Scruton Lectures 2022 - Nigel Biggar on Deconstructing Decolonisation

In conversation with Ali Ansari and Douglas Murray.
Held at The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford on 26th October 2022.
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[@thecommonword6996]

Nigel speaks beautifully; it almost takes one back in time.

[@stephenskinner3851]

"England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality." - G. Orwell

[@K_-_-_-_K]

Powell enters the chat*

[@dWFnZWVr]

"It's a strange paradox, that the liberals are illiberal in their demand for liberality. They are exclusive in their demand for inclusivity. They are homogenous in their demand for heterogeneity. They are somehow un-diverse in their call for diversity - you can be diverse, but not diverse in your opinions and in your language and in your behaviour. And that's a terrible pity." - Stephen Fry.

[@richardwills-woodward5340]

Ultimately, everyone hates a winner. I won't list Britain's achievements, there would never be enough space.

[@stephenskinner3851]

I will not use the term 'lived experience' because the word 'experience' is already descriptive enough and experience can only be gained when alive.

[@Mark_Dyer1]

The problem is that the people who SHOULD be listening to this talk (most MPs and most 'academics' who teach on 'Studies' programmes) will not hear it. Professor Biggar is lecturing the 'properly-educated': not those who come with an 'ideology', or 'chip-on-their-shoulder', owing to their "lived-experience".

[@malpreece5008]

You’re probably right, but those who are on the fence might listen to this and form a more rational position as a result. That’s got to be a good thing?

[@b-radsadventures6846]

Lovely to listen to Douglas, as always. I was just talking about cultural appreciation being called appropriation, incorrectly.

[@DanielSilva-qz3vd]

I was there! Absolutely amazing!

[@ChrisOgunlowo]

Insightful and eloquent!

[@Jubilo1]

Thank goodness for the lucid Douglas Murray.

[@EyeByBrian]

His ‘critique’ of Edward Said was flippant. Murray’s hubris, well drilled into him at Eton I suspect, deigns him to believe he can capably dismantle any thinker that has ever lived, any body of thought, with a few hours in the library and (what he believes to be) a witty aperçu.

[@vizak20]

Warmonger

[@dWFnZWVr]

@@vizak20 Ignorant statement.

[@stmartinshirt]

Thank you.

[@benjamingeorgecoles8060]

Very grateful for this lecture. I feel it has expanded my thinking on its topics. And I'm sure there are many wise and important points here. Nevertheless, I struggle to agree with much of it. In Biggar's initial lecture... did I perhaps miss something? He starts talking about what happens when stronger and weaker tribes meet, says either the stronger tribe wipes out and replaces the weaker, or they separate (like, he says, in apartheid South Africa), or they integrate (and that takes mostly the form of the weaker tribe being integrated into the stronger)... This description seems so strange to me. The two tribes, in most cases of colonialism, have not just neutrally 'met' - the stronger tribe has gone well out of its way, travelled right round the world, and seized land and resources from the weaker. Was there not just like the option of... not doing that? We haven't done that with, I dunno, Korea - our relations with Korea have developed without that; couldn't we have not done it with, say, India too? And then Murray at the end - the idea that the abolition of slavery, and attempts to enforce that abolition internationally, amount to reparations... Maybe that atones somewhat for the previous 200 years of slavery, but why think it compensates for all other the colonial theft, destruction, debasement, disruption... Reducing all that to a financial calculation of what the UK lost out on from abandoning slavery and not trading with countries that still practised slavery vs all the harms done - how can he be content with that? Similarly, the claim that foreign donations just factually have been reparations... When Sashi Tharoor talks about the needs for reparations, he says the amounts are so much less important than the attitude, the acceptance of responsibility... Foreign aid, which has not been given in anything like that spirit, and which has so often had an agenda to it or even conditions attached, is a very different thing, it seems to me. And again, what's the basis of this blithe certainty that what's been given is even nearly proportionate to what was taken? I wonder also what they would say in response to the paper The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development by Acemonglu et al.

[@reparationnation]

Interesting. Maybe we can work together. Thank you for sharing. #NigelBiggar #Colonialism #JohnCanoe #Oxford #Enfield #EnfieldTown #GBNews #FreeSpeech #FreedonOfSpeech #ReformUK #British #RoyalNavy #Abolishion #Slavery #SlaveTrade #ReparationsNow #ReparationCorner #ReparationRoad

[@FiveLiver]

Before you set up an event to be recorded. make sure you have the best sound man you can find; don't take audio for granted.

[@stephenskinner3851]

Agreed. Never replace one ideology with another, but in the first place Britain is, or was not an ideology.

[@anaglyphx]

Japan doesn't think or act like this. One people, one language, one culture that live longer than any other human being. They respect life, live and eat well. Are kind to each other and work hard. The only country with two atomic bombs on it...they were once a colonial superpower. Why nobody attacks them? Why is nobody demanding they become multicultural?

[@paulheydarian1281]

Geography. Japan is an island nation, and it's further from the Asian mainland than Britain is from the European mainland. Talk to older Koreans and older Chinese people, most of them despise the Japanese for what they did during the 1930s &1940s.

[@anaglyphx]

@@paulheydarian1281 This is not correct. Britain and Ireland are islands. They are not isolated. Japan is right nextdoor to Korea and China...not a distant island like Hawaii. And yes, the Koreans and Chinese still do despise the Japanese. And quite rightly.

[@landoremick7422]

What is it with these chairs, they spend all the time devoted to questions for the speakers, in making their own speech.!

[@OpenMawProductions]

1:20:51 More to the point, blaming generations now for what generations past did is archaic, backwards, and stupid. You don't blame someones brother for the crime that THEY committed. You don't blame their father, and you certainly don't blame the son for what the father did, either. You are guilty of your own sins and no one elses. The entire arguement should and needs to be shut down then and there. If someone, personally, wnats to voluntarily pay and apologies, then let them, but it should never be sanctioned, endorses, or enforced by the state.

[@jameswebb4593]

Intellectual hypothesis upon the why's and whatnot's of racism may go down well with academia , but from the ground level where I come from its more simple . Basically its observing what was traditionally your province being taken over by other racial denominations. This applies to the whole world , not just the UK. Examples here in the Isan region of Thailand , the higher class of shops are owned by Vietnamese , as my wife put it , they run the businesses and we toil the fields . NY I was amazed in 1957 when i was there , roaming around the City centre window shopping in stores exclusively owned by Jews . In Southern Africa the people with the money are Asians , have their own favorite holiday hotels and Golf courses . Idi Amin threw out the Asians because they ran Uganda. What I found despicable was Heathrow Airport , which I flew into a lot . Every immigration official was either Black or Brown. In fact an American tourist made the same remark on a radio phone in. Local markets , apart from food items , most stalls are run by Asians especially clothing . Around ten years ago on a boys excursion to London , finished up in Soho . One pub visited was run by an English women . She told us that she was the last Brit licensee , all the others were managed by Russians. BLM is interesting , apart fom the miscarriage of justice to appease blacks , When Alex Haley was accused of writing a load of garbage in his novel Roots . His excuse was , its not an historical account , but a story intended to give the African American a feeling of history. That sums it up nicely , we are policed and governed by a work of fiction. The riots that took place across England was the fear that Islam would control the country . Tony Blair the most loathesome politician of all time , Even Hitler or Stalin never sold their people down the river like that ------- I will leave that blank for you to fill in . Afghanistan , Pakistan , Malaya , Indonesia were all Hindi or Budhists once , never forget that .

[@stephenskinner3851]

Great Britain is not a colony of itself and therefore decolonizing itself is non sensical. In addition, no one is forbidden to study anything and in any language. In addition, the indigenous British population were never asked whether they wanted to be multi-cultural and it is hugely inflammatory, divisive and demeaning to suggest that British culture is in need 'cultural enrichment' as this implies it is culturally lacking, while there was always an interest in other cultures, perhaps not universally, but sufficiently.

[@clive7092]

Very enjoyable, and interesting of course. The other answer to the question of why the decolonisers attack Churchill so readily, or Lincoln, in 'preference' to other, lesser, figures, is that the decolonisers are usually so appallingly ignorant that they don't actually know of any others. To attribute an understanding to these people, no matter how poorly grasped by them, that their sacred project will be most effectively achieved by attacking the most meaningful and therefore most wounding targets, is probably to grant them too much sophistication. In most cases, I'd say that they simply don't know who else to attack. After all, who hasn't seen clips of these idiots being asked, in the heat of their tantrums, who it is they're gunning for, or what they're even doing at the time, and not being able to provide an answer. I'm not saying that D Murray is wrong when he makes his point about attacking what they know to be 'our' most sensitive spot, but I imagine that that knowledge is held only by a minority of the cretinous participants.

[@ChefEarthenware]

As a member of the FSU, I'm quite concerned that someone with such left-wing views is our Chairman. I have no specific reason to suspect that he would fail to act impartially, but in my experience Leftists tend to view politics as a matter of truth and falsehood rather than a matter of opinion - i.e. that espousing certain positions would be considered tantamount to 'spreading misinformation' and therefore not deserving of defence.

[@j.harrison6744]

What is the FSU?

[@ChefEarthenware]

@@j.harrison6744 Free Speech Union.

[@j.harrison6744]

@@ChefEarthenware Thanks, Toby Young's thing? Yes, it looks like the pinko-rot has set in already.

[@ChefEarthenware]

@@j.harrison6744 Yes, sadly.

[@evolassunglasses4673]

There are no solutions inside the Liberal paradigm. We stayed inside the Liberal framework and gave ground every year from 1945.

[@krayon_eater]

This isn't conservatism. It's civic nationalism, aka, slow-motion liberalism.

[@malpreece5008]

Genuine question: do you think ethno-nationalism is viable with the current demographics?

[@j.harrison6744]

Yes, this personifies what Jonathan Bowden called the "palsy of conservatism". Pathetic.

[@krayon_eater]

@@malpreece5008 Ethno-nationalism as in a form of decentralised natio-tribalism, I think is inevitable. Ethno-nationalism, as in the current British state adopting ethno-centric policies, no. We're going to Balkanize, and that segregation process will be just as much a product of in-group preferences amongst non-indigenous groups as it will be amongst natives. See 'National-Anarchism' for a rough idea.

[@malpreece5008]

@@krayon_eater Thanks for your response. You might be right about the fragmentation of our society, but is there any possibility we can avoid balkanisation by adopting a more muscular form of civic nationalism? If we deport those that have entered the nation illegally, abandon multiculturalism, reassert a strong national identity, and require assimilation from those already here, would that be enough to overcome the problems of diversity and weak civic nationalism? We could also incentivise repatriation of those who have not integrated and who's loyalty still lies with their forebears country of origin.

[@evolassunglasses4673]

@@malpreece5008 we need to brake away from this rotten system not prop it up. Build our OWN media, parallel institutions and eventually schools OUTSIDE this system. Get our people out of the big cities and come together and build something new. London has gone, bulkanization is coming.

[@SchlockstarJoe]

Skip ahead to 57.24

[@johnjones6601]

"If those things are true..." Which they're not.

[@anaglyphx]

I can hear an American accent creeping up on Murray. Too much time in New York.

[@ovnar818]

I agree with most everything debated and said, and the insane idea that reparations are owed are completely inane, however this sentiment of inequality has risen from falling living standards and pay, and the enlightened light-footed folk, once either emancipated or enslaved by this system, have no intention about arguing about that. It is a shame really that if people could provide for their families, and homestead, everyone would be better off.

[@martin92177]

What’s wrong with empires? Discuss

[@malpreece5008]

That sounds like every seminar I attended as an undergrad and a postgrad! When we discussed European empires/colonialism it was always with a focus upon the negative. If we discussed the Chinese, Mughal, Ottoman or any African empires they were always highly romanticised.

[@j.harrison6744]

My issue with Empires is that they neglect native wealfare and only profit the elite. They also lead to reverse colonisation and blow-back, or "cultural enrichment" as we've been calling it. If all the effort that went into building and maintaining the Empire, the railroads and infastructre, etc, had been concentrated on Britain instead, and we had maintained our ethnic make-up, this country would've been a paradise.

[@elizabethwinsor-strumpetqueen]

They're worse the vampires ....they suck the life out of millions

[@malpreece5008]

@@j.harrison6744 Not necessarily. If I remember rightly the argument that we would have been better off without an empire was first put forward by the British economist J.A. Hobson in 'Imperialism: a Critique' (1902). He argued that if only we followed the Danish example, and didn't bother with empire, Britain would be much better off. But he neglected to consider how the flow of resources into Britain might be threatened by rival nations/empires, and he totally neglected matters of national security. As if we can live in perfect isolation regardless of what the rest of the world is doing. Denmark was totally dependent on Germany for national security after 1864, hence its 'neutrality' in WW1, and was occupied by the Nazi's in WW2. So, I suppose if you don't mind being dictated to by an external power then not having an empire might work, but if you value sovereignty, then you have to think in terms of empire - or in the modern era, in terms of an aggressive foreign policy.

[@moodobusiness]

Conquer or be conquered

[@stephenskinner3851]

There have been over 180 empires in human history and the industrial and farming revolution as well as market capitalism made that type of governing model (empire) increasingly irrelevant.

[@paulheydarian1281]

🤗🙂🤩

[@lucianopavarotti2843]

By the way, if you haven't seen the Dutch ' beauty and consolation' documentary on Scruton on youtube, you should. It shows how utterly ridiculous and laughably moronic he was. There are scenes of him getting all philosophical while chomping on a fat cigar in his library and blowing smoke up multiple asses, and also of him sitting on horseback at a fox hunt, explaining how ripping an animal to pieces is a healthy way for the forlock-tugging peasanty and their noble overlords to form a connection to the soil. Real Blut und Boden stuff. I can only assume that the parade of tribunes here never actually listened to a word he said but just liked the ideas of him. Btw, his book on Wagner is a joke too.

[@gandydancer9710]

I found Biggar's offering the successful displacement of Britons in their universities and government as proof of British non-racism quite cringe-worthy in its cringiness.

[@cjp8u2]

As well as the very important contributions immigrants of other ethnicities have made to Britain **throughout history** - despite the country being 99.9% white well into the 1960s. Not to say there’s anything wrong with highlighting positive contributions, but it’s a bit patronising. As Douglas Murray mentioned, the Lancashire mill worker with a life expectancy of 36 (of whoms like there were millions) barley gets a look in, while kids now get to read GCSE text books about very mediocre contributions to the nation by ethnic minorities (of whom there were no more than a few thousand in Britain for most of our history) Most white peoples contributions could be considered equally mediocre, but if you’re going to ignore the plight of a coal miner from Wigan, you can’t simultaneously put an immigrant dockworker on a pedastle.

[@arcturus681]

What a turgid, unoriginal, dreary speech. How long did he need to state the obvious in the most flat-footed way. Bring back Roger!

[@user-rv4je8qz3t]

Douglas Murray? A propaganda specialist?