One of them? What he says is as accurate today as it was at the time.
Take this excerpt from his Notes on Nationalism in 1945.
The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though unacknowledged motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and admiration for totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at the writing of the younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do not by any means express impartial disapproval but are directed almost entirely against Britain and the United States … (emphasis added)
THIS is my major beef with the Left-Green-enviro-anti-globalisation-death-cult. They have one rule for the West, and one rule for everybody else.
"Oh yes, Pol Pot was bad, but can you blame him? Ronald Reagan was the real mass-murderer!""But at least Mugabe was trying to take his nation forward. Bush has taken his backwards!"
"Well you can't expect the Japanese to operate their death camps like holiday resorts! Those captured soldiers were trying to kill them, you know!"
Honestly, the amount of times I've heard sentiments similar to those expressed under the guise of informed political discussion... it actually makes me want to hurl. Not vomit. Hurl something at the speaker. With extreme prejudice.
BY ALL MEANS, be a pacifist. But please! Be fair. Be honest. Be objective in your pacifism.
A quick case study - Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, 2003. US soldiers torture Iraqi prisoners. The response? They get tried in courts, dragged through the media, and punished.
- Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, c.1960-2003. Iraqi soldiers torture Iraqi prisoners. The response? Uhhh... official rewards? Pay rises? A fun all-you-can-torture/bring-your-kid-to-work day?
Most of you have already got the point I'm making, but for the Socialist Alliance member at the back, I will spell it out (in small words!). There is a key difference between the two cases. In one of them, the state and media found out what was going on and punished those responsible. We can call this "accountability". In the other one, the state sponsored the torture and benefitted from it. You can try to make some point about "blah blah the US sponsored it too etc" but even you, my friendly Socialist Alliance member, must recognise that the US stopped the torture. Iraq? Didn't stop til someone made them.
SO
I'm not expecting anyone to change their opinion, They will continue to side with Osama bin Laden, Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, France, Myanmar and David Marr and see the USA and UK as the "Great Satan". I understand this. BUT please! Learn some objectivity. Learn some reasoning skills. Learn how to compare and contrast moral situations. Most of all, learn to realise that your opinions can be wrong, and be prepared to challenge them. Who knows, maybe you'll prove yourself right all along.
Also, everyone should read Animal Farm and 1984. They are painfully accurate representations of communism and totalitarianism, at a time when it wasn't fashionable to attack them. And this photo is great
No comments:
Post a Comment