1 post tagged “christmas”

Christmas card

When I designed this Christmas card last year, a number of elements in my life had unconsciously been grouped together in the design. The CAD program I use at work, my love of simple graphics, a somewhat cynical view of Christmas and the religious fundamentalism that appears all around us these days.  Like all my designs, it started off as a more complex idea and was simplified as it went along.  But the message I was giving remained clear—Christmas can get out of hand!

Religious fundamentalism and political upheaval have occurred in the UK in no less strength that are currently being experienced in different countries around the world.  But things in the UK have often started so long ago that we have become used to the culture and traditions (or what we call some) that we don’t fully appreciate the immense shifts in thinking that have occurred in the UK.  The last time that England was invaded was 1066 and the culture of a French based catholic country was established.  Various power struggles between the top people ultimately produced the Magna Carta in 1215 which attempted to curb the power of the king and was the basis for modern democracy. When Henry VIII decided that he didn’t like his wife any longer and had his eye on Anne Boleyn, the Pope’s refusal to grant him a divorce made him decide to create his own church—the Church of England.  This was a seismic shift in the way people worshipped and therefore lived and it destroyed the monasteries, but redistributed their wealth in lands.  By the time Elizabeth I was queen, the Protestant faith was well established and people had got used to it.  So later when Charles I decide to rule without Parliament and was married to a Catholic, a civil war broke out to protect the established Protestant religion.

Now this is where religious fundamentalism is carried through in England, Ireland and Wales (not Scotland).  The Puritans were a dull lot and made sure that everyone observed their beliefs without question—a case of the pot calling the kettle black!  So when Cromwell died, his son had no appetite to continue and the Monarchy was restored in 1660.  When James II tried to re-establish Catholicism he was kicked out and no more threats (except for Ireland) existed to deny that the UK was a Protestant country.  The constitutional path was strengthened by Sir Robert Walpole who became the Prime Minister (not actually a post since he gets his salary as First Lord of the Treasury) while the early Hanoverians struggled to speak English.  Queen Victoria was effectively the first middle class monarch and with the Industrial Revolution in full swing, explorations abroad, and increasing wealth, our present day society really found it’s roots.

Attempts are made to dislodge the sometimes cosy looking plutocracy that most democracies ultimately are (inevitably), but it’s usually too solid to move very far—although political correctness may be it’s Achilles’ heel.  But fundamentalism is something all countries go through.  It’s how far you understand it and it’s influences that allows some to succeed and improve while just get stuck in the mud!