Walking Cheerfully

“Gross impiety it is that a nation’s pride should be maintained in the face of its poor.” William Penn, 1669

“The political and social struggles must be waged, but a person is more and needs more than politics, else we are in danger of gaining the whole world but losing our souls.” Eva I Pinthus, 1987

“. .. You will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one.” George Fox, 1656

When surveying how much the country needs to confront its problems, and how unlikely a prospect that is, it is easy to degenerate into misery, easy and inviting to become a scold. Yet if we forget that we need to walk cheerfully over even this world, we surely betray the foundations of social democracy. Who wants a society rebuilt on foundations of anger, resentment and despair? There’s a mountain of evidence about how that turns out.

Yet we can see William Penn’s definition of ‘gross impiety’ far too easily and far too often in Britain’s public sphere today. HS2? Pride in the face of the poor. The pointless costs of Net Zero imposed even as our rivers are befouled for profit. Gross impiety. And this week, NHS England’s CEO Amanda Pritchard seemingly prioritising an easier life for her menopausal workforce over those 7mn+ people on NHS waiting lists. Gross impiety, and a far cry from this . . .

Sometimes it seems that the major preoccupation of Britain’s establishment is to maintain the nation’s pride in the face of its poor.

So from time to time we must remind ourselves to walk cheerfully, and to seek for reasons why we can do that. It is not so hard. Here are a few:

First, Britain’s current dominating political coalitions are dead men walking, their coalitions irreconcilably fractured socially, their ideologies broken-backed on their encounters with the world, their imaginations exhausted. As citizens in a democracy we have the right and indeed the duty, to imagine something better. And we are doing just that.

Second, misanthropic wokery, though it has enjoyed tearing around the ring for a couple of years, is running its course. There are two reasons for this: first, it relies on laziness, ignorance and if not that then fear, to sustain what tolerance we give it. That wanes in time, if only through sheer boredom. Second, it suffers from the curse of all revolutions - the exhaustion of its proponents. Eventually even the woke get sick of themselves. It’s happening, slowly, one by one.

Third, for the first time in my life, the nation is beginning to realize that hollowing out all of Britain for the benefit of London and the South East has been a colossal mistake. Even people in the South East are beginning to tumble to it. This is progress. It is, in fact, the start of change.

And fourth, we who hope and strive for better are getting to know each other. The Long March plays its little role in all this, I’m happy and proud to say. So, let’s keep a gimlet eye out for the various forms of Gross Impiety we see along the way, but at the same time, try to Walk Cheerfully.