Sunday 25 December 2016

The Jelltex Christmas Message

It is odd, if not bizarre, that on the very day that we celebrate the fact refugees who could not find a place to lay their heads, and give birth to a child, that the right wing xenophobes will attack anyone, even at this time of year, even if they are the Archbishop of Canterbury, who does not share their world view that the brown hordes heading over to Europe are nothing more than a plague of cockroaches who deserve nothing less than to down. Which thousands of them have done this year.

Even worse, that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were not the blonde aryan people we see depicted in our churches; they were Arab, or Jew, or Gentile, whatever. They did not look like us.

And later in life, Jesus preached universal love, love that is unconditional. Love everyone and everybody. Even if they did not believe in God. Man, woman, child.

How sick then, that at this time of the year, His message is so lost, or so twisted, that this can be turned into universal hate. Hate and distrust for not just immigrants, refugees; but anyone who does not share their exact world view. Even if that person is the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Maybe we live in the end times. The idiot-elect is still tweeting like crazy, circumventing the usual diplomatic channels to blurt out to the Twitterverse and beyond, his newest thought. He might be the most elaborate joke of all time, and there will be the greatest reveal of all time come January 22nd, he will take his mask off to show that it was all a massive joke.

But just maybe he is just as dumb and useless as he seems, and will be just as dumb as president, and will rip up decades of diplomacy to plough his own furrow, forging links between the US and Russia, and the world will be a better place. Or he might start World War Three. Or none of those things. Or something inbetween.

Decades of Liberal reforms may well be rolled back, setting poor people to be even poorer. Odd then that it was those very people who voted for him to drown the swamp. The swamp he has since filled with millionaires and billionaires and global warming deniers and white supremacists.

Back here, we have Brexit, voted by the same poorest of people, the very same people that Brexit will hit the hardest and make poorer. The Government are clueless, balancing not having an idea what to do and trying to keep the owners of the Mail, Express and Sun on their side. And their party together. As ever, truth, facts and reality will rip their make-believe world down, but whether it happens before it is too late to reverse the whole process is one of those unknowns.

Brexit was founded on fear. Fear of the immigrant, fear of the terrorist, fear of losing their jobs to immigrants. But, in truth, these immigrants work here, pay their taxes here, make homes here, look after our elderly here, look after our sick and infirm here. Keep our country ticking over. They also help to subsidise our universities, graduating and then staying here, making our economy even stronger. Yet Brexit, apparently, wants to end this, even send many people, EU Nationals who made their life here, back home. Many will already be thinking of going, as will many businesses, with the doubt and uncertainty revolving round Brexit, what it means other than being Brexit. What it means for GB PLC and our relationship with the EU and the rest of the world.

In the last two years, facts have become lies, lies become feelings become facts, experts not to be trusted, except when they back the Brexit or Trump point of view. Being honest, truthful and right is nonger enough, being passionate about being wrong and lying counts for more. Even if it bankrupts the country or starts a global war.

Or I could be wrong.

But it would be OK, if at the same time we could all be nice to each other, just like Jesus said two thousand years ago. Rather than blame outsiders for the ills of the country, the NHS or the world, if they could just be honest and admit it had been government policy all along. The means will always justify the ends, if the ends are right enough.

2 comments:

Dawn said...

Great post, Ian.

mendel9331 said...

Are we moving into a post liberal hate time. Saw a Mencap ad on TV today pleading with people not to be nasty towards children with severe learning disabilities. What the hell is going on?