A Guardian writer, among the many elites who considered all Brexit supporters xenophobes, proclaimed his “badge of shame” at being British after the vote, no matter that he now lives in France anyway. In The Salisbury Review Dalrymple notes the irony in such prideful “shame”:
But the interesting thing about the passage above is the evident and overweening pride that runs through it. The man who wrote it is middle-aged: he has kept his ‘badge of shame’ for decades after he could, if he had felt genuine shame about it, have got rid of it. No, his pride is to have a badge of shame, extravagantly exhibited, in order to demonstrate his moral superiority over other people who wear the same badge who are not as intelligent, educated or morally sensitive as he. This is the prideful shame of the poseur, of the moral exhibitionist. Moral exhibitionism is now the déformation professionelle (I use the French expression to establish that I am no xenophobe) of the intellectuals.
NOTE: I apologize for the recent gap in posts, as I was away on a very enjoyable visit to the good doctor in France.
Thanks for the note. I missed your writing.
Thanks for YOUR note, Winnette. That is very kind of you. My brother and I work struggle to keep up with Dr Daniels’s output, so it is always nice to understand that there are actually people out there reading!
In 2001 I was a candidate for Ukip (although I came from Romania). Everybody accused me of being anti-European. I was aghast. I kept shouting from the rooftops: “I am not anti-European, I am actually pro-European, I am just anti-EU.” I then left London and have been living in France since 2002 (impossible to educate children in London unless you are loaded) but still travel to London for work. I rent a tiny room in the East End and I can see the atmosphere has changed. The English underclass are more confident…they believe all these foreigners will now go away so the locals will be able to get that council flat which will bring in lots of money when sublet. Little do they know…Brexit will not prevent Somalis, Pakistanis (masquerading as Afghans), any black person (from Lagos to Manchester but pretending to be from Rwanda) to have priority to those nice flats in the Olympic Village.
Thanks for your interesting perspective, Mariana. I suppose once Brexit is complete, it would be up to Britain itself to make those changes. Are you saying that you doubt they would do so?
Just out of curiosity, in what part of France does TD spend his time? I’ve occasionally seen him make mention of the area in his writings, but I’ve wondered which city or village he found suited his tastes (not that there’s any shortage of options in the French countryside).
Brian, he and his wife have an old farmhouse in the very remote countryside in the Ardeche region. There is a small town somewhat nearby (I don’t want to say, because I’d hate to invade his privacy), but it really is quite remote. I can’t begin to do justice to the beauty of the area or the weather (oh my goodness the weather). Fields of sunflowers, steep canyons, the smell of lavender in the air, long and deep cave networks, rivers of almost perfectly clear water that is great for swimming or canoeing, Vallon Pont d’Arc. It is paradise.
Thanks, Clinton. I’m sure this provides some nice relief from the British weather. I’ll be in Amboise next week enjoying some of that weather myself!
Enjoy yourself, Brian! I assume you are going to go see some castles?