Unsurprisingly, the onset of democracy has deeply disturbed some of the world’s remote, nepotistic communities. The beeboids who live in the Hampstead, Camden and Primrose Hills exemplify this.
These tight communities tend to be inward looking both intellectually and socially, with few willing to encounter anything north of Barnet or south of the Thames. Those familiar with them say they tend to constantly monitor world news, but only selectively to absorb facts that can be used to confirm their own prejudices.
There is so much inbreeding at the BBC that some news reporters are said to have six fingers on their right hand, and 12 on the left. This is thought to be the source of the phrase “even handed BBC reporting”.
The news of a series of free and fair elections, taking in the full range of opinions of the complete spectrum of society, has understandably terrified them. Brexit saw some luvvies, such as ‘Even’ Davis, visibly shrinking like salted snails. There are fears they may withdraw even further into their secretive society, shutting out the world and becoming obsessed with survival.
Amazingly, their divisive, socially exclusive Survivalist websites are funded by the British taxpaper through a TV licence. The upside of this is that it affords us access and a glimpse into the mentality of these secretive communities. You soon come to realise that their pomposity and inability to handle the free market of opinions shields a massive insecurity.
A typical conspiracy theory website, BBC Magazine, provides a Survivor’s Guide to the current outbreaks of democracy in Britain and the US. Once you’ve stocked up on your prejudices, headed for the hills and shut out the world of free thought, the BBC has tips on how to survive until a new Nepotistic Order – Nepocracy – can be re-established.
The writer, Harry Low (probably not his real name but a pun on diminished expectations) outlines the main fears of thesefrightened people as he interviews Ravi Palanisamy, a member of the public. In the tight knit BBC community, this term means the subject is either the interviewer’s flatmate, a person they went to college with or a family friend.
Low asks his Ravi what he learnt about survival during the Tragedy of Brexit?
“I was immediately struck by this realisation that the country that I thought I lived in – progressive, multi-racial, tolerant, forward-thinking, outward-looking – was just London, and not the UK as a whole. It felt unsettling,” says Ravi. So outside London, everyone is a savage, says the man who doesn’t like bigotry.
But as time went on, Ravi began to get used to the idea. “It’s just like a grieving process – there are different stages. That day it was the shock, the disbelief but then quite quickly – within a few days – I’d read a lot and rationalised or understood it more,” says the survivor. He has now come to terms with the fact that UK people are savages. He is musing a move to Sweden, which is encouraging, because that really will be a learning process, especially if he heads for Malmo.
It’s quite encouraging that even simple, inward looking people like this, who are used to having everything their own way and never having their opinions challenged, can begin to try to understand democracy. Within just ‘a few days’!
As you read this Survivor’s Guide, it’s hard not to feel humbled. (I mean humbled in the modern showboating socialist-lite sense of the word, which means ‘rather pleased with yourself’).
But it’s also possible to be saddened by the narrow horizons and baseless worries of Survivalist community members quoted, such as Luke Jones and Alice Fermor-Hesketh. It’s almost as if they are projecting illogical fears onto others and wishing for a world of imaginary pain that they can wallow in.
Fittingly, as large sections of humanity descend into mawkishness and schmaltz, it takes a machine to make the connection between this and other forms of collective madness. The most telling observation on this community comes from an algorithm, which links this webpage to another story that might appeal to people with Survivalist syndrome.
Why does this woman think she is ugly, asks the headline to a piece on Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD).
The story describes a societal condition that persaudes a woman who is clearly beautiful that she is ugly and worthless. Both stories have similar themes of seeing ugliness instead of beauty, choosing pessimism rather than optimism and seeking a dismal, inward looking frightened and lonely life.
How does this happen? How do people end up thinking the world is so terrible? Who puts out these grim divide-and-rule messages? Who is Projecting Fear?
All this anti-social, inward looking, hate mongering: I mean, who gives licence to it?
(Image: David Howard)
