David Cameron and the madness of the English ruling class
- By Heiko Khoo
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 23, 2015
Their influence stems from holding the pre-eminent position in the capitalist world until World War I. When U.S. capitalism overtook Britain in the 1920s, its ruling class lacked the continuity of medieval ritual and the global cultural reach of the British imperial administration, generating clone-like emulation of the petty habits of the English ruling class amongst colonial elites.
Their valued character traits combine feudal conceit with imperial arrogance. A stiff upper lip, callous indifference, self-righteous barbarism, and the ability to wash away the most heinous crimes, and still cloak themselves in indignant pride – such are the traditional common traits of the English ruling class.
At the end of the Second World War, the working class stamped its mark on British society. The 1945 Labour government created the National Health Service and a comprehensive welfare state and the mores of the old ruling class gave way to egalitarian values, which became universally accepted.
The imagined superior culture of the elite was refuted by the fact that all significant cultural impulses that became associated with the world image of Britain, came from the working class.
In fact, even when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her successor John Major attempted to reconstruct a myth of positive conservative values, it was based on rejecting the influence of the landed elites and their traditional methods of social and cultural reproduction – through "public schools" and the Oxford and Cambridge route to power and influence.
The fall of the Thatcherite conservatives – based on parvenu shopkeepers, and arrogant, get-rich-quick market traders – opened the door for the return of the old ruling class "culture" within the conservative establishment.
The Blairite Labour interregnum (1997-2008) was supposedly based on innovative skills and a modern classless society; however, the material foundation for this disappeared in the economic collapse in 2008.
The Conservative-Liberal government elected in 2010 opened the door for the apparent revival of the younger generation of the old ruling class: replete with their affinity for initiation rituals and elite clubs. As the previous generation of the old conservative elite are dying off, revelations have emerged that cabinet ministers, MPs and a former Prime Minster in the 1970s, were deeply implicated in paedophile rings preying on young children from care homes that enjoyed protection from the very top.
Karl Marx once wrote that: "History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, then as a farce" and he seems to be right in regard to the English ruling class.
Heiko Khoo is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn
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