Middle-class patriotism goes underground
by Ed West, UnHerd:
If you’re in London on the first Thursday of the month I highly recommend Evensong at St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield.
The Norman church dates back to 1123 and a man called Rahere, who may have been a courtier or even a jester, and who had fallen sick while on pilgrimage to Rome. Pledging to build a priory when he returned if he survived his illness, Rahere convinced his friend Henry I to give him the land. Almost 900 years later and, well, not that much has changed.
The service was in celebration of Henry’s descendent Elizabeth II, who had come to the throne 68 years earlier upon the death of her father, and parish priest Fr Marcus Walker gave a sermon in praise of our sovereign and governor. God Save the Queen was sung, as well as I Vow to Thee My Country and Jerusalem. It all left me with an emotion that I suddenly realised I hadn’t felt for some time: patriotism.
If you’re middle-class, vaguely young or based in a city, there will be very few occasions for expressions of communal patriotism, with the exception of sporting events.
Patriotism-by-sport usually leaves me a bit cold because it’s ultimately artificial, just an ersatz modern-day combat played by hugely overpaid playboys. And the older I get, the more it feels like a lowbrow distraction from the reality that people are losing their country around them.
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