Apology To The Stupid
Like most people, I find myself surrounded by the stupid. It is very likely that in the eyes of others I fit nicely into this category myself. We are all susceptible to the whispers of our ego which can fool us into believing we are more than we really are.
I have had many friends and family members who have told me their opinion only for me to disregard them. I did not give them the attention required to understand the point being made. I brushed away these utterances as irrelevant for I understood more than them. I had a better education and I was more intelligent. Even if the above was true, which it is not, only a fool dismisses ideas purely based on the messenger. A broken clock is still right twice a day.
It can be difficult to understand an opinion if you have not lived the same life and shared the same experiences. That is why we need to ask questions, probe for more information, and get to the crux of the argument. Dismissing a messenger for having poor communication skills only highlights one's own lack of such skills. Knowledge takes hard work to attain, if it was easy we would all be masterminds.
I owe many people an apology. Not because they were stupid, but because I did not listen and take onboard their concerns. They turned out to be correct on many topics. They were decades ahead of me for now I realise they had a valid point. I was offered valuable information yet rejected it because my bigotry and overinflated ego got in the way.
All through my life friends have told me that they felt immigration was getting out of control and the country was being changed forever. I always dismissed such claims as ignorant, bigoted and even semi-racist. Immigrants were not damaging the country.
What I meant was that immigrants were not damaging my life or having any negative effect on me at all. So what was the problem? In this sentence are the problem and the answer. I was viewing the issue only through my eyes, not my friend's.
I did not have children so was not fighting to get my child into a local school. I was not worried about the school coping with 20 different languages that take time away from my child's education.
I purchased a derelict house in my twenties for cash so have never worried about finding an affordable home to rent or buy. I do not worry about my non-existent children never being able to get on the property ladder.
I am in good health so never worry about getting a doctor's appointment or a quick hospital procedure. I do not use State provided facilities so never worry about them being over-prescribed and inadequate. For most of my life, it was just me, and I looked after myself.
My friends had a point, immigration is not beneficial to working-class people.
Growing up I knew many people who had negative opinions of the police. They were bully-boys, corrupt, political stormtroopers, and undemocratic. Unsurprising opinions if you have been involved in petty crime, arrested and prosecuted. I found it very easy to disregard such opinions when spouted by criminals.
I have always been a huge supporter of the police. In my early teens, my career plan was to join the army or the police after leaving school. My mum secretly nudged me towards the police for she worried about Northern Ireland. In the early 80s, you could join the police at sixteen years old as a full-time paid cadet. At eighteen you became a police officer. Unfortunately for me, the year I left school the cadets were cancelled. I was advised to apply to be a police officer when I was 21 years old. I never did but my support for the heroes who keep our streets safe never diminished. I only saw the police through my eyes.
Life takes many strange turns and in my forties, I found myself based in police stations as a council-manager. I saw the police close up – warts and all. It was a disappointment.
I saw first-hand the politicisation of the police. How politicians could and did interfere with day-to-day policing. It was accepted and promoted that different communities were policed differently. This led to police officers overtly supporting groups, causes and specific communities. I will not discuss in this article the incompetence, laziness and poor attitude of some officers.
The last couple of years has made me re-evaluate my automatic support for the police. I have seen officers take a knee to racist Marxists, shout 'Free Palestine', and actively promote political causes. While at the same time, officers have been out on the streets raping and murdering. As well as selling drugs, helping organised crime groups, and masturbating in parks while in full uniform.
If you block a road in the name of eco-terrorism you are handled with kid gloves, spoken with softly and protected from angry motorists. But tweet a joke offending someone in the alphabet community then you are arrested at your home and in front of your children.
The police I support seems to no longer exist. I find it harder and harder to say I am a supporter. Part of me now thinks they are part of the problem - this upsets me.
My friends had a point, our police are not what we think they are.
Do not vote in elections for it only encourages politicians! We have all heard of something similar to this phrase. The disdain we have for our politicians is shocking. History shows us that every civilization dislikes its leaders for we think they are feathering their own nests – sometimes they are. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. But the British are different, are we not?
The MP expenses scandal was a low point in British politics. How could so many decent people treat public money with such a lack of respect? The answer is easy and simple – culture. It was what was done when one became an MP. I must point out that not all MPs took advantage, some remained honourable.
Let us look at Parliament today. We have recently convicted criminals sitting in the House Of Commons and taking a salary - one individual threatened to throw acid in a woman's face. We have others who were instrumental in creating restricted Covid laws yet broke these same laws themselves. We have a married MP who stopped families from seeing each other but was happy to have an affair at the same time. If you can betray your wife and children, how easy do you think it would be to betray your country?
The pandemic showed us what many of our politicians really think of us. They think we are children in need of guidance, help and protection. They have forgotten that they work for us and seem to believe they are our rulers, not our servants.
What is the point of voting when you always get the same outcome? Even the one time that every vote was of equal worth, the 2016 referendum, the result was not respected by the majority of MPs. This one act of true democracy highlighted the contempt many of our politicians have for us. Stupid. Ignorant. Uninformed. Racist. Bigoted. Deplorable.
We were told that not all Brexit voters were racists, but all racists voted for Brexit. How insulting is such a statement?
Has anything changed since Brexit? No. Absolutely nothing. The European courts still rule above us. Immigration is higher than it has ever been. No national pride has been returned. I would say the country is in a worse position today than it was in 2016 – albeit, this is due to world events, not Brexit, but it is still disappointing to admit.
So my friends have a point, voting does not change anything.
Animals have instincts developed over millennia - humans are animals. We see, hear and understand more than we appreciate. Babies know when they are hungry. Rabbits know to keep away from foxes. A hedgehog automatically curls up into a ball when afraid. Overthinking a dangerous situation can be fatal, therefore we rely on our instinct.
My friends had instincts. My friends were not stupid, ignorant or bigoted. They were closer to danger so their instincts were sharper and more attuned to the environment. My naivety stopped me from seeing reality. This may have been beneficial on a personal level and allowed me to flourish. But viewed longer term, it harmed society so negatively affected me also.
I apologise to my friends who I discounted when they raised their concerns over immigration. You were correct, it is out of control.
I apologise to my friends who I discounted when they raised their concerns over the police. You were correct, they are dysfunctional.
I apologise to my friends who I discounted when they raised their concerns over our politicians. You were correct, they are not good enough.
Finally, I must apologise to my younger self. I do not want to for I do not deserve it. But the title of this article dictates I must.
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