A Short Thought On Civil Liberties (As We Near The End Of The Blogging Road)
The Labour government of Tony Blair created over 3,000 new crimes.
This can only be described as government against the people, proscribing the people, attacking the people.
One of the little patterns that Western history has splashed onto the history books is that when an ideology is fresh and untested, it very quickly butts its head against the brick wall of events and then retreats to its natural limits.
The French Revolution's 'Grande Terreur' was the natural consequence of unbridled liberalism. Liberalism born of absolutism proved itself to be as capable of bloodthirstiness and score-settling as absolutism itself. When La Grande Terreur hit its buffers, less than two days after Robespierre was laughed at, so did liberalism, and for all practical purposes it's been on the back foot ever since, and don't let anyone tell you anything different.
Similarly, the oppression of the poor in the early to middle phases of the Industrial Revolution occasioned by self-serving readings of the 'Wealth of Nations' hit the buffers once that book's very obvious failings became clear. That moment came when the evangelical Anglicans of that period, the type deplored by the less reputable type of modern British historian, got wise to them.
So it is and will be with this attack on civil liberties. Under Blair, the Labour Party became a party of the right, intent on restricting the ability of labour to express its collective desires rather than promoting and encouraging it. They never saw a strike they didn't deplore. Yet even although many of Labour's natural supporters now seem to be almost as demented as Adam Smith in their pursuit of self-interest (a pursuit which is a feature of all societies blighted by failing public institutions and a consequent narrowing of what Francis Fukuyama and others have labelled 'the radius of trust'), I retain great hope that the Blair government's attack on civil liberties will go the way of La Grande Terreur and the dark satanic mills in the end; the people will see through it, and its effect will be nullified by that peculiarly British combination of obstinacy and apathy best described as 'Britishness'.
There is always hope.
This can only be described as government against the people, proscribing the people, attacking the people.
One of the little patterns that Western history has splashed onto the history books is that when an ideology is fresh and untested, it very quickly butts its head against the brick wall of events and then retreats to its natural limits.
The French Revolution's 'Grande Terreur' was the natural consequence of unbridled liberalism. Liberalism born of absolutism proved itself to be as capable of bloodthirstiness and score-settling as absolutism itself. When La Grande Terreur hit its buffers, less than two days after Robespierre was laughed at, so did liberalism, and for all practical purposes it's been on the back foot ever since, and don't let anyone tell you anything different.
Similarly, the oppression of the poor in the early to middle phases of the Industrial Revolution occasioned by self-serving readings of the 'Wealth of Nations' hit the buffers once that book's very obvious failings became clear. That moment came when the evangelical Anglicans of that period, the type deplored by the less reputable type of modern British historian, got wise to them.
So it is and will be with this attack on civil liberties. Under Blair, the Labour Party became a party of the right, intent on restricting the ability of labour to express its collective desires rather than promoting and encouraging it. They never saw a strike they didn't deplore. Yet even although many of Labour's natural supporters now seem to be almost as demented as Adam Smith in their pursuit of self-interest (a pursuit which is a feature of all societies blighted by failing public institutions and a consequent narrowing of what Francis Fukuyama and others have labelled 'the radius of trust'), I retain great hope that the Blair government's attack on civil liberties will go the way of La Grande Terreur and the dark satanic mills in the end; the people will see through it, and its effect will be nullified by that peculiarly British combination of obstinacy and apathy best described as 'Britishness'.
There is always hope.
Labels: Civil Liberties
posted by Martin at
12:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home