The Future – A Millennial’s Prayer

3rd December 2017 Jonathon Davies History, Islam, Philosophy, Politics, Terrorism 2,266

“Here comes the 21st Century, it’s gonna be so much better for a Taff like me…”

 

It is now a well-worn internet meme. “I bet in the future we will have a cure for cancer, flying cars, and all sorts of cool stuff…” then a picture and/or caption next to it showing something backward or ridiculous that is still happening, or shows regression of society.

For Millennials like myself and my friends this type of meme seems particularly poignant. The 80s had been a great decade to be a young kid. Yes the fashion was inexcusable, but the music was great and there were loads of cool films like Gremlins and The Goonies, etc. TV series like Stranger things and books like Ready Player One hark back to these. Everyone loved computer games. These were on tape to start and took an hour to load. I remember when the first Nintendo NES came out. I got one and played Duck Hunt for hours, and Super Mario. Going on holiday was great. Security at Cardiff Wales Airport was laughably simple. You just rolled up and showed the passports for everyone in your group. They didn’t even have to be at the counter. You could take all your food and drink on board with you. There were even smoking sections on the plane. I remember being allowed to go and see the pilot. I loved watching Star Wars and re-runs of Star Trek. I have always been a full on sci-fi and fantasy geek/nerd.

Next came the 90s. Video games got even better. Wales got progressively worse at rugby. But hey. Edgy bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam arrived, which suited my angsty teenage years. To be fair I was never much of a rebel, but I did have long hair and mope about. A new series of Star Trek was made. I really loved History at school, probably started by my grandfathers talking to me about the war. This is a period of nostalgia for me. Life was settled. There were no wars, and hadn’t been for decades. Yes, there was a foray in the Falklands, and the IRA, but they left Wales alone. The first Iraq war had been easy. It was akin to the German advance in to Poland, where the Poles charged tanks on horse back. Super high tech fighter planes and helicopters took out enemies from miles away without being seen. Many people commented it resembled video games. It seemed those great big wars that my grandfathers fought in were things of the past. Nothing could stand up to the might of the USA and UK. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arrived, and everyone ate pizza. Or hero turtles as they were called in the UK. When asked why, they said it was not politically correct, whatever that was.

Now cast your minds back to the heady days of 1997. I was a now mere slip of a lad of 17. I was in the Sixth Form, studying for my A levels. The first really affordable mass produced mobile phones were coming out, and some of my friends had them.The economy was going well, and a certain Anthony Blair had just become Prime Minister. This, I was assured by the BBC, was wonderful and would see an end to 18 years of Tory misrule. There was wall to wall coverage of him arriving at Downing Street, with flags waving and pop stars to greet him. I generally ignored it, and carried on with my life. I wasn’t particularly woke back then, inexperienced and still finding my way in the world. Cool Britannia was in. Spice Girls, Oasis, Blur, etc. Life seemed great, the future bright all round and I was looking forward to University. To think I would see the new millennium in my lifetime. What wonders would it bring? I bet in the future we will have a cure for cancer, flying cars, and all sorts of cool stuff…

Was I ridiculously naïve? Yes, but as I say I was 17. You are allowed to dream. And why shouldn’t the future be better than the past? Surely this was what my grandparents generation had fought for. I have never voted for Blair or Labour. I was too young to vote first time around, and subsequent events would mean I didn’t in any election.  1998 My final year of A levels, the bombings of the US Embassies took place in Nairobi in Kenya, and the less well known simultaneous strike in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania. It was the first time I ever heard the name Bin Laden mentioned on the news. But these were far away countries, where bad stuff happened. Tragic, but what could you do?

Video games reached their zenith with Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (those who know, know). I started University, and 1999 came around. The millennium bug  was being talked about. Would the world end?   No, was my immediate thought. Cliff  Richard released a  Christmas song “The Millennium Prayer,” which I initially didn’t pay any attention to. It went to number one. Suddenly there was a rash of complaints about it, and him. I couldn’t understand. The song was naff, but it was a Christmas song about Christmas, released at Christmas, by a Christian.  Why so much abuse? This was an early look at what are now called SJWs, and there insidious ways.  Despite thinking the song was pants, I thought he had every right to release it.  But looking back now the early warning signs were there. And also for Cliff. The SJWs were not finished with him, as he found out in  2014.   But the Millennium came, the bug didn’t. I continued my studies into the brave new era. All around the  Uk, even the world in general, seemed a better place than many years ago.  Thoughts turned once again to the future. What kind of job would I do? What new opportunities would there be? Maybe we would send people to Mars? I bet in the future we will have a cure for cancer, flying cars, and all sorts of cool stuff. What could possibly go wrong…

 

Little did I realise that the 21st Century would be dominated by mass migration and Islamic terrorism.  9/11  kicked off wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Allied troops were bogged down and  fighting a guerrilla  war  across tough terrain, often under equipped. Many casualties resulted.  These in turn caused many to flee those countries, often seeking to get in to Europe. Saddam was defeated and eventually captured, but the seeds of ISIS were being sown. All the while Blair had thrown open the gates of the UK to all and sundry. Waves of migrants moved in. 2002 I saw some Muslims I had been friendly with in school, a guy called Usman. Things were different now. It was hard to say how or why. After that I never saw them again. His sister was wearing a hijab. All through school she had never worn one. My friend’s kid brother was still in our old school. he said all the girls wore them now, after 9/11.  It now took hours to get through airport security, and you couldn’t take anything on board. But they won’t change our way of life, we all said.

I had my first “real” job in 2004. The 7/7 bombings happened in 2005. London  tube trains and a bus ripped apart.  Over 50 dead. But they won’t break us, we were told, over and over and over. And I kept thinking “it wasn’t supposed to be like this.” What was wrong with these people? Didn’t they enjoy our prosperity and free way of life?  2007 the Glasgow Airport attack. The answer was clearly “no.”

2011 the so-called “Arab Spring” came about, trumpeted as a democratic revolution. It was really a cover for Jihadists to overthrow autocratic, more secular leaders, often dictators. Every time we interfered the situation became worse, and generated more migrants. And once again, we let more of them in, heedless of the dangers. A boy died on a beach, and that was all that mattered.

2013 Lee Rigby was cut down in the street in broad daylight.  “Surely now,” I thought, “people will see what’s happening. There will be a reaction. The government will do something.” Ironic Lol. I should have known. Another disappointment.

Now 2017.  Westminster. Manchester. Borough Market. Parsons Green.  And I haven’t even listed the plots that failed. Things are getting worse, not better. Our country is slipping away, piece by piece, before our very eyes. All the while there are “industrial fireworks,” “gas explosions,” “chemical leaks” and things spontaneously catching fire beneath motorway bridges, while cars mysteriously mount pavements and hit pedestrians in “road traffic accidents.” We’re not stupid, we know what’s going on.

There is a lack of integration. Rather than adapting to our ways, the reverse is happening. We seem to be accommodating the worst practices of the new arrivals. FGM still has few or no prosecutions. Child rapes gangs are covered up for fear of racism. Acid attacks are on the rise. Diseases we thought gone in the UK have reappeared. Christmas adverts now barely mention Christianity, if at all. Diversity is strength we are told. Yet diverse areas have the highest crime rates. London has moped robberies and stabbings galore. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Islamic terrorism continues unabated. 7/7 was just the warm up attack. Terror arrests are now regular in most big towns. Plots are regularly foiled. Some as we have seen are not.  At least 23,000 jihadists on the loose in the UK. MI5 says they can’t monitor them all or stop all attacks. All the while the police seem to be less and less concerned with real crime. Time is taken up with virtue signalling, wearing high heels and spray painting cars. Yet they are ever so keen to pursue people online for “hate crime.” Along with our government they wish to use Orwell’s 1984 as an instruction manual, rather than a warning. Freedoms ate chipped away at, the state expands and becomes more authoritarian. And above all, we know you cannot criticise Islam. Anyone who points out the problem is rounded on, and branded”far-right.” Rugby fans face an hour way to get through security for a match. Full body searches and no bags. Armed police patrol Christmas markets. But they won’t change our way of life.

All a far cry from the dreams I and my friends had of the future. History taught me that civilization can and will regress. After Rome fell, we lost knowledge on medicine, engineering, etc. Christianity was assaulted by the first wave of Islamic expansion. It was cut off from the Christian East. Knowledge from Roman times was cut off for centuries, not to be “rediscovered” until the renaissance. I fear another regression, as we seem determined to descend in to barbarism, while rich elites and celebrities wall themselves off in ivory towers. Many arriving do not share western values on rights, democracy, law. If you import the third world, you get third world problems.

And video games? Fighting Nazis. Wolfenstein 2. The new Call of Duty. Far Cry, etc. What does that tell you?

So as I sit here listening to the latest Sam Smith dirge, watching the non-Christmas Christmas adverts, what do I pray for now? I pray for Brexit to be delivered. This is an important first step in regaining our autonomy, securing our borders and renewing our laws. Without this the well springs of national genius will not be freed. Islam and migration are not going away. One of the few true things Cameron said was that it will be a generational struggle. I pray our politicians wake up before it is too late, or they are replaced by new ones who are woke, who can restore British values and turn the tide. I pray the evils of socialism will be exposed, and Corbyn and McDonnell have no chance to destroy this country. I pray the wave of populism continues to sweep across Europe, and washes away the corruption and menace of the EU. I pray for a future where it is okay to be white. Who knows, maybe then in the future we will have a cure for cancer, flying cars, and all sorts of cool stuff…

© Jonathon Davies 2017