by James A. Bacon

I’ve just come back from vacation in England and found it to be a nation of vivid contradictions offering parallels to what we’re experiencing in Virginia. The United Kingdom is torn by the same battle between wokery and tradition as the Old Dominion. Statues have fallen — most notably of Cecil Rhodes, the quintessential colonialist and imperialist, as well as assorted philanthropists who derived their wealth from slavery. But many Brits still revere their past and their memorials.

There is such a super-abundance of statuary in England that the loss of a few bronze works is scarcely noticed. One cannot walk a few blocks through London without bumping into a statue. The photo at left, which I encountered during my wanderings, honors Robert Napier, a British military engineer and commander, who fought in the Sikh wars in India, the opium wars in China, and the Abyssinian expedition of 1867-68. In the latter campaign, which he led, Napier rescued European hostages from the mad Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia. Mission accomplished, his army returned to India and left the Abyssinians to proceed with their nation-building on their own.

For all of Napier’s purported sins against non-Western peoples, his statue still stands in London free from graffiti and protesters. Contrast the fate of his memorial to that of George Rogers Clark, conqueror of the Northwest Territory, which the University of Virginia took down for shame for his role in subduing the indigenous peoples there. And let us not forget the City of Charlottesville’s dismantling of the statue of his younger brother William Clark, Meriwether Lewis, and their guide Sacagawea. Lewis and Clark warred against no one and despoiled no one of their land. The alleged offense of the statue commemorating the explorers was said be to how the artist had displayed Sacagawea in a submissive posture. Any excuse will do for tearing down the past.

A reverence for tradition and tolerance for libertine madness exist side by side in England. As it happened, two notable events took place in London one day that we were there: the Trooping the Colour in honor of King Charles’ birthday and the World Naked Bike Ride.

The boulevards of London were bedecked with Union Jacks. Many Brits love a parade and love their monarchy. My wife and I hate crowds, so we steered clear of the procession. However, on the way to our hotel from Kensington Palace, we innocently took a route through Hyde Park, where we encountered… the World Naked Bicycle Ride.

Event organizers claimed 1,200 participants this year in a festival-like protest against cars and the “car culture” and in praise of bicycling and “body freedom.” Promotional videos show a mostly younger crowd of beautiful bodies. What we saw were mostly middle-aged White guys (with a few South Asians thrown in) and only a smattering of women. Lots of sagging flesh. The event didn’t seem very political; we saw only a few signs. There were no chants, no rock throwing, no cars set on fire as in L.A. The pudenda-positive pedal pushers seemed to be having a good time.

As chance would have it, we also visited Windsor Castle the same day the royal family was there to take part in the Order of the Garter ceremony, which dates back to 1348. The public was not admitted into the castle that day, so our hope of touring the royal residence was dashed. But it was interesting to observe the crowd. There were plenty of Brits, of course, and some were admitted into the castle to take part in the ceremonies. The women dressed in formal gowns and the men in tails and top hats. Love of tradition still runs strong in some precincts of English society.

More surprising to me was the diversity of the crowd. We overheard people speaking in dozens of languages. Many were American and European, but an astonishing number appeared to be from the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, Africa, and even the Far East. For all the denigration of England’s supposedly oppressive colonialist past, many inhabitants of formerly subjugated peoples have an intense curiosity about and appreciation of Britain’s history and culture. We saw them not just at the royal castles but other places we visited such as the National Gallery, the Churchill War Room museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. It appears that White intellectuals obsessed with colonial misdeeds do not speak for them.

Here in Virginia, the woke have purged much of our historical and artistic heritage from the public sphere. No one is sponsoring naked bike-ride festivals, so that’s something, I suppose. Yet I cannot help but ponder the fact that, though we live in a society every bit as multicultural as England, many Virginians are ashamed of their past — and no one more so than the cultural cool kids.

Next year, Virginia celebrates the 250th anniversary of American independence. There’s even a Semiquincentennial Commission to organize events. Has anyone taken notice? Will anyone participate? Do Virginians still love their heritage? We’ll find out soon enough.