S
silentwitness
Guest
MAIL ONLINE June 10 2020.
Everywhere I look, the world seems to be on fire, and I can’t see a way of putting it out.
But the thing I find most troubling, the thought that has brought me to the verge of tears, is the way Britain — one of the most tolerant, fair and least prejudiced nations in the world — appears to have been infected by the same sickness that, for the past decade or so, has been tearing America apart.
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
People talk about ‘culture wars’, often without really knowing what that means. And until recently the notion seemed a fairly abstract concept, the sort of term bandied about by Newsnight presenters and academics, but largely irrelevant to ordinary people.
But that is no longer true. The battles that have been raging on U.S. campuses and streets have firmly invaded our shores.
Complex questions of politics, race and identity have become sharply polarised, stripped of all nuance, simplified beyond all reason and presented as moral imperatives, a simple case of good versus evil, love versus hate, and yes, black versus white.
Virtually nowhere is it possible to have an open, constructive debate about the pros and cons of any given issue.
Reason has been replaced by insult, intellect by raw emotion, curiosity by preconception.
There is so much that I have found deeply saddening about the scenes in recent days. The sight of horses being rammed with bicycles; the defacing of monuments dedicated to those who fought to protect our freedoms; the sheer ignorance that seems to underpin the views of some protesters.
In particular, the notion that all white people need to apologise for their very existence (exemplified by one little girl, aged maybe six or seven, whose mother posted a picture of her holding up a sign proclaiming her ‘white privilege’) — and the idea we are all racists.
To assume so — as many appear to — is as wrongheaded as the assumption that a young black male hanging out in the park is a drug dealer. It is simply not true.
Just as it is not true that the police are ‘all bastards’ or ‘racist scum’, as the chanting protesters who daubed slogans all over London and Bristol would have it.
Some may well be — there are bad eggs in every walk of life; but the majority do an important job, mopping up the fringes of society where most of us would never dare to tread.
And yet those who’ve tried to make that point, who have tried to calm the fervour of the seething crowds, have been turned upon, typecast as not much better than the men who killed Floyd.
The truth doesn’t matter, because the truth doesn’t interest the self-righteous social warriors invading our streets.
.
Well, I don’t know about you, but events over the past few days have left me feeling very depressed.
Everywhere I look, the world seems to be on fire, and I can’t see a way of putting it out.
But the thing I find most troubling, the thought that has brought me to the verge of tears, is the way Britain — one of the most tolerant, fair and least prejudiced nations in the world — appears to have been infected by the same sickness that, for the past decade or so, has been tearing America apart.
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
People talk about ‘culture wars’, often without really knowing what that means. And until recently the notion seemed a fairly abstract concept, the sort of term bandied about by Newsnight presenters and academics, but largely irrelevant to ordinary people.
But that is no longer true. The battles that have been raging on U.S. campuses and streets have firmly invaded our shores.
Complex questions of politics, race and identity have become sharply polarised, stripped of all nuance, simplified beyond all reason and presented as moral imperatives, a simple case of good versus evil, love versus hate, and yes, black versus white.
Virtually nowhere is it possible to have an open, constructive debate about the pros and cons of any given issue.
Reason has been replaced by insult, intellect by raw emotion, curiosity by preconception.
There is so much that I have found deeply saddening about the scenes in recent days. The sight of horses being rammed with bicycles; the defacing of monuments dedicated to those who fought to protect our freedoms; the sheer ignorance that seems to underpin the views of some protesters.
In particular, the notion that all white people need to apologise for their very existence (exemplified by one little girl, aged maybe six or seven, whose mother posted a picture of her holding up a sign proclaiming her ‘white privilege’) — and the idea we are all racists.
To assume so — as many appear to — is as wrongheaded as the assumption that a young black male hanging out in the park is a drug dealer. It is simply not true.
Just as it is not true that the police are ‘all bastards’ or ‘racist scum’, as the chanting protesters who daubed slogans all over London and Bristol would have it.
Some may well be — there are bad eggs in every walk of life; but the majority do an important job, mopping up the fringes of society where most of us would never dare to tread.
And yet those who’ve tried to make that point, who have tried to calm the fervour of the seething crowds, have been turned upon, typecast as not much better than the men who killed Floyd.
The truth doesn’t matter, because the truth doesn’t interest the self-righteous social warriors invading our streets.
.
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