A DEMOS study "At Home With One's Past (PDF)" by Sophie Gaston and Sacha Hilhorst is causing ripples today: "Nostalgia as a Cultural and Political Force in Britain, France and Germany". Their research reveals that the three aforementioned countries, despite overt differences, are "bound together by a common affliction"...[whose] citizens are gripped by a kind of malaise, a sense that something is fundamentally rotten at the heart of their societies." And guess what? They're not wrong. They go on (in the Executive Summary):
"Moreover, an omnipresent, menacing feeling of decline; that the very best of their culture and communities has been irreversibly lost, that the nation’s best days have passed, and that the very essence of what it means to be French, or German, or British is under threat. While the political consequences of this psychological state are unique to each country, our research demonstrates that many of their antecedents are shared."Of course they are but that decline and loss has been entirely INTENTIONAL! They and we are all benighted with a political class that not only are intentional fomenting civil dissent of even war but at the same time seem utterly worthless, lacking in wit, stamina, class or statesmanship; to borrow a few choice words from elsewhere: they are dross, spivs, chiselers, quacks, charlatans. and crooks; the filth of their touch befouls anything good. Anyway, back to the survey which in Britain gave some VERY high numbers when asked about immigration:
71 per cent of Britons believe that immigration has made the communities where migrants have settled more divided, reaching 78 per cent in areas that report having experienced large-scale migration in recent years, and 81 per cent amongst Conservative voters.Unfortunately the conclusion of the report is simply more politicking: we know that any "robust policy responses" will not be robust at all. And forget the "frank and open debate" and the "compelling, pragmatic vision of hope" please. Debate is already too late, they banned and shunned and penalised debate for 20 years and even opened the floodgates to 'rub our noses in diversity'.
