Journal | Re-Writing History and Racism ~ NUCLEAR!

Chapter One

The Warning

… and they demanded the statue be removed

… then they demanded the people be barred

… then they demanded the books be burned

… then they demanded … … … the unthinkable

© Kenneth Thomas Webb
All Rights Reserved

Chapter Two

America

IN AMERICA, the removal of the statue of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee is being very hotly debated.

News reports today – June 9, 2020 - show it being hoisted by crane from its plinth, with the intention it might possibly be displayed in a Museum with historically accurate text alongside.

Whatever happens to that statue, the matter is being calmly, albeit, hotly, debated. The result may be a consensus that satisfies most Americans of every colour.

Most, but not all.

Every country has its tiny minority who cling to a vicious past.

In truly democratic nations we believe in free speech, and the absolute right for people - of all views and opinions - to live peaceably.

We also need in place, sensible and sensitive law enforcement, and above all, so geared, that it protects every citizen, of whatever political view or opinion, and whatever their colour or racial background, and without prejudice, bias or favour.

Chapter Three

Britain

IN BRITAIN, the removal of the statue of the slave trader Sir Edward Colston from its plinth on Sunday, June 11, 2020, was mob rule, emphasised by a police presence that chose not to intervene. Eventually, the mob rolled the statue to the dockside and pushed it over the edge into the water.

By now, the peaceful protest had degenerated into Mob Rule. Result? The police were outflanked by a mob. An absence of command was made worse when a senior police officer made a statement to the collection of baying microphones that by not intervening they maintained peace and safety.

The officer was not born when I served, but I can best put it thus: he would have been vilified not by the mob but by his colleagues.

The moment I saw a man on the statue with his tool kit, the cause was lost; I ceased to listen to the legitimate arguments of peaceful protesters.

Instead, this person presumed to speak for me.

A white woman then shouts that any ‘white’ who remains at home is as corrupt as the system. I suspect she was aided and abetted by crack, cocaine, and ecstasy, and tipped with more alcohol than is good for her. She gave all the tell-tail indications of a drugged-up, drunken, anarchist.

Mob rule attracts both the uneducated and also so-called ‘educated’ - university undergraduates, people hiding behind the masquerade of higher learning, of great competence, the future leaders of communities, industry and commerce, and the country, even.

This masquerade of self-righteousness.

The trait of self-righteousness is never pleasant and often repugnant.

On rare occasions, it manifests itself in a total breakdown of law and order, and then violence and murder. Here, I speak not of the protesters lamenting their injuries, I speak of the injuries and death these people are prepared to bring upon all who do not agree - when confronted - with assault, physical abuse and death.

The Nazis were good at this. The brown-shirts were more important than the civil police.

Gangs of booted brown-shirts roamed the streets, beating up couples, and law-abiding citizens. Many were killed. The civil population? They looked on and it is clear from the newsreels of 1930s Germany that quite a lot of them enjoyed seeing lawlessness rampant. And the police? They too looked on, then looked the other way.

Mob Rule had replaced law and order. This is a mirror image of any society entering anarchy.

Anarchy is the precursor to revolution.

Chapter Four

Mob Rule

The statue was just a piece of tin, yes. But mob rule is what brings about public lynching. Britain has had many public lynchings over the centuries, the law stepping in only afterwards.

In the middle of a Pandemic, all caution is thrown to the wind in both America and Britain.

I had not realised until this morning’s BBC news report, that, in America, many of the military bases in the old southern states (Confederate America) are named after the generals who prosecuted the war against the Unionists in the American Civil War.

That does not sit comfortably. It also explains a very great deal, about the American psyche.

Silently, questioningly, I look at American friends. There is arrogance about them.

Despite the outcome of that vicious civil war many in the south have never let go.

Deep down, deep, deep down, they still hold those views that those confederate generals held – that it is right to enslave.

What on earth do they think that says to all Black Americans?

It is no wonder we have this awful situation, made worse by a man who, so say, leads the American nation, but, like the statue, is nothing more than a tin-pot dictator with a quiff.

Now I finally understand the arrogance of a GI in World War II, when he tried to stop my mother from dancing with a black American soldier.

Now I understand why their armed forces, and police forces, have such a disregard for people who are Black American, Coloured American and Indigenous American.

Now I understand my Mum’s swift North-East England reply that would have been akin to snapping off that GI’s balls. Of the GI? Poor chap wondered what on earth hit him, figuratively, when he was told in no uncertain terms what to do with himself not only by my mum but by the whole Town Hall dancers. That night our very welcome American GIs learned a very, very valuable lesson about messing with their British hosts.

I am, though, aware that there will be many serving in both armed and police forces that are as distressed by racism as every right-minded person should be.

Chapter Five

We Feed Conspiracy Theory

When we sanitise history, we wipe the slate clean of any trace of recorded facts, and mistakes, and instead rely upon a skewered history to learn from. Thus, those mistakes will be repeated. 

Human nature is such that repetition is inevitable.

The present situation is like ‘manna from heaven’ for conspiracy theorists.

The other day, during research, I called up images of the Berlin Olympics in 1936. There, in pages of images, are images of a megalomaniac, Adolf Hitler, apparently embracing Jesse Owens, and even a so-called ‘quote’ by Owens that went out of its way to say how well that man had treated him.

Then we see the real photographs, and how the images are pulled together, sized up or down, to achieve perspective, and hey presto, look at that ... a beaming, smiling Hitler, embracing warmly, even joking with, Jesse Owens.

History documentaries are increasingly presenting Hitler and his cronies as viable studies – just another group of generals and politicians – stripping them of the evil they personally instigated.

Chapter Six

Anarchists

In Britain, all things imperial are now being threatened by the far left, the loony left and the downright mischievous elements of society who are not interested in freedom and democracy; but only their own secret agendas. Then we look to the right and find that the far right is playing the same game.

I have said this countless times in dispatches over the years, and I repeat it without apology:

When the vociferous minority is mistakenly thought to be the silent majority, 

and the silent majority mistakenly thinks that it is merely the vociferous minority, 

then calamity is just around the corner, 

a street away, 

a plinth away, 

a lynching away.

Chapter Seven

Nationalist is Not Healthy Patriotism

In Britain, the situation is not helped by a nationalist party seeking to milk the pandemic for all it can, to drive a wedge between the devolved government and central government.
Suddenly, all Scots are nationalists. Really?

All Welsh are nationalists. Really?

All Northern Irish are nationalists. Really?

Oh and let’s not forget the southwest leg of England – we’re told that the nationalists in Cornwall want to break away because they’re not English or British. Really?

No. It’s the minority once again shouting the loudest and, thereby, seizing the headlines.

Chapter Eight Time

Waits for No One

The national demographic in this country has changed out of all recognition. That is the price paid for empire and for being part of the EU.

We must not turn our backs on history. Nor must we try to put the clock back. Time does not stop. It does not go in reverse. As the old adage reminds us: time waits for no one. This means that time in motion is forward-moving only.

We must look at the evidence of the past and then strengthen our resolve to put right the injustices. But we should also be very wary of those who demand change so strident, so methodical, that it would destroy democracy and freedom and make us slaves of some dictatorship.

Chapter Nine

Dictatorship and Populism

Nazi Germany was a dictatorship. Could its people see it? Of course, they couldn’t. They were blinded and besotted by lies. I learned decades ago, that if you tell a lie often enough, that lie will become the accepted truth.

The Soviet Union was a dictatorship. Could Russian people see it? Of course, they couldn’t. They, too, were blinded and besotted by lies. Did the satellite countries see it? Yes, they did. This is why Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are determined to maintain their independence, as too Ukraine which is determined not to go the way of Crimea.

Let us all, in spite of the ill-temper, in spite of the unseemly and disgraceful graffiti treatment of national monuments, nevertheless remain absolutely calm, and refuse to descend to the level of gutter argument.

We must make changes. Here, in Britain.

We cannot, and must not, tolerate any form of racism any longer. But that requires the collective will of the entire British People – the greater British People i.e. all four nations of the United Kingdom, to stand united, to work together and to solve this problem. And that means everyone within these four nations.

Chapter Ten

It Is A Vote of Confidence to Learn the Language of one’s Adopted Nation

All of us, wherever we are from, whatever country, whatever language, if we decide we wish to live here, then we enter fully into the national spirit. We do not create no-go areas.

If I decide to live in Germany, then I know full well, that I must make German my first language. Indeed, it would be my preference. Yet when I walk the parks in Cheltenham, I can walk for thirty minutes and only occasionally do I hear English being spoken, by all age groups.

I have always emphasised the importance of language. Of being able to speak two languages. Many times, I have encouraged friends that if their ancestry lies abroad, and they still speak the language of their ancestors, then do everything possible with their children, in infancy, to speak in both languages. Children have no difficulty with this.

Chapter Eleven

Making an Effort

We all have to make an effort.

If we do not, then as surely as night follows day, so will the ugly apparition of racism show itself anew, and in ways that 80 years ago this week, when we were about to fight for our lives in the Battle of Britain, we could not have imagined.

To everyone ... pull together.

To black people, stop getting wound up if I accidentally say blackboard instead of chalkboard! And so on, and so on, and so on.



To white people, stop telling me that I cannot say coloured, I cannot say brown, I must say wipe-board, and so on, and so on, and so on.

All of us must work together to build our country for this 21st century. Every one of us.

But I give this warning. 

If we try to do so without a discerning eye on our history,
or abusing our history,
or making use only of those parts of our history that suit our cause ...
then, simply and bluntly put
... the cause is lost ...
the mob has won!

3 December 2022
All Rights Reserved

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022

First written on 31 August 2020 and retained.
It is even more relevant in 2022
and rolling into 2023
than it was in 2020