THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. THEN THEY CAME for the Catholics,and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. THEN THEY CAME for me and by that time no one was left to speak up."
Pastor Martin Niemoller wrote that about the inactivity of German intellectuals in the face of the depradations and ravages of Hitler. But it's as relevant today as it was then. Except that in Britain the majority side actively, not passively, with the authorities eliminating anything that gets in the way of their programme, which is the righteous accumulation of money. Look at the widespread condemnation of the strikes sweeping the country. Nobody has asked why they're happening. Nobody seems to be prepared to accept that some of those striking workers might have a case. They just want the strikers to be put back to work and reminded, as if the two were even remotely connected, that while they disrupt holidays to Bermuda and train rides to conferences in Manchester, "our boys" are dying in Afghanistan.
An employer, in the current selfish conservative climate, can stand in front of the tv cameras and strut and spit forth threats like Danny Dyer in a necktie; but the moment a union boss talks as if he gives two shits it's the end of civilisation.
Fuck principle, so the feeling seems to go in Britain in 2010. Principle is the sentimental luxury of the overeducated. Principle only gets in the way of shopping.
Oh Hunter Thompson, where are you when we need you?
No comments:
Post a Comment