I don’t know if it’s a product of my education or my own anti-statist bent, but I’ve often had sympathetic positions with marchers – the placard-holding chanting types. Why? I don’t know for sure. If I could pin it down, however, my guess would be that, since I so dearly cherish the freedom of thought and freedom of expression, I subsequently think warmly of nearly all people who use those freedoms for the pursuit of their goals (uggh, too many “-ly” adverbs in that sentence). Incidentally, I find myself also agreeing with many of the positions taken by protestors and marchers.
Some examples might help:
If you were on the right side of the civil rights debate in the 50’s and 60’s you would be in agreement with the MLK marchers and sit-in protests. If in the early 20th century you felt that women should have the right to vote, you would be marching with the suffragettes. I also can sympathize with the unionizers who faced brutal work conditions and ruthless police-corporate collusion in turn of the last century. Today, a position I find much to agree with is the pro-life movement, and, natch, their side of the debate overwhelmingly has the most rallies and marches.
But there’s another side to all this, at least for me, that needs to be evaluated. I think that on today, a day set aside to celebrate a man who led many marches and protests himself, we should separate wheat from chaff: remember the courage of those in the right, yet also remind ourselves not all marches and protests are done with the ideas of liberty in mind. It might sound like a dumb Profound Statement, especially for those of you who have nothing but scorn for the anti-WTO and convention-protesting types, but I think more inspection of the kinds of protests will promote a clarity that is much needed in our current political environment.
Another illustrative historical example:
In The Battle of Cable Street, thousands of British Fascists, inspired by their pogromming German counterparts, planned a march through the Jewish neighborhoods of London’s East End. What they would do there, no one could say for sure, but it wasn’t too much of a stretch to imagine that there would be intimidation and possible violence against the Jewish inhabitants.
Their march, one of oppression and ethnic bigotry, while popular with some in government, was not without it’s opponents. Irish workers, Communists, and the Jews themselves all stood at the edge of the neighborhoods and refused to let the blackshirts march through. There was a confrontation, but in the end the barricade stood and the fascists were turned away.
(Of course, no conflict between groups can be complete without some broken skulls and mass arrests, brought to you by The State! Now with Extra-Brutal Crowd Control!)
In its retelling, the Battle has taken on a more triumphant tone. What I find worth remembering, however, is that there were thousands of Britons who were willing to march in the streets, in uniform, in support of anti-Semitism. I ask myself: what kind of society allows this to grow to such a level? Why wasn’t anyone against these bastards in the formative years of the British Union of Fascists? I think I’ve found the answer, however: one not very different from our own.
It seems that in the past few weeks we are seeing the resurrection of these blackshirts, and again they are being met with a milquetoast response. The battle between Israel and Gaza seems occasion enough for anti-Semitism to be allowed a place at the table.
Vandals hurled Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in a Paris suburb…
Three other synagogues have been firebombed in the past two weeks…
vandals have sprayed anti-Israeli graffiti on at least two other Jewish places of worship…
"Death to Israel," "Long live Palestine" and "F--k France" scrawled on synagogue wall…
Swastika and ZOG (for Zionist Occupation Government) painted near door of synagogue…
Windows broken, cross sprayed on wall…
During pro-Palestinian march, 200 youths try to march on synagogue…
A car is set on fire in synagogue parking lot…
And that’s just in France.
Look at this photobook from Australia. In it you’ll see marchers carrying Hezbollah and Hamas flags,you’ll see kids holding signs saying that the Jews didn’t learn their lessons from the Nazis well enough the first time (HT: Instapundit). When faced with this, many in the “liberal tradition” from the West choose yet again to merely bend over and let these anti-Semites do whatever they please.
In the past, hate-groups like the KKK were opposed by many people: black, Christian, Jewish, white, Democrats and Republican -- all organized under the principle of anti-racism. Yet where are those today who would unify under an “anti anti-Semitism” banner? Why was it right to protest the “cultural expression” of white supremacists yet wrong to fight against the “cultural expression” of anti-Semitic Arabs?
Let’s use this day of celebration of Dr. King to hone our moral sense, make it sharp enough to impel us to stand up and say “No Pasaran!” to bigotry on all sides*. To do less is to do wrong by the legacy of a great man.
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*Yes, I recognize that there is anti-Arab bigotry amongst Jews as well. This is no moral equivocating, however: only one side in this debate teaches their children that a) the other side are pigs and b) the murder of said pigs is pleasing to God. And that side sure isn’t the one going to synagogue on Saturday.
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