I remember thinking when the BBC welcomed that anti-immigration racial extremist on their most popular political talk show that it's too bad the guy's a bit of a nut job cause not everything he's saying is nuts - and then I remember thinking but of course you have to be an extremist nut job to say these things because no mainstream politician would dare say these things - and then I remember thinking that that's the real problem here, isn't it? Not the nut job per se but the fact that everyone's too busy being outraged to consider the possibility that maybe the guy is making some good points?
Well, sure enough, polls show that a significant portion of the British electorate weren't too busy acting outraged to listen since many seemed to agree with him, in part at least - meaning, yes, the real news was being missed by politically correct pundits and politicians: a significant number of non-nut job native born Englanders are not happy with immigration policy.
And of course not soon after the poll release you then get the Labour Immigration minister admitting that mistakes have been made - but, and this is interesting, only by referencing unemployment problems - in other words, decidedly avoiding the 'clash of cultures' question - in other words, out of fear or political correctness or under the influence of a blinding liberal ideology, they chose to interpret the poll results in a way that explicitly attempted to avoid what may be the most pressing and significant question raised by the poll: does England, and all of western Europe for that matter, have a Muslim problem?
I don't know the answer to that question - I do know that it is a legitimate question and that it's curious if not telling how anxious some are to avoid asking it.
Do I have a point other than finding it 'curious'? Well... probably that we're being told that in order to get along with foreign cultures you need to respect them, but isn't that putting the cart before the horse? Isn't that to falsely acclaim an idealised notion of the nature of open societies, of liberal democracies, over a more reality based notion of such? ie isn't it the foreign culture's responsibility to accept, to adopt, to respect the tenets guiding our way of life before they can hope for respect in return? And when a foreign culture is governed by an ideology that resists change, rejects such an acceptance, don't you have a problem? There are no Athens in Islam, no Romes, no Magna Cartas, no revolutions Glorious, French or American - when Islam moves it steps backwards, not forwards. Of course, on a pragmatic level, it's all about numbers and a problem only becomes a problem when the numbers become too big to ignore - but isn't it naive to think that there's nothing wrong with a Western Europe that will be 20% Muslim by 2050? [possibly the tactful, more respectable way to put this is to ask: if you have a large Muslim population and a significant portion of that population is frustrated by their lives in the West and come to blame the West for that frustration and as a consequence openly oppose integration according to Western norms while adhering to a religion that not only endorses and validates such an opposition but is apt to preach that only the violent overthrow of the offending infidels can effectively ease the pain of association with them - well, then, isn't that a problem? Seems like a problem]
What I find curious is how Western Civilization [to speak in general terms] seems to want to act as if it's ashamed of itself, as if there's something wrong or inappropriate with thinking that there is no parallel offered by the species to match that line traced in history from Athens to Washington. Are we doomed now to belittled ourselves by jumping back and forth between arrogance and acquiescence until energy and motive are lost and we fade away? Extremes on the right were outraged by Obama's Muslim 'apology tour' of the Mideast while extremes on the left cheered it as if on the cusp of a new age - the great mass in the middle sat on hands, shrugged shoulders, smiled weakly, mouthed platitudes, watched TV, fell asleep. Must mean something - or does it? An alarmist then, am I? I want there to be a ghost in the cellarage, calling out crimes unseen. Hamlet, I am thy father's spirit, doomed for a certain time to walk the night.
Ozymandias complex - fear the lone and level sands stretching far away...
