Can't really argue with Brendan O'Neill here:
After the terror, the platitudes. And the hashtags. And the candlelit vigils. And they always have the same message: ‘Be unified. Feel love. Don’t give in to hate.’ The banalities roll off the national tongue. Vapidity abounds. A shallow fetishisation of ‘togetherness’ takes the place of any articulation of what we should be together for – and against. And so it has been after the barbarism in Manchester. In response to the deaths of more than 20 people at an Ariana Grande gig, in response to the massacre of children enjoying pop music, people effectively say: ‘All you need is love.’ The disparity between these horrors and our response to them, between what happened and what we say, is vast. This has to change....
Well, rather predictably, the Guardian is having a good go already.....
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/23/national-trauma-manchester-attacks-common-good
Posted by: Abandon Ship! | May 23, 2017 at 04:46 PM
“A shallow fetishisation of ‘togetherness’ takes the place of any articulation of what we should be together for – and against.”
I’m all in favour of spelling out what we are against, but, of course, if that was done it would starkly demonstrate the failure of our politicians over the last several few decades to deal with certain versions of Islam. The last thing they will do is admit to that.
I recommended it in another comment, but I’ll recommend it again, if I may. One of the Amazon reviewers of Baroness Warsi’s “The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain” paraphrased her chapter concerning British Foreign Policy as follows:
“British foreign policy is the reason young Muslims turn to terrorism. We must not give in to this type of blackmail. [So far, so good!]. We must pursue the foreign policy we believe is right. Our foreign policy is wrong. The human rights and values (democracy etc.) we demand British citizens including British Muslims subscribe to at home should be the basis of our foreign policy yet we are friends with dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia, and Egypt and odd cases like Pakistan who deny these rights and ignore these values. This hypocrisy is what infuriates young British Muslims. We have to change our foreign policy and stop working with or supporting these countries until they subscribe to human rights and British values.”
Posted by: LibertyPhile | May 23, 2017 at 05:25 PM
So Warsi believes the reason a British muslim massacres children is because they hate the Islamic totalitarianism & oppression in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan etc.? Hmm..
Posted by: Graham | May 24, 2017 at 12:45 AM