Douglas Murray | Love, Gratitude, and Aspiration | NatCon UK

as James was kind enough to just mention I spend most of my time outside of this country these days mainly living in the USA but I also travel to Australia and New Zealand Canada and other territories across the seas and in all of these countries it has become commonplace to open any public address by first of all giving thanks to the first peoples on Whose land we stand I don't know if that tradition has yet arrived on these Shores but I thought nevertheless that I would do a land acknowledgment before I made my remarks this evening so I say with great humility and a basins my deep thanks to the Grosvenor estate The Duke of Westminster the crown estate and His Majesty the king We Stand upon their land and without them we could not be here [Applause] foreign thank you author to James that very kind introduction thank you to joram to everyone at netcon for inviting me back um I wanted to lay out a number of things in the short time I have with you this evening and I wanted to start with a thought what if many of the things that we are focusing on in Britain and the wider West at the moment are a distraction what if they are a distraction because our politicians cannot answer the bigger questions that lie in front of us all let me in no particular order list some of the challenges that the UK faces at the moment we have a rising cost of living we have inflation at above 10 percent becoming a norm we have a country where young people who can't accrue Capital are nevertheless expected automatically to become capitalists we have migration maybe two to three times what it was under the new labor years as a norm we have a housing crisis where targets for house building are never met but in any case it wouldn't matter because the arrival of new migrants into the country effectively takes up all of the housing stock you could aspire to make in a year we have unfunded public sector pensions liabilities of around two trillion pounds an NHS whose budget can never be stopped from rising whoever is in power we have an era we're facing an era where automation is already taking away many blue collar jobs and AI is already taking away many white collar jobs the question also exists of how we get anything done at all in an era of social media where for instance a thoughtful speech might be given by a politician making policy announcements and the headlines become something to do with a heckler a an example plucked from thin air but what do we do when the heckler's veto exists what do we do when as T.S Eliot once said we are distracted from distraction by Distraction and then what do we do about the additional bollards thrown in the way of our society by the radical left bollards like the gender nonsense and the racialization of absolutely everything now it seems to me the left can't solve any of these things at all but it does have answers and the left's answers come of course with the left's Perpetual advantages that includes the advantage that the left has which is that their answers are the same everywhere and always it doesn't matter which country you're in it's always the same set of answers that are put out by the left the demand for instance for equality the demand indeed for equity the demand for social justice as though everyone agrees on exactly what that is and it is achievable in this life and any other the left has extraordinarily little to say actually about all of the problems I listed above but it has very strong weapons for instance and some of you will know the work of helmet Shook and his classic study on this but they have Envy one of the deepest human emotions that exists Envy what a thing to have in your Armory they have resentment again one of the most powerful tools you could have Nietzsche says in the genealogy of morals that the person of resentment has only one way to be hauled out of their life and that is for somebody even Nietzsche doesn't know who he says maybe a secular priest somebody must stand over the life of the person of resentment and say you are correct somebody has ruined your life in the world entire the person is you but nobody exists that we know of in our society who would dare to say that thing that even Nietzsche could only imagine being said so they have resentment as well as Envy then they have a third advantage struggle constant endless struggle where the meaning of life is answered we have the struggle for Equity equality social justice and if you don't agree with me I will keep chanting the same banalities endlessly as though repetition might persuade you they have this Advantage everywhere and always and of course as many people not least Roger scrutin observed conservatives are always at a certain disadvantage and one of those disadvantages comes from the fact that everyone is conserving something different in America for instance they are conserving a republic in Britain we are conserving a constitutional monarchy in France they still think they were right to kill the king although I was fascinated on reading today's Times there is a new monarchist movement emerging in France so we'll see in some countries there is a separation of church and state and that's being preserved by conservatives and in other countries there is not and that's also being conserved this has always made and always will make the job of conservatives infinitely harder than the Simplicity and the banalities uttered by the left and then there are the divides within the conservative movement and just to mention a few that are on some of our minds at the moment there are those who think that the power of the state should never be used against the opponents of the right there are some of us who think that if somebody picks up a tool and uses it with abandon they might need it to be used against them as well someday there are some conservatives who think that we can have a domestic policy or a foreign policy and there are some of us who think that we can have both now what can we answer these questions with what can we on the right answer these questions with I would say that there are three things in particular the first is love perhaps the only answer that exists in particular to end love of country of a family of the people around you love of the culture that has produced you over the tradition and The Inheritance you've been born into this is in some ways still a controversial thing to say because in Europe in particular nationalism after all it sounds different depending on the country you're in nationalism in Israel sounds different nationalism in America sounds different to nationalism in Italy it sounds different to nationalism here in Britain but the Cordon sanitare which used to exist around nationalism until recent years existed not because we didn't trust the idea of love of country not because I would argue there was anything wrong with nationalism in a British context it all came for no recognition that there was a problem with nationalism in a German context and that is simply a historical fact but I see no reason why every other country in the world should be prevented from feeling pride in itself because the Germans marked up twice in a century as I've said before and discussed with your RAM absolutely everything in human existence can go wrong so sure nationalism can go wrong we know that religion can go wrong we in Europe know that but everything can go wrong the Trojan Wars began because of love and even the left have not yet suggested that as a result we should abandon love the second thing we should be able to say that speaks of a similar death is the importance of gratitude when Nietzsche wrote about the man of resentment he said that apart from that telling off that has to be given to him by somebody in his life at some point standing over him the only other answer to the person of resentment situation was gratitude gratitude not just for the things you've been given but also some kind of peace with some of the things that you haven't been given a recognition that you cannot have everything in this life and thirdly I would say one of the deep answers to the problems at the left so an adequately tries to answer is aspiration I don't want to name the minister in question but some years ago and some people here may have been at the same dinner I was at a dinner with a British Minister and it was an off-record thing Chatham House Rules or something like that which is I always say is not only the only thing that Chatham House ever gave to the world but but they also gave a rule that nobody quite understands but they were on Chatham House Rules I prefer um as James knows I prefer the um what Lord Franks described as Keeping a Secret in the Oxford sense which is that you only tell one person at a time [Music] um at this off record occasion the minister was being interviewed by somebody who was very very well informed and did something slightly cruel which I wouldn't have done myself but he pointed to a young waiter on the side of the room and he said young man how old are you a young man said 25. the man said do you own a house I said no he said do you think you'll ever own a house he said no said to the minister what do you say to that young man this I hope is not seen by anyone who knows the person I'm talking about as too deep a personal attack but the minister in question ended up waffling for quite a long time and ended up talking about Brownfield sites now if the left is working with envy and resentment and struggle you better have more than Brownfield sites and the only thing that I know of that can take out resentment at that level is aspiration is the opportunity to build a country in which young people actually believe that if they work hard they will get something better than they could have expected that they will be rewarded for their labor that they will not live a worse life than their parents but if they work hard will be suitably rewarded and will have a better life than their parents aspiration is the only answer to the life of resentment offered by the left now I have one other thought to throw out there and it's not really a thought so much as a challenge what would we be doing if the left was not holding us back what would we be doing what would we be striving for and seeking to achieve in a country like this one what would be our aims what would be our Ambitions what would we wish to become the left is making us go at the speed of the slowest kid in the class and we need to say we don't have time for this we don't have time for instance to undo the first thing we know as a species what is that thing a boy or a girl we don't have time to pretend that we don't know we don't have time for people who want to pretend there's a hundred genders or maybe 80 who whenever I debate them by the way can never explain very basic things like what a non-binary person is how it differs from genderqueer or anything else personally speaking I have no more time for these people they've wasted enough of my life so what would we be doing if we didn't have to go at the speed of the stupidest kid in the class the left talks about unleashing Talent but nowhere whether attempts have been made has it yet worked everything that they have come up with in our era whether it is die or CRT or any of these other things none of them have worked anywhere not in one country not in one District not in one school they have worked nowhere not in a hedge fund not in a bank not in a supermarket not in any corporate office and yet this idea that has worked nowhere is in the process of being rolled out everywhere that is madness it is it is madness to try to follow a process that has never yet Unleashed Talent I would also suggest that instead of only talking about minority rights we also once again remember that there is a thing called majority rights that that is important as minority rights are majority rights matter as well you might like to help 0.2 percent of the population but how about giving a damn about 51 percent now everybody has their own answers to this nobody is going to have the same answer to the question of what they or we would be doing with our time if we weren't being forced to go at this excruciating speed Elon musk's answer is getting to Mars and I have to say I enormously admire him for it if you ask him why he wants to go to Mars he will tell you we have to have a reason to get up in the morning it's a brilliant answer and if you don't want to go to Mars find your own reason for getting up in the morning and find a reason that could make other people want to get up to we should be creating in a society like this one not discussing problems that were solved Millennia ago not pretending we don't know things that everyone knew until yesterday we should be innovating we shouldn't be trying to rip apart our history we should be making history we should be leaving things we should be leaving things better for the next generation than they were for ourselves we should be creating things of which our successes will in turn feel Pride one of the reasons why our lamentable attitude to the past that we have today is so utterly lamentable apart from the historical idiocy of being amazed that everybody in history did not think what we think in 2023 one of the reasons to be saying about it is because to treat the past with some kindness and understanding is a request to those who come after us to treat us in a similar way we would wish to be understood by those who come after us in a spirit of understanding so we have to approach those who came before us in a similar light I repeat what would we be doing if we weren't being made to do this now some people say to me Douglas the problem is and I get this a lot in particular from University students the conditions are just not optimal no too many problems I listed some of them at the beginning can't accrue capital I can't get on the housing ladder can't find a partner can't find and deny other half can't find love can't find this can't find that and until the conditions are optimal I'm putting off everything else in my life it's an extremely common complaint and I wanted to finish by saying that there is an answer to this problem the answer was actually given in 1939 the University Church of Saint Mary the virgin in Oxford it was given to the University Church by a man who was James mentioned was also on the list of suspicious authors along with me which made me very proud I have to say but this is what C.S Lewis said in the Autumn of 1939. human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself if man had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure the search would never have begun life has never been normal even those periods which we think most tranquil like the 19th century turn out on closer inspection to be full of crises alarms difficulties emergencies plausible reasons have never been lacking for putting off all merely cultural activities until some imminent danger has been averted or some crying Injustice put right but Humanity long ago chose to neglect those plausible reasons they wanted knowledge and beauty and they wanted them now and they would not wait for the suitable moment that never comes periclean Athens leaves us not only the parthen but significantly the funeral oration the insects have chosen a different line they have sought first the material welfare and the security of the hive and presumably they can enjoy their award but men are different they propound mathematical theorems in beleaguered cities they conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells make jokes on scaffolds discuss the last new poem whilst advancing to the walls of Quebec and comb their hair at the gates of Thermopylae this is not panash it is our nature I would like to think that we can heed the words of C.S Lewis in far less propitious times thank you thank you

Channel: National Conservatism

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Length: 24min 41sec (1481 seconds)

Published: Wed May 17 2023