So another school shooting, this time in the Philippines, leaves three dead and the usual parade of helpless officials. British counter-terror units are being deployed – “advise,” they say, as if this were a tutorial on how to unmake a tragedy. But let us be honest: these are not lessons, they are theatre.
The Philippine archipelago, once a colony of Spain and then America, now finds itself a client of a fading Britain, all to teach the natives how to handle the very violence the West has exported for centuries. The Fall of Rome came with barbarians at the gates; our fall comes with barbarians in the classroom. We fret over curriculum reform while the body count rises.
The Victorian era had its own gun culture, but it was tempered by class and empire. Now we have chaos dressed as democracy. The British-trained units will walk the halls, examine the scene, and write a report.
But the rot is deeper: a globalised culture of violence where the latest weapon is a smartphone and a grievance. Three dead. The news cycle will move on, but the empire of the gun does not.
We are all now inhabitants of a failed state, whether in Manila or Manchester.