The Politics of Dancing

During the sixties and seventies there used to be a standard line trotted out by the reactionary right when discussing the independence struggles in Africa, particularly Apartheid South Africa, this could be called the Daily Telegraph line. It used to go along the following lines, what needed to be understood that these were intensely tribal cultures; they were neither ready nor suited for western style democracy. The word primitive was rarely used, merely implied, the racism underlying this argument not even disguised. On question time a week or so ago the spokesperson for the Respect Party, commenting on the current struggles in Afghanistan clarified that what needed to be understood is that Afghanistan is an intensely tribal culture and that trying to impose western style democracy was inappropriate! Further comment feels redundant.

About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters; how well, they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; [1] Auden, whilst giving credit to Breughel , as he so often does, gets it right, he hits the spot. The mother mourns her dead child as the undertaker stifles a yawn and across the street an ice cream van pulls up. You leave the hospital with terminal news and the cab driver opens the door chewing gum, it is the indifference of the world that frames our suffering. ‘Don’t they know it’s the end of the world’ Skeeter Davis intoned over the radio when I was young and of course they did not or if they did they had things to be getting on with tasks to perform. And this is how we experience the suffering of others too, we walk, already ten minutes late for work, the blood spattered body of the motorcyclist lies in the roadway, we take in the crowd surrounding the man, noting the inappropriate cl...

As of 2008 the current administration had created more than 3,600 criminal offences since it came to office in 1997, almost one for every day in power, more legislation has been enacted this year. This avalanche of legislation has involved a relentless assault on civil liberties. In the House of Lords recently the Government failed to pass yet another measure, in this case a measure designed to criminalise Homophobia. The minister thus thwarted lamented that ‘this sent out a message that it was OK to be intolerant.’ This statement tells you all you need to know about the present administration, a government that wants to criminalise intolerance! Well the news is that intolerance, after a fashion, is OK, certainly currently not illegal. For myself I am intolerant of much, the list would be too long, some of the things on the list I guess would be considered less respectable than others. At present my greatest intolerance is religious bigotry in general and Islamicist ideology in particu...