The Gray Monk

« Management training | Main | Who am I in 1400? »

April 07, 2005

And so it begins ....

My title is taken from the TV Sci-fi drama "Babylon 5" and is a statement from one of the alien races in the show. It encapsulates for me just how often small and apparently "fair" or "reasonable" changes can become tyranny.

In recent years in Britain there has been a growing tendency to impose restrictions on freedom of speech, of thought, and of action, usually because it was seen as "exclusive", "elitist", or "sexist", "racist" or any other "-ist" you can dream up. It began as a "fairness" and "equality" campaign, but it is now becoming much more sinister. It is now openly stated that we live under a "new" regime in which we are "bound" by "moral standards" demanded by "public determination to stamp out inequality and racism".

The following lines are inscribed on a plaque outside one of the concentration camps in Germany. They were written by one Martin Niemuller:

“In Germany, they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist;
then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Niemuller was a German pastor as well as a victim of such a Nazi concentration camp. He, together with Pastor Bonhoeffer, was eventually arrested and died in the camps which they had dared to denounce. Now, it seems, those of us who dare to challenge the accepted "morality" of Mr Blair's "Cool Britannia" are likely to find ourselves ostracised, unemployed, and pilloried for not supporting the party line.

It began a few years into Blair's reign as Lord Protector and dictator to the Commons - First it was members of the Police, Judiciary, Fire Services, and any other Public Service who were Freemasons. They were forced to declare their membership; promotions and careers were blighted, and many found themselves with a stark choice - leave the Masons or lose their jobs. Now it is members of the BNP - not that I have any sympathy with the BNP - but where does it end?

Membership of any Hunt? Membership of any club that dares to elect its members? Membership of any political party Mr Blair does not approve of? Conservatives? Liberal Democrats? Anyone who dares to challenge the all-powerful Civil Service?

Already you can be excluded from access to a Doctor if you have been too argumentative or too demanding of the practice. Don't dare to challenge your GP; he can have you struck from his practice and effectively bar you from any other. Don't argue with the prat behind the counter in the job centre, you go down on the list as "workshy" and are denied all further aid. Being a man in the job market is becoming a hazardous occupation! Being a white man is even more likely to get you nowhere, especially in the public services, as "targets" for women, ethnic minority groups, and so on are set and filled at all costs.

Fairness and "best for the job" have gone out of the window in this new and twisted version of apartheid principles. No longer do the majority have a say - only the minority voices are permitted to be heard in this new society of thought police and politically correct lunacy. The vociferous minorities in London, with the ears of so many Labour cronies at their beck and call, are now doing exactly what Herr Hitler and his henchmen did in Nazi Germany, setting about isolating, alienating, and de-humanising everyone who does not conform to their twisted vision of fairness, diversity, and equality. The Nazi tactics of whipping up public fear and loathing is no different to the campaign now being run to spread fear and loathing of any person or group which can be conveniently labelled as "not following the agenda". Thus Freemasons are branded as "subversive" (I wonder which of the Labour hierarchy they refused membership to?), Gentlemen's Clubs are "sexist" (but all women's institutions are not!), anyone even slightly to the right of the Labour Party is a "Concentration Camp Guard" (but the Gauleiters of Mill Bank are not!), Muslim is good; Christianity is a "distortion", selection on merit or job-related criteria are "exclusivist", but "affirmative" selection is not. As in the book "Animal Farm", slogans have taken over from reasoned and rational behaviour, it has become all too easy to stick offensive labels on someone who does not agree with the assault upon tradition and institutions and to destroy them in the name of "the greater good".

Thus, the Police are "institutionally racist", the Fire Services are "elitist" or "institutionally sexist", and the armed forces "permeated by a macho culture!" It goes on and on, but the priniciple being used is straight out of the Nazi handbook. Isolate, denigrate, degrade, and then, when you have convinced the public that this group or that is a "problem", you can move against them and no one will protest. It's all in the interests of "reasonable fairness, equality, and diversity for the greater good!" Who could possibly dissent?

Niemuller's poignant words will come home to bite the people of this country rather sooner than they think if this is not stopped and stamped out soon.

“In Britain, they first came for the Freemasons,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Freemason;
then they came for the BNP,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a BNP member.
Then they came for the Objectors to the new Morality,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an Objector.
Then they came for the Non Conformers to the New Morality,
and I didn't speak up because I was not a willing Conformer.

Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Posted by The Gray Monk at April 7, 2005 09:11 AM

Comments

Posted by: Ellina Rosen at April 7, 2005 05:58 PM