Keeping the peace

With Remembrance Day now passed and the politicians have congratulated themselves for their non-contributions I begin to wonder what will keep the peace in the future. I am of the view that wars are part of the natural cycle and are part of a Darwinian population stress response cycle where every so often faltering economies go to war to dispose of their redundant male population.

When I look at the battle of the Somme and Stalingrad there is something almost lemming like in the way that men are forced to run toward certain death. You either face the guns of the enemy or face execution at the hands of your own. And, as ever the wealthy and privileged find ways to excuse themselves.

I often find myself wondering what I would do or would have done had I been called to serve. It's difficult question in hindsight in that we take for granted the information we now have access to. Many of the men who gave their lives fought the enemy on the basis of reasons they were spoonfed. It's funny how the winning side is always the righteous side. Ultimately, though, it is workers on both ends of the bayonet.

Personally I'm not big on obedience and even less enthusiastic about committing suicide because I'm ordered to. If I am asked to lay down my life it must be for something. I most certainly would fight in the defence of my country. Were it a civil war, I know I would object to foreign intervention just as the Iraqis did. It would be our fight and no-one else's.

But then the weapons of war have now changed. It is difficult to imagine a world war in a world of nuclear weapons. All out war has been replaced by different forms of war - be they information wars and subterfuge through to sabotage and economic war. There will never be another D-Day. Wars will be fought in forgotten pockets while the rest of the world looks the other way. And our turn will come.

A civil war in the UK has for most of my lifetime seemed unthinkable. It seems unthinkable for the Western Allies. But then since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the old order has exponentially disintegrated. America is not a country at peace with itself and there is a hidden epidemic of homelessness and a drug problem as acute as ever it was. America could once again tear itself apart.

America would be the one to watch since the UK tends to adopt a pastiche of American cultural strife. Economically when America sneezes, Britain catches a cold. The same is true of culture. It didn't take long for the absurdity of the SJW fad to reach our shores. Meanwhile the political gulf that exists between the governed and the governors is drifting toward breaking point. This to me is why Brexit is a necessity in that our democracy itself is on trial. It may be our only way to avert a civil war.

That said, though, a civil war is inevitable on a long enough timeframe. Unchecked migration certainly laid the foundation for the sort of racial tensions we see in the USA, and if the UK is to have such a war then it will unfold in much the same way Yugoslavia did where likely there will be a massacre of Muslims. In such times we deny our own humanity and no country it beyond a holocaust of its own. Savagery is part of what we are.

On some level we all know that history will repeat because that is what history does. It is why we are inherently suspicious of expressions of nationalism. It is precisely that mentality which has sustained the EU being that the EU, at its core sees national sovereignty as the cause and the medicine is the removal of it - to weaken national bonds and replace it with a larger sense of pan-European identity.

Superficially it's a good idea because the USA is held together the basis of a shared national delusion. The difference, though is that it has a shared culture of its own and a shared history whereas the EU is still a union of distinct nations with near unbreakable national bonds. The fragmentation we have seen in recent years is in part a consequence of EU surpanationalism as it has gradually dissolved meaningful democracy across the continent.

For all that remainers would have it that Britain is turning toward fascism, there is plenty evidence to suggest this is more acute inside the EU, particularly as EU nations are pressured to accept unwelcome immigration which fundamentally changes their cultural make up. It is viewed as an attack on identity because that's precisely what it is.

For a while now we have seen concern at the rise of "identity politics" but to a large extend all politics is identity politics. We cast our votes according to the class, clan or tribe we most identify with. It is made worse when identities are threatened.

Successful democracies are those which moderate the worst excesses of tribalism, muting the winner takes all nature of power. This is something the USA did very successfully with it constitution and it is it something the UK has enjoyed for centuries, united in its accomplishments. As those bonds weaken over time, we see a resurgence of sectarianism and factionalism. For all that we are told that Brexit could see the break up of the Union, it is EU membership that has weakened us to such an extent. There may be no way to put that genie back in the bottle.

What the EU could never accomplish is win sufficient legitimacy for its artificial identity. There are those who say they identify as European and that identity is intrinsically linked to the political institutions of the EU, but those who say that are few and have likely not given it much thought. It is more virtue signalling to their domestic liberal tribe. It's transient, it's wafer thin and fickle. Without that binding and sincere sense of identity, nobody will volunteer to die in a flooded ditch for the EU.

Should the EU ask us to fight, to lay down our lives, I would refuse. The rogue non-state actor which is the EU External Action Service makes enemies of its own. Are they my enemies? Will I fight them because I am told to? No. I will not fight in their name nor fight to defend the EU construct. It is a parasite leaching its reason for being from the memories of the great wars.

If there is one ting worth fighting and dying for then it is democracy. The idea that peoples united in their own values, history, heritage and identity should form their own institutions over which they are their master is one superior in nature to all that has been tried. At the heart of it is rule by consent. Something else the EU fundamentally lacks.

The bankruptcy of the EU is the presumption that peaceful cooperation between nations cannot happen without surpranationalism. It therefore seeks to deny us our organic identities and remove our capacity for self governance. Fundamentally it does not trust democracy. If then the peoples of Europe are not able to build societies according to their own values and be subordinate to values imposed upon them (however benign they may be in intent) there will be friction that sees the return of toxic ultra-nationalism.

That I know of, no political construct has ever lasted without the consent of its people. That which was born of deception and conceit can only ever lead to division, fragmentation and conflict. It cannot act with legitimacy or moral authority. It cannot speak in our name. The essential problem is that the EU will never be loved. At its high point it has been tolerated and enthusiasm for it is largely limited to its denizens and dependants. It is a narcissistic projection and a decadent indulgence of peacetime. The question now is if we wish to preserve the peace can Europe any longer afford it?

As much as war is a part of the natural cycle, so is reinvention and renewal. The best way to stave off war is to allow the organic development of the demos and to abide with its wisdom. An artificial system that has locked in a particular order for decades is one that will forever seek to deny and frustrate change. For a time it may have provided a degree of stability and certainty but there comes a time when that certainty is the enemy of evolution.

If the weapons of mankind have made the great wars obsolete then perhaps there is hope for us. If we can evolve beyond the great wars then perhaps we can evolve beyond the small wars. For that we need to appreciate that there is no force stronger than the desire to be free and for freedom we would pay any price. What freedom we have was bought with blood. It was not gifted to us by supranational constructs.

Dictatorships never see themselves as oppressors. Thy cling to control because the ends always justify the means. They may do it through force of arms or they may do it by way of invisible bonds. What was once done by Blitzkrieg is now done by the union of political elites. That is how we become slaves to their order. That is how we are demoted to the status of serfs. We cease to be masters of our own future. In their arrogance they sow the seeds of conflict.

Democracy is not a serious of elected committees and remote assemblies. There is more to citizenship than a purple passport and a blue flag. There is more to participation than casting a vote. Democracy is the exercise of vital powers by the people for the people. Only when that sacred right is celebrated and defended can there be true peace between nations. There cannot be peace when our supreme government in Brussels fears democracy more than it fears its enemies.