On the whole, I don't put myself through things that I know will just make me angry. I don't bother to read American Psycho, for example, or watch A Clockwork Orange, or listen to Beenie Man, or visit lap dancing clubs. People have occasionally argued that you can't say you hate something if you haven't actually read / heard / seen it, but on the rare occasions I have listened to them - like the time I went for a night out in Patpong or the time I watched Leaving Las Vegas - I have regretted it. I know about the evil that men do. I don't need to consume its cultural byproducts.
But I do engage with the causes and effects of things that make me angry, and that's different. We've only the one world, and the more you know it, the better you understand it. I don't think I could bear to confront the worst that humans can do to each other all day every day, but nor do I think it's viable to live in a bubble and pretend it doesn't happen. And sometimes it's just important to bear witness.
So I didn't turn off the interview with Nick Griffin that was on Radio 4 tonight as I was driving home, even though the very sound of his voice makes my innards twist. I listened to him saying that he no longer believes the Holocaust didn't happen, and then I listened to him saying that he no longer believes this because it's against the law to believe it. You could hear the sneer in his voice. I howled with rage and floored it through Blackbird Leys, which is exactly the kind of place the BNP targets. He is slug slime in human form. I would like to pour salt on him and watch him shrivel.
joella
3 comments:
One of the several billion ways you are better than him is that you listened to what he had to say. I doubt he would return the favour.
Surprisingly enough I have also had a night out in Patpong. I was 19 and knew no better. Quite possibly the least enjoyable of all my formative experiences.
I was 22... I sort of knew better and should have stayed in. But I guess the fact that I didn't know for sure that I knew better did make it formative.
There's an interesting page here on just what a shit service those who were misguided enough to vote for the BNP are getting from their councillors. They're not just fascists, they're arrogant lazy fascists.
I knew the slug/salt thing would come in handy for something...
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