The word I have noticed I have been using more frequently than usual this month is "dispiriting".
The continuing phenomenon of marches against Israel in Britain (especially those where police arrest anyone who holds up signs pointing out that Hamas are terrorists) is dispiriting. Leaving aside other aspects of this lunacy, if the protestors are upset about violence and civilian death, as they claim, where were they during the wars in Syria and Yemen? Can it really be pure anti-semitism that brings these crowds of vicious idiots onto the streets?
The hacking attack that has left Internet Archive's library of books inaccessible for some time now is dispiriting in the way all vandalism is.
Searching for a watch strap and discovering none of the ones I used to buy come with brass buckles any more - only buckles made of a silver grey alloy are now made - is dispiriting as I take it as a small indicator that quality is no longer easily available or much cared about. Even things considered to be of very high quality - expensive brand-name goods - do not have the quality of individual craftsmanship. Where is the joy of buying a mass produced handbag labelled Mulberry, compared to the pleasure I had when I was 21 of finding in a tiny street in Venice a bag that was beautifully made and designed by a craftsman in his little workshop? It was an object unlike anything anyone else had bought. It was also expensive but I never regretted buying it. It gave me huge pleasure as an object - and also because of the memory of saving for it, searching for it and finally discovering it.
The Royal British Legion's decision to stick a sexual politics flag onto their poppy symbol is dispiriting because it suggests that yet another institution has lost its way:
One of the many things we remember with awe and admiration when buying a poppy is the way in which people united and worked together, regardless of their many differences, to fight for what they believed was good. Now the Royal British Legion has decided to introduce division in the name of inclusion. As Roger Scruton pointed out:
"It is not enough to allow homosexual relations between consenting adults: a campaign of 'education' must be introduced into schools and colleges to inculcate the idea that homosexuality is a normal 'option."
Schools and colleges and the Royal British Legion, it seems.
While on the subject of LGBTIQ blah, did you know that the judge who jailed a tubby elderly man for shouting some ugly stuff at a demonstration but let off people who had committed far worse crimes is Master of the Inner Temple LGBTQ+society? I find it dispiriting that the Inner Temple needs such a society and, given that society exists, I hope an Inner Temple Heterosexual Society is also thriving, just for balance.
The jailed elderly man killed himself after a few weeks in jail, by the way. It was predicted that he would have a very hard time in there with AAsiangangs who would victimise him for his anti-immigration views. May he rest in peace along with Britain's freedom(1)
Deeply dispiriting. Especially as the things I have mentioned here do not amount to a comprehensive list of the things I find dispiriting in the world just now.
(1) Regardless of anyone's views on abortion, receiving a large fine for standing silently in a street is an assault on freedom
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