Saturday, February 04, 2006

Matthew Parris Times Online

This is a brilliant article. It explains precisely why any attempt to defer to the super-sensitive in society is dangerous for us all. Freedom of speech is not a bourgeois indulgence or luxury, but a necessity.

I think the article also supports my view that all our attempts to defer politely to Islamic opinion is building up hidden resentments which will lead, one day, to violence. By avoiding a confrontation now, we are causing a much worse one later.

Opinion - Matthew Parris Times Online

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the article also supports my view that all our attempts to defer politely to Islamic opinion is building up hidden resentments which will lead, one day, to violence. By avoiding a confrontation now, we are causing a much worse one later.

It's interesting... I listened to the full speech given by Nick Griffin (of BNP fame) which led to him ending up in court. And he too believes this is happening... The racist bits and pieces aside the BNP's manifesto doesn't seem too bad.

Tom Paine said...

The "racist bits and pieces" ARE the manifesto, Anonymous. The rest is to make them palatable. BNP is a very dangerous group and it is utterly inept of the Government to play into its hands. Mainstream politicians need to reclaim the genuine "middle ground" as occupied by regular British men and women, not the phantom middle ground between various self-interested, fashionable lobbies.

Minority rights are now well-protected in Britain; perhaps over-protected. Ordinary people are sick and tired of people claiming "victim" status and special treatment. If politicians don't shut up about these groups and focus on the mainstream for twenty years or so, they will drive voters into the waiting arms of the fascists.

Germany is the most civilised country in Europe. Yet in the 1930's it fell to fascism like a ripe apple. The fascists played on popular resentment of minority groups such as gypsies, homosexuals, Jews and Communists. If Britain continues unfairly to favour minorities, such resentments could easily build. Let's be honest, they are building already. The majority population feels its traditional rights are being eroded daily, while new ones are created in favour of minorities. For example, if a member of an ethnic minority group is murdered it's a "hate crime" and more severely punished than if a member of the majority population is killed. That's absurd and is generating racial hatred where there was none. "Any man's death diminishes me." We are all equally entitled to life and any murder is as bad as any other.

Muslims could easily serve the purpose for the BNP that the Jews served for the Nazis, if the majority population becomes convinced that they are (a) a threat and (b) unfairly favoured by the political Establishment. British Muslims are clearly not going to help themselves in this respect, unfortunately. Most are politically unsophisticated and seem utterly blind to the sensitivities of our culture. Pre-war German Jews were much more assimilated but they were still unable to save themselves. Our Muslims will have no chance if the BNP succeeds in exploiting this situation.

What would be really racist, would be to assume that Britain is somehow so morally superior that all this "could not happen here." It could and because of the unwritten constitution and the control of Parliament by the Executive through the Whips, there are fewer political institutions in place to stop it.