Vice-Regal Saint: Magna Carta, We Hardly Knew Yee
We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.~ Sir Winston Churchill in 1946
There is something fundamentally wrong in Brave New Canada when the judicial process and our whole tradition of constitutional liberty can be effectively circumvented by state-sponsored "human rights" commissions and their rogue tribunals. I call them rogue because they operate as quasi-judicial bodies with all the pretense, power and authority of the state, while remaining outside the rules, norms and procedures of our justice system.
Thankfully, the whole unaccountably rotten and abusive edifice has been brought to the public fore, now that Ezra Levant, publisher of the defunct Western Standard , and the infamous Mark Steyn (along with MacLean's magazine), have been hauled before the Ministry of Truth to answer for their offenses. Ezra Levant (go and watch the interrogation, you won't be disappointed), for publishing those Danish cartoons that make fun of the prophet Mohammad; Mark Steyn, for his numerous jibes against extremist Muslims and the threat posed by Islam on traditional Western values.
And here we thought freedom of the press and freedom of expression were "fundamental freedoms". Apparently not, if they can be questioned by the thought police about their intentions, and "tried" by the state in kangaroo courts masquerading as human rights justice. (Any pseudo court with a 100% kill rate can safely be presumed kangarooish)
And just about anyone in the blogosphere could be next given the hassle free ease with which one can file a complaint, and the zero cost for doing so. The defendent, on the other hand, who gets to face the state and not his accuser, must take costly steps to defend himself and to protect his reputation. So much for our ancient unalienable freedoms.
More on Kafka's Canada here: Fighting for freedom by David Warren
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13 comments:
A very timely post, Beaverbrook. Political Correctness is a type of sickness that stifles intelligent debate. The extreme left know that if they can limit which words people can say than they can limit ideas. It is strange indeed to think that it is OK to bring into a western countries people, whose religion tells them to make war on anyone who disagrees with them. Yet anyone who so much as raises an eyebrow of objection to them are labelled bigots by the PC brigade. I believe this type of Political Correctness from the left is a way of making people ashamed of their western heritage so abandon it and embrace the socialist utopia, and for the left, if that means siding with the mad religion of Islam – then so be it.
In my first year at university I was verbally abused by a young woman who accused me of being sexist, racist, ignorant and generally abhorrent. What had I done? Opened a door for her. Yes, opening a door for a female today is just not PC, apparently.
I admit I do find the hysteria with which many people react to Islamic immigration distasteful and in general, ignorant. The vast majority of Muslims (I know quite a few) are peaceful, decent folk trying to make a living without attracting any attention. It is a vocal (and sometimes violent) minority coupled with the PC crowd who are causing trouble. At the same time I do not deny that Islamic culture has its faults.
I'm concerned enough a about Western culture without worrying about whats wrong with other peoples, let them do what they want and be damned. Provided they realise they have to follow our ways in our countries, there is no problem. Telling them they can maintain their own ways in our countries is what is causing problems, and that is our doing, not theirs.
I'm a bit rambly today, apologies.
I bring up Islam as it seems to be the key issue that is driving the PC crowd and the most dangerous to the west. At least on this blog I can say that.
I have read many articles form ex-Muslims who are very puzzled by the PC crowd siding with Islam. These ex-Muslims are articulate intelligent people who know more about Islam than most in the west. Moderate Muslims are the ones who do not follow it too closely. Anyway below is a very interesting link:
http://islam-watch.org/LeavingIslam/Why-I-Quit-Islam.htm
and this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=D7kbMdYYdsE&feature=related
Islamic terrorism is certainly a serious issue facing the West, and I can understand why people are concerned about it, but the threat is often overstated (it is not existential). And the threat is not from Islam, but from radical Islam.
It is our weakness not their strength which causes problems, exacerbated by silliness such as political correnctness and multi-culturalism.
I draw a distinction between multi ethnic and multi cultural, a multi cultural country has several mainstream cultures co-existing (pre-Reconquista Spain for example). A multi ethnic society has many ethnicities within it, but generally absorbed into the single mainstream culture, with some traditions and whatnot retained but on the whole subservient to the dominant culture(Australia).
Islam is a serious threat to Britain and British identity traditionally conceived. Not because they are all wicked: but because those who aren't are simply not active enough, and are too often fellow-travellers with those who are highly active in colonising whole quarters of cities and counties. East Oxford, in the next ten years, will be almost exclusively Muslim - when it isn't even majority Muslim now. But building a tower to launch a high-volume thrice daily call to prayer will soon see anyone Christian, Hindu, Sikh or secular, moving quickly out. It gives a new meaning to the term ghetto-blaster, I suppose (hoho!).
This pattern, in different ways and through different methods, is going on up and down the country. They are self-segregating. They are establishing a parallel - well, not civilisation, that would dignify the barbarisms of sharia far more than it deserves - a parallel way of life, let us say. Hermetic, insular, fed all day by Pakistani and Arabic satellite TV, most womenfolk kept inside and prevented from school, forbidden to drive, forced into large marriages; 'honour' murders where this fails. Young men brought up in the ways of shithood, taught to regard anyone with breasts or a British passport as inferior and worthy of all scorn and violence (I don't mean terror, necessarily - thuggish, antisocial behaviour is often as far as it goes, but that is bad enough).
Chivalry is dead, if we cannot stoutly and permanently make a stand against this. That it could be solved very easily and pacifically by a government and country that wanted to - but cannot and won't, because it is stumbling in a PC-induced funk, slouching every day closer to death - is not a cause for comfort or amelioration. British rule of law and civil society must be brought into these areas; the cartels broken up; present education, equal rights, marriage and assault laws enforced.
That isn't happening, though. And in the meantime we are losing ourselves and our country.
All quite true, and it is our weakness which allows it, even condones it, not any conspiracy or plot beyond a PC phobia of Western culture.
What worries me is that when you look back at history for similar levels of cultural phobia in the West, you see the situation of the Jews in Nazi Germany, when a whole culture was scapegoated for the nations problems. I do not want to see the same thing happen in the Anglosphere, least of all England itself.
We must fight political correctness and the far left lunatics, and fundamentalist Muslims, but not ALL Muslims, lest we create the existential threat we seek to avoid.
In regards to self segregation, it is worth remembering that in the past Italian and Greek migrants often segregated themselves to some extent, and were also accused of undermining society, in Australia atleast. Integration will occur, if we prevent the PC groups encouraging and even forcing segregation onto Muslims.
Italian and Greek segregation doesn't bother me: I might as well move to France and segregate myself. European ghettos in European countries are temporary curiosities, and fundamentally (if not superficially) fond fictions.
Middle Eastern ghettos are far more alien, and thus stand a greater chance of lasting, and doing lasting damage to all involved.
I find your analogy of the Jews in Nazi Germany unsurprising - I think it something which underlies a lot of feebleness and loss of self-confidence in our civilisation, and much of the clamour for discrimination laws. The sight of a civilised, advanced, modern country, two hours from our shores, with a semi-shared ancestry and history and a developed culture and government, turning suddenly and monstrously upon a minority, to the point of scrupulous, methodical mass-murder, should surely chill us to the bones.
But I don't think the lesson is that no-one is safe from themselves - or from their darker selves. That is increasingly the lesson we perceive, as the generations that were contemporaries with the Nazis pass from view. But I think veterans of that war would not view it very favourably. They did not do the same; even the fascist Italians did not do the same - as Jonah Goldberg has recently written, under Mussolini they curiously withheld and defended all their Jewry from the Nazis, till the Germans finally invaded. The Holocaust was a peculiarly German crime; that is the only conclusion we can draw. (And don't forget that France was far quicker to hand over its Jews than Italy was: again, specific culture, not universal nature, seems to be behind it).
We never handed any Jew over. Since Cromwell, we have been the safest and most welcoming society for Jews in the entire world. Long may it ever remain so! I believe a similar case could be made for our treatment of all minorities.
So we have little to fear within us from dealing forthrightly, lawfully and honestly with a minority-within-a-minority beneath contempt and contemptuous of the law.
NOT doing anything is far more likely to frustrate the average Briton. Even then, we are masters of our fate, and no problem has ever, nor will ever, force us to lose our self-control.
Lord Best, pull your head out of the sand.
I dont believe in discrimination laws at all, specific laws for specific groups, what happened to all being equal under the law? No my point about Nazi Germany is that was another case where suspicion and distrust turned into outright hatred, which was in turn used by an evil government for its own ends. We are a long way from seeing that happen in England or Australia, but the seeds are there, and that is what worries me. Too many people seem quite happy to throw away fundamental Western values like the rule of law, presumption of innocence and right of reply when dealing with Muslims. Here in Australia there have been people calling for mass deportations, concentration camps and even "taking Muslims out back and shooting them", as one South Australian mayor put it.
Muslims are not undermining out culture, our own left wing is. We cannot fight it by undermining our fundamental principles attacking the wrong enemy!
I just want to make it clear that I'm not arguing that Islamic culture does not have problems, or that segregated ghettos are not also a problem, or that this is not hurting society. All I'm saying is that these are symptoms of OUR failure to force these people to integrate, not any broad conspiracy by them.
It is no broad conspiracy on their part it's up front in their holy book the Koran.
You are right about the intergration issue. Remember Beaverbrooks original point about your rights to express those points!
Many things are written in the Qu'ran, some of them good, some not so good. Most Muslims do not take it literally, in the same way most Christians do not take the Bible literally. The problems stem from fundamentalists who try to force a dogmatic interpretation on everyone else.
One should be very careful about using the "its written in (insert holy book here) arguments. They all have their bad parts. Have you read the Old Testament? Encouraging mass murder and rape of entire populations is generally frowned upon these days.
As I've said, I'm not saying Islam doesnt have problems, or that it isn't causing problems. The issue is it is a symptom of our own cultural weakness.
I think the issue is probably both. There may be an open door, but someone is pushing on it.
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