The Grail Conspiracies

Ironically, last week, as I was revising this "The Grail Conspiracies"  website to its new form, riots were breaking out across England --- riots that I found eerily reminiscent of the self-styled "celebrations" of the (fictional) Twisted Messiah army of fans in the early sections, and the finale, of my book.

Yes, it can happen here. Yes, potential terrorism from the Middle East is only one aspect of the spectrum of violent threats we face. 

The best commentary I found on what and why the British riots occurred, and why they were almost destined to happen, and happen again, came from Max Hastings.  Just to touch on a couple of his ideas:

• The "feral humans" who partook in them did it as much for the excitment as for the goods they could steal.  Sadly, "The depressing truth is that at the bottom of our society is a layer of young people with no skills, education, values or aspirations. They do not have what most of us would call 'lives': they simply exist."  And a bit later: "They have their being only in video games and street-fights, casual drug use and crime.

• Another from that Max Hastings article: "So there we have it: a large, amoral, brutalised sub-culture of young British people who lack education because they have no will to learn, and skills which might make them employable. They are too idle to accept work waitressing or doing domestic labour, which is why almost all such jobs are filled by immigrants.

        "They have no code of values to dissuade them from behaving anti-socially or, indeed, criminally, and small chance of being punished if they do so.

        "They have no sense of responsibility for themselves, far less towards others, and look to no future beyond the next meal, sexual encounter or TV football game. "

My point? Last week across England it was as if  the fictional Twisted Messiah's underground "army" had come to life in their "pre-celebrations".  Fact can be at least as strange as fiction, and fiction can "pre-intuit" the facts that may come. One of the characters in The Grail Conspiracies even characterizes people like these: "those who choose to lose.". 

Max Hastings article in London's Mail Online