"This is not about Bowie per se.
Bowie embodied a reaction against the drab social conservatism of the postwar
era.
"Though remember, it was in that period of drab conservatism that we
invented the welfare state and the National Health Service (inaugurated the
year after Bowie’s birth) – arguably this country’s finest moral achievements.
"But nestled in the postwar reaction to fascism – the ultimate and pathological
imposition of un-freedom – was a belief in its opposite, infinite freedom. The
freedom of the individual as the ultimate moral goal.
"And as capitalism
advanced, so choice became the only moral value many people thought worth
advancing. The world collapsed in on the black hole of the me, myself and I.
"And what we have learned about this approach, especially as harnessed by
libertarians, is that in practice, it means the destruction of public services
and thus unfreedom for the many."
This is a very important and powerful piece by Giles Fraser.
I don't understand NHS worship and neither does anybody that I know, with any memory of our past.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather, formerly of the 3rd Infantry Division, (and happily still alive and well) did not fight for a bureacuratic system of healthcare (or a welfare state) and nor did any of the millions of young men who fought with him.
Of course, the NHS didn't even exist then.'
They fought for the freedom Britain once stood for, the rule of law that was unique to us, and the British way of life that is increasingly dying out.
They certainly didn't fight for "multiculturalism", mass immigration, 'equality', welfare (or any of our modern Left-wing disasters).
Can anyone seriously imagine people rushing to the trenches in defence of Strasbourg's "human rights, welfarism, multiculturalism or 'equality and diversity?
The very thought is comical.
I don't understand NHS worship and neither does anybody that I know
DeleteYou must move in very restricted circles, then. Next to no one alive can remember Britain without it, and anyone who does but who does not love it must have grown up very, very, very rich, indeed.
How right you are, David. People who fought in the War can't be less than 90, but ask the few remaining about life before the NHS.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I am only one generation removed from them, despite having been born in 1977.
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