Conquerer comes from old French, the remnants of when Britain was last invaded. The fear of being reinvaded and a self-defensive belief in the ‘strength’ British culture is somewhat an oxymoron when the very etymology of the word comes from a conqueror.
Culture is the way a society adapts to change. Once a successful adaption takes root, those ideas become a ‘way of living’, a ‘new normal’ we have bandied about so often during Covid times. British heritage has developed over centuries of winning (after losing badly to the Normans). It is that winning that has made the cultural ‘way of life’ seem like the ‘right’ choice, and subsequently there has been somewhat less raping and pillaging.
British culture is easily hijacked by these fancies of historical Imperialism, by ‘Greatness’ which was the label attached to foreign cultural initiatives in those far-flung countries once ruled by Empire. To win a battle you need the confidence to know you are right and that confidence comes from a cultural identity that considers itself superior. This would be fine if Britain continued to subjugate foreign lands, however, it doesn’t seem to play out quite as well on home soil. The locals are baffled at seeing these slogans from the British past placed in their backyards.
How does this relate to the ‘rural invasion’? Because right now I’m looking at empty buildings in the middle of London. Something I find unfathomable in such a densely populated area and something that is happening precisely because of the changing meaning of words in this culture.
London is building at a fantastic rate. When I first saw the high-rises, soaring above the normal 3 to 4-story buildings, I was happy. Now was a time when the people that run London can get a home closer to work. They won’t have to complete a 60-hour week and still face delays and transport issues, traveling to a home they can barely afford. Central London was becoming a place where people could not just work, but live as well… because, well, just look at the size of those buildings. Look at the number of flats, there are so many, they must be knocking a dent in the housing crisis… Right?
“One Crown Place Challenges the Perception of what a City stands for. “
If the ‘Crown’ – the very leadership fabric of this country says so, it must be true! A very exciting way of making communal living seem the ‘new normal’. The last time Britain had communal living like this, they were called workhouses. It gave families shelters to keep them working 6 days a week.
Park Central West boasts, without a hint of irony towards the workhouse days. It offers a studio apartment for 1,774 a month. And after a series of reference checks, you must be found to earn over 30 times that in your annual salary to live there. A single person must earn around 54k to buy a room with a kitchen in it.
“An exclusive Zone 1 development, in close proximity to key transport links, and the best of the creative, cultural and social experiences London has to offer, The Boulevard has been designed to reflect and enhance the unique character and iconic heritage of the area.”
Bla bla bla ‘culture’ ‘heritage’ bla bla bla.
After a few months of living in Elephant and Castle, I noticed these flats were becoming the new wasteland. There are 3 reasons I considered why. The obvious one is the price, they are too high for any local that has been vacated from this area. They may be bought by an overseas investor hoping to park their money, or as a second home. Or the occupants are simply working too many hours to pay for the flat they can barely exist in.
With more living space, more flats and more room came less opportunities for people with lower income and the removal of the previous locals. I don’t blame the council, they have been systematically underfunded for years. However, the jump between social housing and private rent shows just how unsustainable the current living culture has become. And this culture has not changed. There is no ‘new normal’, just the same capitalist trajectory that started in the early 90’s accelerated in the 00s, and continues under a new bunch of words that we have been culturally conditioned to obey.
Nobody mentions the ‘B’ word anymore. Brexit has become a thing of the media’s past. Lack of petrol, lack of deliveries, lack of building materials for these incessantly feeding beasts of construction are “because of the pandemic”, because there are no HV-whatever truckdrivers, we are accepting and adjusting. The stiff upper lip has clicked into place and we don’t dare mention the idiocy that got us here in the first place. Because we have to be right, we simply cannot be wrong. Britain is and has always been, a winner.
These fortresses built will be full of immigrants half the population voted to keep out. Except these will be the rich immigrants that the government loves so much, those who have the funds to lobby laws and occupy spaces where the cleaners, and ground workers in the city once lived on.
But we cannot simply be wrong.
Brexit was staged on a battle of words, ‘to take back control’ is a particularly good war cry if I ever heard one. One particular political member who was all up for taking back control was Nigel Farage, who now owns a finance company that calls for investors to “fight for their financial freedom.” Brexit was a collision of war-mongering words harking back to a time of winning, but do we really need to revert back to the wealthy demanding more autonomy?
The culture of this society has long outlived this type of rule, yet because of historical references to British heritage, society was manipulated. Now is the unwelcome lesson of learning how to lose, but let’s not make it any more painful than it has to be.