Your racist grandfather fought in the Second World War?!?!

Old people in army, probably not racists

Before my trip to the English Defence League’s demonstration and Unite Against Fascism’s counter demo at Bradford, extensive research into both parties was carried in preparation for the event. I have watched Youtube videos, went through many forums and read countless news articles. This same mentality can be seen quite commonly under different guises.

Although I know EDL members hate to be lumped together with those from the British Nationalists Party, I can not help but catalog members of the two groups together based on this particular phenomenon. Hell, this syndrome is so common that I bet even a lot of KKK members suffer different strains of the same disease.

We are talking about this delusional pride of achievement for something their grandfather had done.

That’s right, we are not talking about someone who is being boastful or self-absorbed by something they had attained through individual hard labour, courage or ingenuity. No, these people would choose to leeched off the past glories of the departed and grave-rob their forefather for whatever persuasiveness they could muster.

"My grandfather fought the Nazi and he would be gutted to see all these immigrants here!"

The above sentiment is widespread across forum threads and article comment sections like a bad outbreak of crabs. And nothing can be more indicative of the lifestyles and natures of its sufferers.

The fact is having had a grandfather who have served the Queen and country during the Second World War is not a rare occurrence. Since Compulsory Conscription was established on the October of 1939, anyone within the eligible age bracket (18-41) would be eventually called up to serve in one of the armed force branches. A grandfather would really have to had gone out of his way in order to avoid being drafted.

Now, even if the grandfather in question had proven himself with deeds of valour and heroism on the battlefield, effectively differentiating himself from the common conscript, it does not mean he had the right, the knowledge nor the aptitude to pass judgement on government decisions - namely whether or not this country needs foreign migrant workers!

Another sentiment that had cropped during the actual interview from Bradford Demo itself was "We have lads from the armed forces here today!!!".

Erm... Well, do they have a degree in sociology or geography? Honest, why use their time and service in the army as currency to barter for the acceptance of your right-winged ideologies? I mean what is the psychology behind this mentality? Do they think that since they have sacrificed more for the country, they should be given more privileges to decide how the country is ran? 

I mean, this is baffling. Why would people be thinking like that? Don’t get me wrong, even though I don’t agree with UK’s foreign policies, I still respects the armed force and understands their necessity. However, I still don’t think that they should have more rights than the average citizen, even more so if this bragging right was inherited from two generations ago!

The concept of birthright had been long abandoned (by the general public) since the chivalry days, when people actually need to be of noble blood to amount to anything. Nowadays, we all have the freedom to pursue whatever destiny we want and our efforts are ultimately rewarded accordingly. 

This "my grandfather did this" mentality is strange and, in the many cases I have observed, quite counterproductive because it is this same complacency that prevents people from doing their best. When people stop doing their best, foreigners who can’t even speak the language would come and take their jobs from underneath them. A lot of the anti-immigrant protestors refuse to admit it, but not a lot of them actually possess any knowledge or skills that makes them more valuable to this society than any immigrant.

I would feel extreme disgrace for myself and my ancestry, if after all the years of living in this developed world, I have attained nothing worthy of pride save the colour of the skin which I was born into.