Precision in speech and language is, I think, a good goal to aim for. With this in mind, I decided it was time I took a good look at my virulent hatred of modern Conservatism, or Toryism.
To do so I had a bit of a read of various online definitions of certain terms, starting with Tory. It appears the term Tory began as an Irish insult:
The above image is a screenshot of an etymological definition. One of the things that fascinates me about history – and etymology is the history of words – is how things evolve; what changes and what remains the same, for example.
I find it incredibly poignant that an Irish term for robbers or highwaymen should have become the standard term for a political philosophy that remains based on thievery. The irony is both colossal, and pitch perfect.
But returning to the longer term history of the ideas of Toryism, as opposed to simply the origin of the term, it is tied in with ideas that can be summarised by the traditional Royalist motto, God, King and Country. And modern Toryism in that line is a product of the ECW (English Civil War). The Tories being the Cavaliers, or supporters of the King, as opposed to the Roundheads, the supporters of Parliament, or ‘The Commons’.
Unpacking all this yet further, one is inexorably lead further back in time, another thing Tories themselves seem hell bent on, politically; they are regressive, not progressive.
First to Henry VIII, whose formation of the Anglican Church – Catholic-lite, in much the same way Tony Blair’s New Labour was Tory-lite – enlarged the fallout of one man’s marital misadventures into nationwide and even international ructions.
And going back yet further, we come to the Ancient or ‘Classical’ Greeks, from whom we get such key concepts, in relation to politics, as aristocracy, democracy, oligarchy, and so on. Once again the etymology of these terms is highly informative.
Aristocracy is, in theory/according to the Greek, rule by the best. Democracy the many, and/or mob. And oligarchy – what we have under present Tory rule – the few. This latter term was meant to distinguish between the few who were (supposedly) the best, and the few who were simply those few wielding power… but decidedly not the best.
Yep, we live under an oligarchy.
I often find myself cogitating on the distinction between Conservatism and conservatism. The former is a political ideology that continues to evolve, in many ways – most notably under/since Thatcher – in forms that are anything but small-c conservative. The latter is a pretty sensible idea; keep alive, indeed, nurture, what is best about tradition. And the irony here is that a great deal of modern Toryism is about as far from that kind of conservatism as it’s possible to be.
Post Thatcherite monetarism has taken a wrecking ball to almost anything and everything about the past, replacing it with a very fascist might-is-right type of Spencerian vision. A post-evolutionary view in which power and privilege are de-facto substitutions for good or best, in the old Greek view of aristocracy. Or, in the Kuper vein, chumocracy.
Anyway, that’s it for now. As – just as our overlords wish it to be – I have to get down on my knees and scrabble in the dirt, searching for better mortgage and energy deals. Keep the paups busy and dumb; they’ll never even notice we’re robbing them blind.