I've read the news about the felling of Colston's statue in Bristol, and for once, I'm angry that I'm British. I'm surprised at how angry it's made me.
The sad thing is, I sort of understand why they did it. Colston was involved in the slave trade, which is appalling. Of course, with BLM being a big issue at the moment it was coming, I guess. The people that tore down that statue say that we should learn from past mistakes, yet are trying to brush away any signs of the past that they don't agree with. What statue is next? Winston Churchill? The man who defeated fascism in Europe? We have to learn from past mistakes, but that doesn't mean we should tear down any statues of people who did these things in the past. They are there for a reason - they must be remembered, even if those memories aren't good ones. Not one of the people who tore down the statue are actually affected by the former slave trade, nor do they know how they actually felt, or what they wanted.
Jordan Peterson has said that we are moving towards a civil war of sorts and that these riots for equality may be doing the opposite. In a couple of years - 20, 10, maybe even 5, he may be proved right, and with every destructive riot around the world, I am becoming more and more sure that he is right. The conspiracy that 2020 is the end of the world may not be that wrong after all, but I'm not going to go into religious predictions because none of us, let alone me, know what we are talking about. I have a horrible feeling that what we are feeling is a revolution: a new era. We are seeing people become more and more fed up with the 'woke brigade'. In the UK, why do you think that in the 2019 general election, the Conservative Party - a party that apparently has destroyed the life chances of those in the north and has brought along mass cuts through austerity created only through spite - won the largest majority since the days of Margaret Thatcher, who was elected for similar reasons? And why was it that the left-leaning Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green parties suffered their worst defeats in ages?
I think that the destruction of the Colston statue was done by a small minority of people with very loud mouths. Some call them extremists. Eventually, they might get too big for their boots and there will be, in the words of J.B. Priestley there may be "fire, blood and anguish". On the 6th of June, we celebrated the efforts done by brave men to protect the livelihoods of millions of people across the world, sacrificing their lives while invading the beaches of Normandy. And how do we pay them back? Destroy the statue of a man who built dozens of schools and hospitals, saving the lives of thousands and creating opportunities for even more. This man may have been a leading figure in the slave trade - which people like to forget the British was the leading force in getting rid of - but, if you or your family were injured, would that be the biggest issue to you? It certainly shouldn't.
I find it amusing (that is sarcasm) that when one black man is brutally killed, the entire world goes into a fit of rage, yet when it happens the other way around, nobody bats an eyelid, at least in the long term. The same people who are marching around cities, vandalising statues of historical figures and abusing those less radical than them are the same people who say we need to love everybody, not judge them by their covers and that we should all be equal. However, this only applies when it suits them. Countless amounts of young, white British girls sexually assaulted by Islamic men? Oh, what a tragedy, they say. But as soon as one black man is killed by an unhinged, racist police officer that doesn't represent all police officers in the slightest (even when only looking at the US' police force), we have mass civil unrest. Disgusting people, I say.
Earlier on I mentioned a quote from my favourite play, An Inspector Calls. While my English teacher say that it is, in effect, left-wing propaganda, I disagree (and this is coming from somebody who is apparently right-wing). It is not political. It's not singing "Oh, Jeremy Corbyn!". It isn't shouting about "a decade of Tory austerity!" It's about being humane. It is saying that we need to respect each other, and that equality is equality. There is no middle ground. Nobody is worse than you because they have the 'wrong' opinion. You shouldn't dismiss people because their identity group means that they apparently can't have empathy for other groups (hello, white privilege).
Remember, if you've ever been angry at someone of a different ethnic group because they, because they are part of that group, are racist, you are worse than them. There are no ifs and no buts.
Goodnight.
