In his classic The
Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius (1941), written in
London at the height of the blitz, a patriotic George Orwell speaks to the essence
of the English character, while critiquing the problem of economic inequality
that dwells within the island nation. Wide
economic disparity continues to manifest itself in Britain in the light of today’s
globalization along with many other socio-cultural discontents seething just beneath
the surface – until the folly of the Brexit plebiscite was announced – bringing
to the fore anger and frustration, and the loss of any pretence of English “gentleness”.[1]
Popular culture is always anti-establishment, especially in England, and with it the anti-European Union forces
were manipulated by lies, a gutter press and far too much of an emphasis
on cheap emotion. A thoughtless David Cameron,
formerly known as prime minister, gambled in Napoleonic proportions, as if to
march on Moscow, only to toss the secured unity of the U.K. out the window – in
a day.
Here are some excerpts from Orwell’s The Lion and the Unicorn. The
intention is to help identify the English character, and to provide some
context as to what happened to the vote on the night of June 23, 2016.
… the English are not
intellectual. They have a horror of
abstract thought, they feel no need for any philosophy or systemic ‘world view’. Nor is this because they are ‘practical’, as
they are so fond of claiming for themselves.
One has only to look at their methods of town planning and water supply,
their obstinate clinging that is out of date and a nuisance, a spelling system
that defies analysis, and a system of weights and measures that is intelligible
only to the compliers of arithmetic books, to see how little they care about efficiency. But they have a certain power of acting
without taking thought. Their world
famed hypocrisy – their double-faced attitude towards the Empire, for instance –
is bound up with this.[2]
… the famous ‘insularity’
and ‘xenophobia’ of the English is far stronger in the working class than in the
bourgeoisie. In all countries the poor
are more national than the rich, but the English working class are outstanding
in their abhorrence of foreign habits.
Even when they are obliged to live abroad for years they refuse to
accustom themselves to foreign food or to learn foreign languages. Nearly every Englishman of working class
origin considers it effeminate to pronounce a foreign word correctly. During the war of 1914-18 the English working
class were in contact with foreigners to an extent that is rarely
possible. The sole result was that they
brought back a hatred of all Europeans, except the Germans, whose courage they
admired. In four years on French soil
they did not acquire a liking for wine.
The insularity of the English, their refusal to take foreigners
seriously, is a folly that has to be paid for very heavily from time to time.[3]
Probably the battle of
Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all
subsequent wars have been lost there.
One of the dominant facts in English life during the past three quarters of a century has been the decay of ability
in the ruling class.[4]
England is a family with
the wrong members in control. Almost
entirely we are governed by the rich, and by people who step into positions of
command by right of birth.[5]
The heirs of Nelson
and of Cromwell are not in the House of Lords.
They are in the fields and the streets, in the factories and the armed
forces, in the four-ale bar and the suburban back garden; and at present they are
still kept under by a generation of ghosts.[6]
[1] George
Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn:
Socialism and the English Genius, Intro. by Bernard Crick (Penguin: Harmondsworth,
England, 1982), p. 41. See also John
Harris, “If you’ve got money, you vote in … if you haven’t got money, you vote
out,” The Guardian, Friday June 24 2016 John Harris
[2] Ibid.,, pp. 38,39.
[3] Ibid., p. 49.
[4] Ibid., p. 55.
[5] Ibid., p. 81.
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