A friend I respect asked me today why I write here about some of the subjects (and people) I do. What do I hope to achieve? Coincidentally, I saw this (below) in the latest Parachute music festival magazine just this morning:
"Don't blame the dark for being dark. Blame the light for not shining in the dark." Nice point of view. Apparently it's the mission statement for a group working against pornography. (click)
That’s a different spin on Edmund Burke’s much-quoted saying: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.
I’m really not the bee’s knees, and don’t see myself as a saint, nor ‘the light’. Not at all. Really. Please. The Paepae isn’t going to save the world — this little blog is not a ‘global game changer’ as poormastery said (accurately) recently.
But, as I tried to explain to my friend, I’d rather attempt to put an alternative view of matters I’m concerned about in the ‘marketplace of ideas’. I’d rather venture a challenge, where I can, to those I see peddling deceit, hypocrisy and hyperbole.
I’d rather try and fail than squeamishly (or hopelessly) abandon the debate to those happy to indulge in ‘dirty and illegal tactics‘.
How do you see it?
– P
PS Sorry if this comes across as self-important or self-indulgent (or sanctimonious!) That’s not my intention.
Some systems are certainly worth fighting in any and every way possible – such as totalitarianism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism
“One of the first to use the term “totalitarianism” in the English language was the Austrian writer Franz Borkenau in his 1938 book The Communist International, in which he commented that it more united the Soviet and German dictatorships than divided them. Isabel Paterson, in The God of the Machine (1943), used the term in connection with the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
F.A. Hayek helped develop the idea of totalitarianism in his classic defense of economic competition The Road to Serfdom (1944). In his Introduction, Hayek contrasts Western Anglo values with Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, stating that “the conflict between the National-Socialist “Right” and the “Left” in Germany is the kind of conflict that will always arise between rival socialist factions”. He later conflates “Germany, Italy and Russia” going on to say that “the history of these countries in the years before the rise of the totalitarian system showed few features with which we are not familiar” (Chapter 1, The Abandoned Road).”
On the other hand, some people and opinions are probably better ignored, because they are not that important.
Where to draw the line? It is up to the individual, I suppose…
Rgds,
*p*
Thanks for your comments.
Factionalism, like the poor, will, I guess, always be with us.
– P
I’m so glad you mention the poor – like the meek they get a hell of a time.
I much prefer the statement that adjures us not to curse the darkness … but rather light a candle. Much better than the parachute version …
Yeah, I get you. Encouragement to ‘Blame’ went dong with me too.
But I get their main point: Don’t leave it to the darkness.
Their point mate … comes from a predetermined outcome shaped by their particular worldview. There are cattle-cars full of persons and beings left outside of that worldview in reality….mainly those that dont agree with all their “jots and tittles” … particularly the “tittles”
Their view of what constitutes darkness and light … has ranged around it … large numbers of flaming torches and pitchforks … a la american gothic .. – but its made to look so cool and accommodating.
Its a little bit like the a previous commenters ponder(ous)ing on totalitarianism and circumlocutions around said subject (i got lost halfway through…) … it all sounds great … but what is the ultimate outcome.
‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.
You should send that statement to The Labour Party.