We have become what I sometimes call an 'atomised' society, meaning that we usually do our own things. Shared national experiences are not common, which makes us weaker for all that. A writer in today's Times wrote on similar lines when she said we are 90% primate and 10% bee. This week at the Olympics has proven that the bee side us needs preserving; the common experience of watching and celebrating the success of Team GB has been up-lifting, to say the least. In much the same way as we look back (endlessly) to the shared experience of fear in the early 1940s, I hope that we will look back on these Olympic days and draw positive lessons for the future of the nation. It has felt good to be British, for once setting aside the petty difference that so often divide us on this small island. Of course there will be post-Olympic blues and we will get back to our default grumbling ways, but nevertheless, the Olympics has provided us with a remarkable shared experience and has even - perhaps - offered a new definition of being British: one that we can all feel good about.
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| Wiggo reflecting the Olympic spirit. |
