There aren’t that many simple rules when it comes to interacting with other people in a civilised society but in the aftermath of Nazis openly marching on the streets of Charlottesville, here’s another one to toss on to the list:
If you want to live in a tolerant society, it is your personal duty to be intolerant of intolerance.
That doesn’t affect your duty to treat people justly or fairly or with honour. But it is not your job to tolerate the actions of a group of sodding Nazis marching around with burning torches while chanting “blood and soil”. We know where that goes, we know how it ends and we know what it costs. We have zero duty as a society to appease racial supremacists who preach fascist philosophies. The most recent time we had to battle these pricks it cost millions of lives. It is not a world we want to revisit.
Sure, it isn’t always easy to stand up to racist morons and we don’t always have the energy to do it. That’s unfortunate but it’s fine. And I can presumably guarantee that all of you know at least one person who is a different colour to you whom you don’t like, not because their skin is a different colour but because they’re an asshole. That’s fine too.
But if you’re the sort of person who treats or regards people in a different way automatically because they’re a different colour to you or they have a different religion or because they fuck in a different way to you, odds are very high that they’re not the problem – you are. And when people complain that you’re not acting like a reasonable human being for doing that – when they’re being intolerant of your intolerance – they’re right and you’re wrong.
Don’t worry. You still get to tell jokes about people who live one town over from you. They’re telling jokes about you too and none of you take it seriously. Just don’t be a sodding douchebag.
Kevin Myers was on RTE Radio 1’s Today With Sean O’Rourke this morning to talk about his article in the Sunday Times last Sunday. The one that caused people outside Ireland to finally notice that Kevin Myers is a racist anti-Semitic misogynist. Myers insisted that he’s not anti-Semitic or misogynistic (despite having a long and documented history of both), adding that he is “very, very sorry”.
Apologies are funny things and I’ve been taken to task by people in the past for objecting to some of these apologies on the basis that saying “I apologise for any offence caused” is a mealy-mouthed statement which puts some of the blame on the people to whom offence was caused. Perhaps I’m being too particular. I don’t think I am but you can make that case. So don’t be too surprised when I get even more particular here.
Anyhoo, here’s Kevin Myers – who’s long been the most dislikeable Myers since that bloke out of Halloween – apologising (“very, very sorry”, etc). Then he includes: “I am the author of that article, I am the author of my own misfortunes, I am the master of my soul”.
Woah. “I am the master of my soul”? Myers quoted Invictus in his apology? The poem written by William Ernest Henley when recovering from having one of his legs chopped off? The poem recited regularly by Nelson Mandela to fellow prisoners during his incarceration on Robben Island? A poem whose title literally translates as “Unconquered”?
Kevin Myers likes to read. He likes to let you know that he likes to read. He knows full-well where that quote comes from and what it means. It’s one of the world’s best-known poems and, through its association with Nelson Mandela, has become one of the world’s best-known poems about defiance. It has been quoted again and again by people who believe that they are victims of undue persecution, to demonstrate that they are unbowed, unafraid and possess an unconquerable soul.
The actual closing lines of the poem are “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul”, but “I am the master of my soul” is one of the world’s better-known misquotes of poetry. He knows what he’s quoting.
You may, if you must, regard Kevin Myers’ appearance on the radio as an actual apology. But nobody on the face of the planet has ever quoted Invictus while making a genuine apology. He’s serving up a big apology cake with a piece of shit in the middle and asking you to eat it. Enjoy your shit cake, Ireland.
Meandering Tripe 