Danny Boyle’s Olympics opening ceremony presented a unifying vision of the common ground we all share. A point missed entirely by Aidan Burley MP
Multiculturalism means people of different races and ethnicities being allowed to get on with it – on their own, governed by their own – in the name of ‘diversity’ and cultural sensitivity. It is not what Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony embodied at all.
Whether or not the extravaganza was ‘crap’ is a matter of opinion (in my view it emphatically was not). But whether it was ‘multicultural’ crap? Hardly. And that was the real crime of Aidan Burley MP.
He failed spectacularly to see past the fact that the participants in the ceremony may have been people of different races – but they were not people of different cultures being left to forge their own visions of the good life.
Yes, there was rap music (or, so I’m told by people who know better than me, ‘grime music’). But this is the soundtrack to almost all of our young people’s lives – it simply isn’t the preserve of black, inner-city lads. Yes, there was a mixed-race couple. But then, as the Daily Mail has pointed out, people of mixed-ethnicity are probably Britain’s biggest ethnic minority group.
And what represents integration better – as opposed to the cold, communal atomisation of multiculturalism – than people of different ethnicities and cultures forging a partnership through love and building a shared vision of happiness and success?
The truth is that from the Chesterton-esque vision of rural England, through the devastation of the industrial revolution, to the digital celebration and haunting Christianity of Abide With Me, Danny Boyle presented a vision of Britain shaken and stirred by history and progress but clinging to what we share, not divided by what we don’t.
And what was the great, unifying vision of common ground that Danny Boyle presented Britain with? Well, our politics of contradiction featured heavily. Yes, we gave the world industry and progress – but still we mourn what we lost even as we celebrate what we gained.
Yes, we love our Queen, but still we delight in having her play the clown. Yes, we are proud of our sporting achievements, but not so proud that we’re not thrilled to see them mocked by Rowan Atkinson. We are an old country. We see the light and the shade and we know that it takes much of both to render us human.
A final thought. Some have bemoaned the lack of a climactic torch lighting – the single human to represent Britain. But that was the most magical, the most British, of all the moments. Because what could be more in keeping with our proud history – with our almost unique rejection of fascism, or demagoguery and dictatorship – than a refusal to invest all our heightened emotions and hopes in one man or woman.
Better it be a crowd, an anonymous crowd at that. The real beauty of Britain’s contradictory sense of ourselves? We do parties, not rallies.
Max Wind-Cowie is head of the Progressive Conservatism Project at Demos. This blog first appeared on its website
The opening ceremony was entertaining and as it was an advertisement for the UK well done in that domain – I think. I say I think because some cultures, particularly the USA do not appreciate self-deprecating humour although I acknowledge Rowen Atkinson is popular everywhere.
I thought because it was advertising it took one or two liberties with our history. I didn’t see any slaves, although I may have missed them (apologies if so). I also saw black guys dressed up as owners in 18th century / 19th century Britain – I don’t think that is likely to have happened much. Slavery isn’t something perhaps we want the world to remember from our history and perhaps we would like them to think we have always been inclusive. It was interesting that the inventor of the internet appeared, but the inventor of the modern computer was left out I think because we chemically castrated him of course for being homosexual in the second half of the 20th century.
I do analyse too much, as the above article does. Let us just call it all entertaining and well presented advertising.