking to our neighbours. There is little wonder that the dismantling of the few national institutions we felt pride in would create a community with complete apathy towards others. A Britain was created where lies are told by our government to invade another country, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of young British soldiers to die in and thousands more innocent men, women and children, with images beamed onto our Sky Television screens daily, as a constant reminder of what happens when we trust our government and send our soldiers into a seemingly just war.

New Labour took up the gauntlet of Thatcherism and the spirit of entrepreneurship, and ensured the rich get richer, whilst pandering to the timid Daily Mail readers by not increasing taxes to pay for the hundreds more schools and hospitals the 1997 manifesto promised. Instead billions were pumped into a pointless war, the privatisation of state schools looks under way and the founders of football are knocked out of the European Championship qualifiers. Is it any wonder that there is no sense of pride in Britain at the moment? There's a long way to go before we fix these wrongs but there is no simple solution to it, and a Citizenship ceremony is not going to turn potential suicide bombers into Boy Scouts. Neither is swearing allegiance to the half-German, half-Greek, inbred, obscenely rich, next heir to-the-throne, who's only achievement is that he happened to be born to Liz II. This paradox of the New Labour movement, which claims to be the party of social mobility (but not enough to be head of our own country), screams out all the ills of Britain. One which has created a complete apathy not only of our country but of politics, community and our neighbours. So fix the wrongs you've made Mr Brown, apologise to the parents of young British servicemen you sent into a needless war Mr Blair, and Mrs Thatcher, well, just die, then maybe our society can exorcise its demons and move into the 21st century like our continental neighbours.