Monday 16 May 2011

I am become death

I just had to post this up. Since watching the clip for the first time this morning, I've become slightly obsessed with it. Whether it's the fuzzy black and white picture, his haunted face or the doom-laden tone of his voice, it just sends shivers down my spine...

Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, describes his reaction after witnessing the first controlled nuclear explosion

Wednesday 4 May 2011

A Right Royal Confusion

I wonder how many people, like me, watched the Royal Wedding with a strange sense of unexpected conflict?

I was already going to write a blog on this confusing day of mixed emotion but then I found one that already did a pretty good job of conveying my point anyway.

Please click the link to read The Weblog of Norman Geras

I hope you agree it's an interesting point of view and I wonder how many Republicans, if they were truly being honest with themselves, might have felt something similar?

Let me make it clear that I am anti-monarchy, that prior to the event I had no sense of excitement or anticipation and that I was doing everything I could to avoid my true feelings spoiling everybody else's fun; and yet, and yet, when it came to the day, I sort of quite enjoyed it!

Surely only the most churlish could not appreciate the sense of national pride and unity that the event cultivated in people? Jonathan Freedland, in particular, conveys that sense in his Guardian column. If not that though, then at least accept a certain satisfaction in the sight of a grand-scale, globally televised event well run?

In a world of X-Factor crassness where sensationalism is the norm, it was humbling to see such understated poise from Kate and Wills in the middle of this vast media storm - and yes I do realise the use of the word 'understated' is somewhat bizarre given the pomp and vast array of polished brass on display.

It all leaves a person with my political mindset in somewhat of a fix. Is it possible to separate your politics from the undoubtedly happy event? And should one even try to do so?

Regardless, I know I still fundamentally disagree with privilege through birth right. As Johann Hari, who's rhetoric I find increasingly troublesome nonetheless rightly argues, this acceptance of the Royals as a national institution only helps to reinforce the class divide and trickles down into wider acceptance of power and privilege throughout the rest our society.

Morrissey, a long time hero of mine, perhaps puts it best in a statement recently posted on True-To-You.net

The message is clear: What you achieve in life means nothing compared to what you are born into.

So where, I ask myself, does this leave me? I suppose I'm grateful that the British can be proud of something. There are so few opportunities to feel a sense of national pride and I truly can understand why people would look to a Royal Wedding for that sensation. I just regret that it has to be a pride linked to such an inherently unjust institution.

I suppose the only other events with the potential to unify us in the same way are international football tournaments, and occasionally they do achieve just that, but it's been many years since we could honestly take a sense of pride in our football team either, whether it be their repeated underachievement in the game or their lifestyle choices out of it. That's not to mention the toe-curling sight of boozy football fans stiring up trouble every second summer.

I suppose I will always, inevitably, be out on a limb in this sense. Proud of my country but for very different reasons to those of the majority of my countrymen and women. I will just to have to retreat, allow the nation it's moment and confide in listening to my Dad's old Beatles records....