Why the Sex Pistols are Quite Right about the Queen

(above image reconstructed from original)

"God save the Queen

Her fascist regime

They made you a moron

Potential h-bomb..."

- sex pistols

The above.  True or False?

fascism · n. an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government.

There are two types of ‘authoritarianism’ and ‘nationalistic right-wing systems’. 

...and their 'definition' is dependent not on their content, but in the perception of people.  The ‘pre-internalisation phase’ and the ‘post-internalisation phase’ determines the ‘type’. The 'content' is another matter.  Till now, ‘authoritarianism’ and ‘right-wing nationalism’ has been largely examined in terms of 'content', and not in terms of 'perception'.  Both are equally significant, but the examination of the former(content) without the latter(perception) renders such inquiry quite superfluous as this becomes akin to addressing evil in Hell whilst simultaneously allowing its hadean cinders to be stoked.   

 
In other words, authoritarianism and nationalistic right-wing systems are, in part, a matter of perception.

These are thus perceived as such till that ‘happy time’ when people whom are successfully indoctrinated within such a system perceive it to be the natural order of things.  In other words, their perspectives are moulded to the point that they do not feel oppressed, or do not feel that their system is exclusionary or exclusive.  That is when ‘authoritarianism’ and ‘nationalistic right-wing systems’ are no long felt to be as such.  That is when a couch of nails are ‘broken in’ over time and made more comfortable by a once blistered, then healed and eventually hardened bottom.  The couch, however, remains as sharp as ever.  That is when external ‘authoritarianism’ mutates into individual ‘self-regulation’ (in Freudian terms, it displaces one moral system comprising the ‘superego’ within the individual with another), and ‘right-wing and nationalism’ moves to the centrestage of ‘modern’ life as much that would have been once considered as 'right wing' is now not perceived as such.

 
So, how are we to determine if a particular system is fascist? 

When I was living in the UK, I frequently heard the phrase, ‘fascist pig/bastard/twat/git/wanker/etc’, bandied about in the face of authority.  This made me inquire after the meaning, or rather, the true meaning and reality behind the word, ‘fascism’.  Putting it simply, Fascism refers to an undemocratic state of affairs, rallying around a particular authoritarian authority, around a particular and supremacist idea of ‘race’, amongst others.  Thank God for Mussolini, I thought later. If this bald and beret-ed character hadn’t existed, people would have been deprived of the self-absolving opportunity to have the idea of fascism exclusively defined and monopolised by this historical figure.  For if they were not afforded this opportunity, they might just be forced to contend with the probability that they themselves were fascists of another or similar genre. 

In other words, and analogously, the more the devil has definition, the more we can say that we are unlike her/im.  We may not realise that the definition of the devil may not entirely take on board all evils.  Thus, we can continue to be evil in ways that are not practiced by the devil.  There is much evil in defining things clearly as there is in defining it clearly.  It is the degree of our fallibility that will determine if we are capable of defining evil without simultaneously practicing it.

The point is, there is no such thing as a 'non-fascist state'. 

There are only 'post' or 'past' a particular type of good or bad fascistic state (explained in the next section).  The question to ask when considering the idea of fascism is, what type of fascism would augur well for the maximal intellectual/spiritual/creative and humane development of the entirety of humanity.  The current variant of 'fascism' that has gripped the world by les bijoux de famille is not, at first sight, of the Mussolinic type.  It is of the type that is paradoxically state-transcending and state-validating.  For instance, the idea of Nationalism has been embraced most religiously by the world, whilst intrinsic to this idea is division and mutual antagonism.  We can say that this is 'Mussolini globalised'.  But prior to this, this was not entirely the case.  It took centuries and decades of fascistic imposition before the perceived fascism was displaced by the belief that the status quo is natural.(ref. Benedict Anderson's 'Imagined Communities')  In this sense, 'fascism' is an instrument, when manipulated correctly, delivers a new and nurturalised mindset that once might have reflexively baulked and screamed, "yer Fascist Bastard!"

 
Looking around the UK, one would think that it was not fascist. 

But if you really think about it, and fold and shelve your indoctrinated and self-serving sentiments, you will realise that it most certainly is one. 

The UK is what I would call a not-too-good post-fascist, not past-fascist, state.  In other words, the UK has developed along the trajectory of the fascism of self-segregational ‘nationalism’ and ‘privilege’, not away from it.  Thus, it is ‘post’, not ‘past’ fascism of a similar genre as Mussolini.  It has not broken away from Mussolinic fascism, but become a logical and next-stage corollary of it.  It has internalised the values founding the ‘modern’ variant of ‘the supremacy of the national ‘race’.  It has internalised the once-authoritarian imposition of such nationalistic sentiments from up high and practiced, and still practices, via ‘world wars’, ‘world cups’, ‘olympics’, 'wars on terror', and other such fascistic regimes designed, albeit unintentionally, to get the global, and British, populace to internalise ‘modern’ ‘national’ morals so that the perceived ‘authoritarianism’ and ‘right-wing nationalism’ that is an integral part of this state of affairs will be no more. 

And, besides nationalism, it appreciates the idea of privilege by swooning and curtsying in the face of a ‘kindly’ and grossly wealthy old lady mistaking handshakes for alms.  And if we worship privilege begotten of nothing more than ‘heritage’ or ‘lineage’, than we will surely perspectivally disable ourselves from being reflexively inclined to stare down akimbo privilege begotten of ‘hardworking’ and ‘diligent’ mutually antagonistic and opportunistic competition.  In other words, when we can afford a ‘thumbs-up’ for the most simple of reasons, we are not going to be significantly resistance when we are given more reasons than none.  We can say that the UK is a democratised version of Mussolinic Fascism where ever individual is given the right to be as big a bastard within various sectors and circles in society as Mussolini himself.  In this is evidenced the fascistic hold of the idea of nationalism and privilege.  These ideas have been separated from individual tyrants and given life in perspectival forms.  Be warned, that when evil is freed from physical form, it will be able to wreck far more havoc as we will not have a easily locatable figure to string up. (the same might apply for 'the beast 666' whom many tend to think is a particular individual.  The devil is not fool my friend.)

 
So is the UK a ‘fascist’ state, and are a significant portion of its population ‘fascist’? 

By George and Elizabeth! It most certainly is.  They rally around a now internalised and generic idea of the ‘supremacy of the national race’ by not affording citizens of ‘other’ states equal empathy.  They rally around a now internalised and generic idea of privilege by subjecting themselves to the rule, celebration and worship of a privileged member of the privileged European ruling House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.  That would make the Royal Family, amongst others, not a ‘fascist regime’, but a post-fascist one in tandem with the people having moved from being potentially resistant to it, to celebrating it.

God Save the Queen’s ‘Subjects’ from the fascistic subjection of nationalism and privilege around which they currently rally.

By the way, I wrote this article not because I hate the British race or the United Kingdom, but because I love it's potential to be more than it is.  I'll leave you with the Sex Pistol's rendition of 'God Save the Queen'.  I suppose the Sex Pistols can be located in the period between the pre and post Fascist State of the United Kingdom.  Or have we not arrived at the 'post' part?

That depends on you.

ed-infinitum

lyrics

God save the Queen
Her fascist regime
They made you a moron
Potential h-bomb

Don't be told what you want
Don't be told what you need
There's no future, no future
No future for you

God save the Queen
We mean it man
We love our Queen
God saves

God save the Queen
'Cos those tourists are money
And our figure head
Is not what she seems

Oh God save history
God save your mad parade
Oh Lord God have mercy
All crimes are paid

When there's no future
How can there be sin
We're the flowers in the dustbin
We're the poison in the human machine
we're the future, your future

God save the Queen
We mean it man
We love our Queen
God saves

God save the Queen
We mean it man
And there's no future
In England's dreaming

No future (x3)
For you
No future (x3)
For me
No future (x3)
For you
No future, no future
For you