THE SMART SHIP AND THE ICEBERG
There have been worse years in modern history, much worse, 1914,
1939, 1940for example, but they have been few. Closer to 2016 are 1933 or 1938,
for this has been, like both of these years, a year that will have consequences
which will be felt for decades to come. Once more the piggy face of nationalism
and fascism are triumphant. From Poland to the US and UK the slogan peddled has
been that rallying call of the dictator and demagogue down the centuries, “we
will make you great again.”
If there was a moment at which I glimpsed this future being
incubated it was the horrific murder of Lee Rigby and the failure of the political
establishment, particularly the left, to grasp the impact, of this crime on
working class communities. That leading politicians seemed more concerned with
the threat of backlash, more concerned to assure, as Cameron did so asininely,
that this act “was nothing to do with Islam.”
Lee Rigby's Killer |
All the time the forces of xenophobia, nationalism and
racism grew in strength. The smart ship of liberalism heading inexorably toward
a terrible demarche.
‘And as the smart
ship grew
In stature, grace,
and hue,
In shadowy silent
distance grew the Iceberg too.’[1]
In the US the onslaughts on liberal values has come primarily
from the right, Fox News has been spewing out contempt for politics, due
process and human rights, for years, joined by a hallelujah chorus of ‘shock
jock’ broadcasters and pundits. Whilst waiting in the wings there were always the
Truthers, Birthers, and a pick and mix of white supremacist survivalists, in or
out of their KKK garb.
As for the liberal, and not so liberal left they been far too
busy fighting free speech, creating ‘safe spaces’ and railing against ‘fascist’
reactionaries like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and University professors to
notice the real McCoy like a cobra, shaken out of its slumbers, uncurling beside
them. Somehow picketing speeches by the like of Ayaan Hirsi Ali or Mark Steyn in
defence of some imagined ‘safe space’ is going to prove adequate preparation
for dealing with the real fascism of Donald Trump.
We are now at the dawn of a new era in which the likes of
Trump and Farage have been given the keys to the wine cellar marked power.
Who now will be standing up for liberal values? The oligarchs who own our
tabloid press? The enfeebled BBC or the soon to be strangled PBS? Well
certainly not the Corbynite left, or the Susan Sarandon style nihilists, who are
already finding hope in the crushing of the ‘social fascists’[2] i.e. Tony Blair and the Clintons. This madness has been a long time coming and when
the plague has finally run its course who knows what will be left standing.