I spent last week in a real, honest-to-goodness Scottish castle (I actually typed "sottish" there, probably nearer the truth). It stood on a slope overlooking a sea loch, surrounded by beautiful gardens and, beyond them, four and a half thousand acres of forest, moor and glen. The sun shone, the bees buzzed, otters frolicked in the stream, and seals played in the loch. On the Isle of Mull I saw Sea Eagles and Golden Eagles. Buzzards looped and tumbled over the crags. I watched a quieter world unfold, at a slower pace, and I saw that it was Good.
I tramped over moors, wandered through forests, and thumped across the water to Staffa and the Treshnish islands. Fine Islay whisky was drunk, and I was also introduced to the delights of Lowland whisky (Auchentoshan) . It was a bibulous trip - but not Bacchanalian. I ate Venison burgers and scotch pies, black pudding baps and other toothsome but unhealthy Caledonian delights. I sampled seaweed stout. I made uncertain small talk with incomprehensible highlanders.
And now I find myself back in the Great Wen. The sun shines and the place is quite beautiful (in a different way to the Highlands, of course) but I am melancholy. Not because of the contrast or the return to mundanity, but because these are dismal times, and I find myself wondering whether I want to be part of the twenty-first century or not. And you know, on balance, the answer is "not".
I've always been out of step. I hate the present day and I hate modern Britain. I loathe the fact that we cannot see a tradition without ending it, cannot see an institution without subverting it, that we snigger at notions of "honour" and "decency", that we expect our politician to be mendacious. That the argument that ancient liberties should be retained is viewed as somehow quaintly idealistic or alternatively dangerously reactionary. I loathe the wooly thinking that lies at the heart of our ever-so-polite liberal society. If we are to have change, then I am for Root and Branch change. I am like Cromwell's russet coated captain, who knows what he fights for and loves what he knows. My kind kill kings and overthrow parliaments. We are not to be invoked lightly.
And despite all, there is so much I love about my "right little, tight little island" - including some of its wooliest institutions. I trust it is obvious that I understand only too well that the past was anything but perfect. That there were many things that needed to be excised. As a (Levelling) republican, I can hardly be considered to be a blind adherent to the Good Old Days. And I understand the good intentions of liberalism and (to a very limited degree) may even sympathise with them. My true hatred is reserved for hypocrites and fools of all parties, colours and convictions (and as I am both of hypocrite and fool myself, this is only just).
And I realise, with only the mildest pangs of regret, that I have become the thing I despised as a youth - a reactionary Old Fogey. Pottering along with my whiskers and my watch chain and my obsolete dress sense, doggedly attempting to live as though it were 1909. This blog (wretched word) is part of that subterfuge - a place where I can prattle on, controlling the discourse, ruthlessly excising modernity, functionalism, and their attendant horrors. The fact that anyone ever finds it interesting or amusing gives me a brief flicker of hope.
But I fear it is a scant, false hope - for the liars, and the blockheads, and the yahoos are the masters now.
Defeatist talk?
No, Sir: Damn their eyes - we will never surrender!
"Engage the Enemy More Closely"
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"We are all of us obliged, if we are to make reality endurable, to nurse a few little follies in ourselves."
3 comments:
dispair not, dear springheel. while i may come from the opposite side of the atlantic and, perhaps, political spectrum (i fancy myself more of a liberal these days- and i suspect, given your days of mohawk hair styles, braces, and boots, you are more sympathetic to liberalism than you may care to admit), i agree with your sentiment of days gone by. it is neither foolish nor folly to find values in times when things were more honest, and that there IS (please note the present tense) something good in decency and honor. i direct your attention to the current global economic crisis and the suspected reasons behind it, that is to say, a lack of the afore mentioned virtues.
while i heartily embrace a bold foray into the future unknown, i believe we should pack our gear with the "ancient liberties" and the belief that a man's word was his bond. your dress may be archaic, but your reasons for doing so are not, nor are they isolated to you alone.
Keep up the fight, my good man. And, we shall try and do the same.
Nice to read your latest blog. I love the way you write. Your vacation sounded wonderful. I would love visit Scotland myself, being 1/3 Scottish. I really like the way you write about English politics, but you are way over my head. I've got my American Heritage dictionary by me, and another window pulled up to search the internet for your references. As a Texan, we studied quite a lot of Texas history, some United States statistics, and how the other states relate to Texas, but not so much other parts of the world. You really can make someone curious to know more. Thank you. PS: I always notice a well dressed man, no matter when he purchased his clothing.
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