I’ve come to the conclusion that there are too many SOBs in the world. Islamic terrorists, dictators, neo-Nazis and everyday thugs.
Perhaps we should put them all on an island and drop a bomb on it. But then that would make us the SOBs. Such is life.
I’m being simplistic but the horror of Paris generates simple emotions: despair and anger.
When people react, they fall back on ideologies and prejudices.
I’m told a caller to BBC’s Any Answers on Saturday afternoon argued for the introduction of concentration camps and force-feeding pork to inmates.
I haven’t dared look to see if anyone has Tweeted “this is why Europeans need a Second Amendment”, but I’m sure they have.
Meanwhile, some of the far-Left blame the victim.
A post on the Stop The War website said that the West was “reaping” the whirlwind of its imperialist foreign policy. If in doubt, point the finger at Tony Blair.
Somewhere between inaction and overreaction sit the politicians.
There will be a lot of talk about “solidarity” in the next few days and that’s a noble sentiment.
But what exactly did the last bout of solidarity, following the Hebdo attacks, achieve?
Not only did it fail to prevent another outrage but it didn’t actually produce a coherent Western policy towards the Middle East. France is officially engaged in Syria but Britain is not. Russia and America are thought to be bombing different targets. The EU is falling apart over migration – and we can expect its open borders to shut.
What about French society itself? This is plainly a country struggling to come to terms with cultural change.
In his new novel, Submission, Michel Houellebecq imagines a future in which Catholics, socialists and Muslims unite to defeat a Front National presidency – and replace the republic with a proto-Caliphate. The much derided book now seems prescient: who doubts that Marine Le Pen will be a major political beneficiary of these attacks? Continue reading
- Tim Stanley is a historian, and columnist and leader writer for The Telegraph in London