Erasing our past is erasing ourselves
By Pete North - June 24, 2020
I went to Newby Hall church today. Traditionally it’s somewhere I go to recharge. It’s where mum and dad were married and where gran’s funeral was held. The place gives me a sense of peace and continuity. For all that changes, this place doesn’t. It also gives me a connection with my own past and my ancestors. A sense of belonging and a sense of my place in the continuum.
It’s also a reminder of where we’ve come from. The church itself is on the edge of the Newby estate; stately home whose story tracks the fictional Downton Abbey and our evolution from aristocratic feudalism to quasi-democracy as wars and the march of technology transformed the landscape around us.
It reminds me that at one time I probably would have been one of the lower orders serving some or other function under the paternalistic umbrella of the estate. I now have freedoms even my grandad never had. I have real choices in what I can do and where I can go.
Mostly, though, it’s a way to reconnect with the memory of my grandparents. They were good people. That church was part of them and they are part of me. I was shaped in some way by that place. It’s a reminder that we are only temporary custodians of our surroundings and it is our place to care for them as our legacy to the next generation so they might know who they are and what they’re about.
This, therefore, underscores my implacable opposition to the mob tearing down statues. For a long time Bristol was my city. It impressed upon me its great history as well as its dark chapters. It isn’t for us to selectively edit parts of our past that offend our modern day sensibilities. It is part of us and part of our story, part of who and what we became.
This then brings me closer to understanding the mentality of the mob. It started with a statue of Colston but America shows us it isn’t about slavery or racism. It’s about erasing our spiritual connection to where we live. Without that sense of belonging there is no sense of spiritual ownership of our history and deeds. Neither our triumphs nor our accomplishments nor our atrocities.
They don’t want us to know who we are so they can tell us who and what we are. It starts on the fringes with a semi-plausible justification for ripping down a statue, but when they have that concession they use it as licence to go after anything. Last week a TV show, this week a stained glass window, and who can say where it ends? There’s the suggestion that statues of Jesus offend. How long before a church, or even my church is in flames?
This is why I won’t concede to them even once. I take it very personally when they go after my heritage. When you erase that, you erase me. When they’ve eradicated any sign we were here they’ll then come after us.
More than that, one of our greatest inheritances is the rule of law; the genteel norms of our society. Once we give in to the mob, we really have lost all that we are. Anarchy is not romantic nor is it just. It’s savage, it’s brutal and often irrational. You can cheer it on when it suits but sooner or later it will turn its eye toward you. There is a certain naivety and immaturity to the people who enable this. They seem to think they’ll survive the forces they’re trying to unleash, blissfully unaware they’ll be among the first victims.
What makes the BLM movement so dangerous is the fact they cannot be reasoned with. At its core it’s nihilistic. There’s no point explaining the sort of damage it could do. They fully accept it but simply don’t care. This is why it has to be resisted with uncompromising force. Every conservative knows this. It’s instinctive.
As a younger man I would often hear leftists inspired by “edgy comedians” talking about the absurdity of dying for a flag. I shared a similar youthful scepticism, but ultimately those flags represent us, who we are, and who we have been. It takes some maturity to get it. These aren’t just rags we wave. They are an expression of ourselves.
It is why I take such great offence at it being supplanted by the EU ring of stars – another attempt to erase us and rewrite our identity. A more pernicious scheme than the savagery of the mob but essentially with the same intent. They are replacing the non trivial symbols with fakery and presumption as a precursor to regime change with or without consent.
It is for these reasons I fight the battles I fight. Because of the sacrifices of those who went before me, I can fight those battles with the pen and the vote. That’s a legacy worth fighting for, and dying for if needs be. Something so precious is being squandered by overindulged narcissistic liberals. I say thrice no. Not on my watch.