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Patriotism

Evening. How are we all? Is there anybody out there?

It's been a while but I thought I'd try posting here again. The Bollocks didn't go anywhere because of my lack of inspiration and all the things I was hoping for in the post below never really happened.

Well that's not entirely true. I'm still running the rat race but my life is a lot more peaceful and easy than it was when I wrote the below. Mrs Bucko has done better than me by scoring a really good job with a good company that she likes and she's bringing in a fair bit of cash now.

I'm still with the same company but I'm a 'business planner' now, which basically means that if anything goes tits up, it's my fault. The money is better though and my stress is in the negative figures (until I read the Daily Mail).

The Ford Probe died a sad death and I now have a twenty two year old Volvo (don't ask (yet)).

So here I am. And the reason for tonights post? It stems from the General Election I suppose. That takes me back a bit because the GE of 2010 is why I opened this blog in the first place. I voted UKIP this time but the result was probably the best of a bad set of choices. Conservatives in and no coalition was the lesser of all possible evils, and let's face it, evils were all we really had.

There was some people who thought voting UKIP would let Labour in and we should vote Conservative. If we do that, UKIP will never get in. I think we should keep voting for them at every opportunity and eventually it will make a difference. I would have accepted another term of Labour fucking things up because that might have opened some eyes.

Anyway, I digress, The title of this post is Patriotism.

Some people who don't like UKIP call them racist. They're not, but they do talk a lot about British values. In conversation, that often becomes confused with patriotism. British values as a concept I can get on board with. Patriotism I have a problem with.

I was born in England. It wasn't because I chose to be born in England, it's just the way it happened. I'm happy enough that it happened that way because as England goes, it's not that bad a deal. I could have been born to Muslim parents in Turkey just as easily. I hate the Muslim religion, but how would I have felt about it if my parents were Muslim Turks? I'm sure I would be a patriotic Muslim who was wondering what all you westerners were whacking on about with your unusual concepts of freedom, when I have an oppressive and violent sky pixie to worship.

Even worse, I could have been born a feminist.

We could even think in more linear terms. I could have been born in America in the fifties when rock 'n' Roll was just coming into it's infancy. I could imagine so many batter or worse places and times to have been born in, that patriotism seems an alien concept.

It can even go beyond race and religion. English are supposed to be proud to be English, yet very few people in my home town of Darwen support Darwen United football team (I bet you've never heard of it), they support Blackburn Rovers or some buggers from even further afield. And those teams don't have local players, they buy them from across the continent for millions of pounds.

To put it another way, I've spent the winter converting my attic and I'm very proud of the job I have done. I could have bought a house with a professional attic conversion, but unless I'd done it myself, I wouldn't be 'proud' of it, I'd just like it a lot. Why should I be proud of coming from somewhere because of nothing other than a accident of birth?

England in 2015 is the following:

Cold
Nanny state
Wet
Smoking ban
Covered in litter
Full of lefties
Traffic congestion
Cloudy
Chavs
Etc
Etc

Not things to be patriotic about.

What are some good things?

Greece has hot weather
Monaco has low taxes
Texas has cool hats
Cyprus has lots of cats
Sheffield has snooker
The Isle of Man has bikes and The Fast Show
Nashville has real music
Cuba has big cigars
China has Chinese food (but over there they just call it food)
Canada has ice hockey
Gibraltar has a runway that is longer than my home town
Ireland has Guinness (and black poops)
Louisiana has Britney Spears

All things that you might want to be patriotic about, yet no one has invented a country that has them all.

In my experience, when people say you should be patriotic, it's usually because they want something from you. Pay your taxes, support a foreign invasion, ban something we don't like, vote a particular way, listen to One Direction, do as you're told because it's the patriotic thing to do.

I don't mind being born in England as it's not a bad gaff, but patriotic about it? Nah.

If I could have been born anything? I would probably pick Redneck.

I'm not really sure where I'm rambling with this first post back at The Moose, as it's late, I've had a few scoops and I've just eaten a packet of pappadums. It was fun though.

See you again soon.

2 Comments:

The Jannie said...

Bucko said...