Once upon a time, in a kingdom called Britain, politics was considered a peculiar topic of conversation. One walked into a pub expecting a chat about the weather, or at best, some one-to-one time with a drink.
As George Orwell observed, we were always a nation of flower-lovers and crossword-puzzle fans, with our culture at its strongest when devoid of public influence. “The pub, the football match, the back garden, the fireside, and the ‘nice cup of tea’” — the land where privacy was the greatest virtue of all.
Such privacy was always matched by incredulity from foreign onlookers — those who were keen to remind the protested flower-lovers that they were once the orchestrators of the world’s greatest empire. And strangely enough, that skepticism was accepted, even embraced. Britain ignored her past — both its horrors and its triumphs. Her reticence about military glory and ignorance of colonial exploit was paired with the illusion that a shared appreciation for Shakespeare can paper over the cracks of historical class privilege.
This is not to say that the British never cared about politics — you will be hard-pressed to find a country that has managed to sustain a weekly participatory debate program for 40 years. But the tone of conversation has always been polite to the point of patronizing: One states his view, and then shuts his mouth and pays attention.
A similar attitude marks the nation’s greatest universities. At some point during my first weeks as an undergraduate at Harvard, my entire class was beckoned into a great theater. We were told that we should be proud of our magnificent achievements and seize the opportunity to become the world leaders of tomorrow. For my friends at Oxford and Cambridge, opening days were very different. They were granted five days of drunken debauchery followed by an essay prompt, a twelve-book reading list, and a set of deadlines.
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See Also:
(1) The real reason EU has allowed Brexit extensions is to save itself
(2) Warning to EU: Farage teases he’s ‘very close’ to reaching alliance to terrify Brussels
(3) Brexit analysis: Why no deal will be ‘entirely manageable and lead to minimal disruption’
(4) Tory leadership: Failure to deliver EU election result is biggest crime
(5) Farage ‘staggered’ by Tory candidates’ leadership vows for this reason – ‘Utter disaster’
