Belief

I have been known to bang on about education and having at least half a dozen friends who are school teachers (past and present) I am aware I could well be treading on tender feet when I say the standard of education in this country seems to have waned. However, I probably have considerably more friends who believe something that is wrong or isn't a fact.

I think we've stopped educating our children, we just teach them about things and even that isn't strictly true. The number of young people I've met who have no general knowledge is frightening; however, even more frightening is their dependence on Google or internet search engines. "Why learn something when you can Google it?" Said a guy who regularly attends my pub quiz, but never engages in it because using the internet isn't allowed. The stranger thing is this guy - 26 years of age - cannot understand how using the internet to get answers is cheating, despite it being a quiz designed to test a person's general knowledge rather than his ability to Google. What makes it worse is his underlying annoyance - not at his lack of knowledge but at the rule that prevents him from cheating his way to 1st prize.

The advent of the internet has meant the rise of personal belief... We saw it during the Brexit campaign; the dismissal of experts' opinions when we have specifically NOT asked for them. The growth in opinions based not on fact but on something that feels right. The vilification of individuals by association. If you believe it, it must be true.

It's interesting that broadcaster and journalist James O'Brien has chosen to relate a story from his radio show, in his latest book, about the Brexiteer who called his show stating we're now in charge of our own laws, our own rules and free of the bureaucratic EU at last. When asked to name ONE solitary thing - EU law - that has changed his life, the caller was unable to answer; but he believed it was the best way forward for the country to be free from laws and rules he didn't even know or could give no example of...

The thing is we're actually in a world where the truth is just as quickly available as a belief. As matey-boy from the pub quiz quite rightly says - without a hint of irony - who's to say what Google says is the truth or just a lie with a lot of hits, pushing it to the top of that particular algorithms pile?

"Immigration has brought this country to its knees" or variations on a theme has been pretty much the most common statement issued by Leave voters for the last three years. They either ignore the fact or simply don't know that Britain has been one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, since history began. We also have a really shit record of treating foreigners badly, yet they still want to come here because we were the first land of opportunity and like it or not people want to be part of what they believe to be a better world (plus, contrary to some beliefs racism exists just about everywhere - mankind is strangely social yet xenophobic).

The thing is, if you spent five minutes investigating whether immigration has brought the country to its knees, you'd discover that what we're doing is blaming the EU migrants solely for a problem that is a governmental problem and nothing to do with where someone comes from. For starters - migrants, immigrants, foreigners - whatever you want to call them - are not the problem here; they're a symptom. If governments continue to strip mine the public sector of its funding to give the already rich people more incentive to get richer, then you're not going to have more schools, hospitals, houses, bus routes, trains etc etc etc, so you get a strain on the existing services and when the government cuts the funding even further people are quick to blame the immigrants and never blame the culprit. And when they're told this, they put their heads in the metaphoric sand and go la-la-la-la-la-la.

The problems begin when people believe something to be wrong. People, because they're human, hate being proved wrong, especially when they've left school. They don't like a belief or an ideology being challenged and we have governments all over the world who would rather obscure the truth and build their empires on blame rather than investment. Look at it this way, if you're reading this and you think there are too many foreigners in this country and you truly believe that - regardless of where you got your information - I could give you irrefutable proof that your belief is not correct in any way, but because you believe it to be right, you're not going to want to believe me and even if I could make you understand the error of your way, because it is a belief and as soon as I'm gone you'll go back to blaming whatever you were wrong about; because it feels right.

For the last 25 years, I've listened to Liverpool fans wishing their team was as good as it was when they were winning everything. "We just have to believe, lads" was the cry from so many of their fans. I was never aware that winning trophies was all about the belief of the fans. By that logic, Man City and Chelsea fans have seen a massive investment in the belief system of the fans rather than buying the best players in the world. Man City are the best team in the country because their reasonable fan base BELIEVES more than you, who supports some mid-table team of unbelievers...

"Brexit will work if all you remoaners would just believe in it!" You must have heard this? Jacob Rees-Mogg famously accused all those who voted remain of not believing in the country enough. What the fuck have we got politicians for if running the country and being successful is simply about believing? Why are we negotiating with Brussels? Why isn't Theresa May just going on TV every day with a five minute message to remind all the people of the country to believe a bit harder?

The sticking point is the fact that once upon a time, probably before the internet, if you said something stupid down the pub, three or four of your mates would put you straight and if you respected others opinions you'd accept you were wrong. If you were arsey enough you might pop into the library the next day and check to make sure you were wrong, but usually people accepted the word of someone more knowledgeable than them. In fact, back in the day most conversations were more black and white than now because matey boy down the pub's mate who believes that there's a terrorist on every corner has become friends with 50 other weirdos who also think all Muslims are bomb-carrying mad bastards worshipping a false idol. The belief is reinforced. Suddenly you have a right-wing enclave on Facebook...

Let me leave this one here: there has been a 7% rise in membership of the Flat Earth Society in the last five years...

Don't get me wrong, people believing misinformation has been going for years, long before the internet came along and linked all the like-minded nutters together; and you need to realise that some conspiracy theories have legs - this is the genius of misinformation; you can hide truths inside lies and vice versa. The difference between a bunch of people thinking the royal family are lizards with human skin or that benefits scroungers are 95% responsible for the creation of food banks is pretty wide, but the fact they both believe bullshit is just as scary. Tell the people via the Daily Mail that the country is overrun with foreigners and normal middle class - average - people will believe it. People believe the newspapers when the newspapers say something they can get behind. Too many foreigners - Yeah! We mistreat the poor - Left wing rubbish! See, it's that easy.

You might stroke your chin and think, 'That sounds feasible...' It's how fascism spreads; you either ignore it but don't say anything or you think because five others have shared it that it must be true and suddenly you have a belief...

A few years ago, sitting in my old back garden making the most of a rare spell of hot summer weather, I was acutely aware that the weather forecasters had all said it was going to end and the next day would be shit. However, my old next door neighbour was in his garden talking to his neighbour on the other side and I heard, "Oh yeah, Barry down the pub says this weather is in for the rest of the summer." And my neighbour took Barry completely at his word. What he thought of Barry the following day when Northampton was treated to monsoon-like weather without the heat, I wasn't privy to, but at that moment in time he believed his mate Barry more than anyone on the TV. If you'd asked him how he came to that conclusion his answer would probably have been, "Well, the weatherman often gets it wrong, but my mate Barry is rarely wrong." This is probably because Barry often says things my old neighbour agreed with.

Recently, I heard someone express utter disbelief that we had Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus fighting alongside British troops in WW2. The person honestly believed it was like a football match - the English versus the Germans. The fact that the majority of the English football team in 2018 has multicultural roots seems immaterial (and overkill).

Are you aware that all the way through the referendum campaign you had fishermen complaining how the EU has stopped them from being successful and yet Grimsby, on realising that it was actually the EU that kept so many of them in work wanted their port to be exempt from leaving? This is a fact, whether you want to believe it or not, it actually happened.

The EU's fishing policy was implemented to protect fish stocks as well a prevent countries like us from simply strip mining anyone's sea because we're British. If you think it's wrong that we can't go wherever we want and fish, but others aren't allowed to come into our waters then you need to switch off now, because you won't want to believe the truth that for many years our fishermen wanted one rule for us and many rules for others, all based on the simple fact that we are British.

Our UK fisheries policy was pretty much echoed by a Japanese fishing minister in 2002 when asked by a journalist what happens when the Blue-Finned Tuna is fished to extinction. His answer was simply, "We'll eat something else." Except, the British like cod and if we have none in our waters, we believe we can go anywhere else and fish for it. If you can't see what is wrong with that I'm amazed you've lasted this long here.

Brexit politicians BELIEVE we're going to be okay, regardless of all those pesky hurdles created by countries that are less important than us; Remainer politicians BELIEVE based on evidence rather than hope that we're in for a very bumpy ride at best and this has heralded a new breed of ignoramus; the person who don't care what damage is done to the country or the people that live here because in the future, even if its after they've died, everything will be like it was when England ruled the world. Trust me, these people exist and they appear to be growing.

Belief has always divided people, whether its belief in a concept, a person or a thing, but now we have a new belief, the belief of lies that suit the way we feel. It's easier to believe something that isn't true especially if it's an easy target that can't defend itself. Governments have programmed us to blame everything but them and as a result people now believe only in what makes them feel better and if that means blaming something or someone for the woes of the world then it's bloody Abdul's fault we've got no buses or hospitals or social services.

Those bleeding single mums are to blame. I reckon we'd be better off if we banned transsexuals. I don't like this and I don't like that and I think and feel like my belief system is being violated by facts... Stop yourself for a second and think 'How can people be swept up by this utter bullshit?' and you know how Hitler came to power, or how Brazil has just elected a right wing dictator, or that people still think the Tories are far better at running the country, purely based on enough Tories in high places telling you often enough. Old Goebbels, he was a smart bloke for a Nazi...