Writing in The American Conservative magazine, Dalrymple notes an increasing divergence of political views in Europe. While intellectual elites and political leaders view policies like immigration through a prism of “various kinds of guilt, post-colonial and postwar”, everyday citizens make political judgements based on the national interest. But many of those citizens are still influenced by the views of the elite and therefore:
There is a tension between what people are supposed to think and what people do actually think—or, more importantly, what they are supposed to feel and what they actually feel.
By attributing all doubts about current immigration policy to racism alone, intellectual elites close off any sensible avenue of reform and unwittingly “prepare the road for a true fascist reaction”.
Read it here
Dalrymple is absolutely right. Anyone applying for a public sector job in the UK today knows that they have to “hold” certain views in public in order to get by, regardless of what their real views are.
I thought this was a very well balanced article from TD here. I was particularly interested to get a bit more of an impression of his take on, presumably, Geert Wilders, where he says:
“Personally, I would mistrust any politician who spoke of immigration only, whose sole policy concerned immigration, or who attributed all of his society’s ills to the excessive presence of immigrants. Such a politician is likely to harbor the vilest thoughts and emotions, even if he keeps them under control for the moment.”
What I would say to this though is that perhaps people like Wilders see immigration as a very serious issue and the most important issue facing the nation, one that affects everything from the economy, to education, to crime and social cohesion, and there is some justification for taking this view. Not the only issue, but an important one which other politicians blatantly ignoring, and one that needs dealing with right now. This said, I would also like to specifically hear his policies on other matters too. Perhaps they are available if we look.
I would not be the least surprised if Wilders does eventually become the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, and this will be due to appeasing, multiculturalist (I dislike even typing the word) policies of the other parties leaving voters sick and tired of double standards and feeling disenfranchised, ignored and voiceless in their own country. In many ways they will feel they are not in their own country at all. If all the people around you are speaking a different language and have a different culture – one your perceive to be inferior in many respects – you feel as if you have emigrated without going anywhere, and you’re not too happy about it. You feel your culture has been supplanted, and you are especially not happy if you notice these people receiving special treatment in the form (for example) of grants and exemptions.
This is a mess of the politicans’ own making and it going to take some strong ones to undo it or the people themselves will (q.v. EDL) and that’s something we don’t want to see.
I like the bit where he points out there are Nigerian and Albanian translations in a government health leaflet but not French, even though there many French people in Britain and all the Nigerians who come to Britain speak English.
It would have been willing)
It would have been willing)