The Devout Life

Peter Hitchens say:

It was a multinational state, though not a multicultural one. It was a profoundly Christian society, in which religion was part of the language, of the state and of daily life in a way quite unique in Europe. It was a hierarchical country, in which people understood authority and respected it without grovelling to it, for it was also a society of individuals, nonconformists, dissenters, troublemakers, grumblers--self-reliant, given to banding together in unions, friendly societies and clubs, believing in law, but devoted to fairness. It was an educated, literate country with a strong musical tradition. Through its great literature, its verse and its hymns it had obtained an idea of itself that was comforting and powerful. It believed in the family and the home, that great zone of private life in which the state has no business.

Wha' happen?

The mechanics of the Eclipse: The breakdown has indeed been comprehensive. The sexual and feminist revolutions have radically weakened the most fundamental human ties. Television and other forms of electronic entertainment have separated the British people from reality and from each other. Things as various as the loss of empire, the reverses of the Second World War, and the abolition of capital punishment have brought traditional authorities down to the common level. Suburbs, supermarkets and motorways have weakened local social networks. The education system has been transformed, in general philosophy, in how history and literature are taught, and in expectations and discipline. It is now designed to promote a new form of society rather than pass on the inheritance of the past.