The BNP Verses the Elites: A Lesson for All
Is Political Correctness cracking up? Sure hope so.
I barely know anything about the British National Party but they have managed to be the subject of a good bit of editorializing and not all of it shrieks with horror.
Consider Melanie Phillips excellent piece from a few days ago:
The BNP can be dismissed but their constituency can not
'Christians should reject BNP'
Perhaps the media and other establishment institutions, such as the Church of England, will soon understand that it can't look down its collective noses at ordinary people, presuming the right to censor what the great unwashed can see or hear, and not expect a backlash. This whole phenomena has the feeling of the attack on the power of the church in Rome as the Protestant Reformation picked up steam. In a democracy, the elitist snobs will always fall, no matter what they do to prevent it from happening. The intelligence and capacity of ordinary folk to make up their own minds, is just far too powerful. They are not children. There is no need to "protect" them from uncomfortable or disturbing ideas. Worst of all, it is folly to assume their perception of the issues that press upon them in their own neighbourhoods and in their day to day lives are expressions of bigotry and nothing else. The chains of political correctness must come off and people must be allowed to speak and be respected for it.
I barely know anything about the British National Party but they have managed to be the subject of a good bit of editorializing and not all of it shrieks with horror.
Consider Melanie Phillips excellent piece from a few days ago:
"And that is what the political class is getting so badly wrong. For the strategy being adopted to contain and destroy Griffin [leader of the BNP] is to attack him for being a racist. Which he is.Sounds familiar, doesn't it. Then today, there is this:
But that is not the reason for his appeal. Those who support him do not in the main do so because they are racially prejudiced. It is because he also opposes mass immigration, Islamisation and the loss of sovereignty to the EU.
These are all legitimate concerns which are widely held by people who fear the loss of Britain's historic identity - but which are stigmatised as beyond the pale by an intelligentsia which considers any such expression of nationalistic sentiment to be a form of racism."
The BNP can be dismissed but their constituency can not
"A party that received a mere 6.2 per cent of the vote at the European elections has dominated the national news agenda, culminating in eight million people watching its leader's appearance on Question Time. Even on the programme itself, the BNP was driving the agenda. This was a Question Time with no discussion of the economy, education or health. The postal strike that started last week was ignored.To be sure, the evening was not an unalloyed success for the BNP. Griffin looked particularly absurd when he said that he couldn't explain why he had changed his mind on the Holocaust, and he failed to land any blows on his fellow panellists or deliver any memorable one-liners. But this frenzy of publicity has given the BNP oxygen that other minor parties can only dream of ...[---]
"But because legitimate feelings about national identity are also deemed to be racist, Griffin has been able to present the entire political mainstream as a conspiracy against the interests of ordinary people.By cleverly sanitising the BNP message over recent years, he has thus been able to pose as a victim of political correctness."
[---]
Most delicious of all are these ones:"What a terrible indictment - that the only party which allows people to express their patriotism is one that exploits and manipulates such feelings for other, unsavoury, ends.
The mainstream parties seem principally concerned to demonstrate their own virtue by competing to be the loudest to denounce the BNP as vile and despicable.
This, however, conceals a devastating reality - that the people who are truly responsible for the rise of the BNP by abandoning and demonising the ordinary decent people of Britain are none other than themselves."
'Christians should reject BNP'
"Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has called on Christians to "stand shoulder to shoulder" in rejecting the British National Party and its leader Nick Griffin, who he branded a "squalid racist"."[---]
"His comments came as a poll suggested that a number of controversial BNP policies on immigration, sex education and Islam have resonance with significant numbers of voters.BNP revolt at BBC
The survey in the News of the World found that almost two-thirds of voters feel the mainstream parties have no credible policies on immigration. But only 6% said the BNP had the best policies on the issue and just 10% agreed with the far-right party that there should be a halt to all future immigration."
"She [Sue MacGregor]is the most prominent broadcaster to question the BBC’s judgment over the way Griffin’s appearance was handled. Other senior journalists also said the handling of the programme may have backfired.As Kate at SDA would say, something must have gone horribly wrong.
An opinion poll conducted after the programme was aired found that 22% of people would “seriously consider” voting for the BNP. The BBC has also had 243 complaints that the show was biased against Griffin, compared with 114 complaining about him appearing on it."
Perhaps the media and other establishment institutions, such as the Church of England, will soon understand that it can't look down its collective noses at ordinary people, presuming the right to censor what the great unwashed can see or hear, and not expect a backlash. This whole phenomena has the feeling of the attack on the power of the church in Rome as the Protestant Reformation picked up steam. In a democracy, the elitist snobs will always fall, no matter what they do to prevent it from happening. The intelligence and capacity of ordinary folk to make up their own minds, is just far too powerful. They are not children. There is no need to "protect" them from uncomfortable or disturbing ideas. Worst of all, it is folly to assume their perception of the issues that press upon them in their own neighbourhoods and in their day to day lives are expressions of bigotry and nothing else. The chains of political correctness must come off and people must be allowed to speak and be respected for it.
posted by Louise at 2:37 pm
1 Comments:
Racism begins with our families, parents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents, people we admire, respect and love.
However, as we grow and mature we come to the realization that what we were told by our family when we were children were slanted lies base on their prejudices. We realize that most people are like ourselves and not so different and want the same things, like a home, steady work, a Medicare plan and schools for our children (if you travel you will see this). We realize that most people are of good hearts and goodwill.
This reminds me of a parable from the good book where a Levite and Priest come upon a man who fell among thieves and they both individually passed by and didn't stop to help him.
Finally a man of another race came by, he got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy and got down with the injured man, administered first aid, and helped the man in need.
Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the "I" into the "thou," and to be concerned about his fellow man.
You see, the Levite and the Priest were afraid, they asked themselves, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?"
But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"
That's the question before us. The question is not, "If I stop to help the immigrant in need, what will happen to me?" The question is, "If I do not stop to help the immigrant, what will happen to him or her?" That's the question.
This current climate of blaming others for our woes is not new. We have had this before and we have conquered it.
Remember “Evil flourishes when good men (and women) do nothing”. Raise your voices with those of us who believe we are equal and we can win this battle again.
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