Us and them

I mean, I don’t know, I suppose they’re ok depending on how you look at it, but what they did in the 30’s and 40’s, and ’64 is particularly inexcusable, (oh and ’88) — and I daren’t mention the unmentionable — but I won’t go into detail here because I don’t want to get into an argument and I also won’t hark back to those very very dark dark years when they did what they did whilst we just stood on and watched and didn't do much back - believe me they have their legitimate grievances too; I’m not a complete fascist - despite the fact they always seem to initiate, but you have to wonder what type of person countenances such behaviour and not only that, so quick to shout off about how we were the aggressors and they the innocent little victims when the whole thing is patently ridiculous.

Look, they’re ok. They’re not monsters. I know some of us fall into the trap of believing they’re all bad — some of us are more nuanced and will slide into protracted debate about who and what exactly constitutes ‘them’ - but that’s just not the case, I mean not the case that they’re all bad. It’s too easy and blinkered and doesn’t solve anything. I can forgive them for what they did at least some of the things. Like us they probably want a quiet life. They’re not inhuman; they have their good qualities, good human qualities. I go so far as to consider some of them my equals. It’s not necessarily their fault. It is a mistake to think they’re all bad, to tar them with the same dirty brush. There is no future for rigidity.

Yes I know it is a bit of cliché, oft said, even more oft repeated, but most of them are fine on a basic human level. I have nothing against them personally; quite a few of my friends are them, are from there, they’re decent people and we have a good deal in common: we work with them, they with us and some of our children go to schools with theirs, but when push comes to shove I know where we stand, I know that they’re not going to look out for us, be for us, far from it, so I’m basically pushed into adopting this stance, I have to look after me and us, first and foremost, because no one else will, least of all them.

And then I’m ashamed to say this so please forgive me, bear with me, but I think that they’re actually different to us, not just culturally, because we have completely different cultures and ways of seeing the world, that’s not even up for debate, but they just look different, they walk and talk differently, they have a particular way of twisting and turning their shoulders and they stand slightly off-kilter and that makes a difference, and they eat completely different food etc., and I suppose that’s what makes us us and them them and you can tell of one of them a mile off, when I see one of our own coming my heart reaches out, it’s natural is it not, and when I see one of them, well I won’t say there’s revulsion but certainly a moment of trepidation because you never know what they might do and there’s a lot of history behind this whole thing that can’t be just be swept away in one gesture.

God we are far from perfect don’t get me wrong. We’re not angels. But we would never willingly hurt anyone, we submit to the highest possible moral standards, woe betide anyone who accuses us of anything like that, and then I can’t help thinking of, well, I don’t want to go down that road, what they did was utterly barbaric and we can never forgive them for it. It goes without saying, does it not, and the words don’t really matter. Everything we do is justified. Can you honestly say the same for them? 

We are not inhuman but we’re not gods either. If we were gods then we’d live and let live, free and ineluctably. There would be no conditions. I’m not saying I’m not for peace, I am for peace, but peace on what terms is the question. The peace needs to be good for us not just for them. Our peace, and this might sound controversial, is more important than their peace, I mean what about our children, we need to guarantee a safe world for our children do we not. Besides all the arguments about whether they want peace, whether they can keep a peace which I’m sure they can’t - well I have my doubts at best - I mean why would you trust them as far as you could throw them?

And then I can’t help thinking that there would be peace if they hadn’t done what they did. If it was us, us and only us, there’d be peace hands down. It it was up to us I mean, if we had control. How can you argue with that? And the world does argue. I can’t help thinking that we’d be sitting round the negotiation table here and now, if they weren’t, and hadn’t been, so pigheaded, conceited, dogmatic, if they weren’t so full of themselves, if they weren’t so out to get us, no, not every single one of them, for sure not every last one of course I don’t think that, but you only need one or two bad apples to make the cider go sour or whatever the expression is. It doesn’t take much.

So if they just sharpened up their act a little bit, took some bloody responsibility for ’32, for the January Calamity for the Island Invasions in 1661 which I promised myself I wouldn’t mention but there you go, if they could only see what is so obvious to the rest of the world then things would be find between us and them, I would hold a much higher opinion of them, I wouldn’t be so bloody angry with them and what they appear to stand for.

But I fear, and I could be wrong, that the matter is unresolvable. What would it take? A paradigm shift too radical to contemplate. I don’t think I’m ready for that yet and I can bet my bottom dollar that they aren’t either.