Hate is as natural a human emotion as love, anger, fear, lust, joy or envy. Whether or not it’s an admirable or desirable one is irrelevant. It can only be eliminated (or submerged) by fundamentally restricting our right to be human.
But everywhere in our democracies, we see new laws trying to redefine what makes us human. On gender, global warming, race, immigration, the approach is identical. Discussion is allowed within undefined subjective limits, but opposition or straying beyond those is made synonymous with hatred. Needless to say, applying this approach to literature will completely destroy it as an art form. By making hatred taboo, it undermines one of the most important inspirations writers have.
For centuries, English law correctly concerned itself only with the illegality of making specific threats or incitements of physical violence. Moving from that to policing general ‘hate’ expression is a disaster, since what counts as ‘hateful’ in general expression is subjective and not something that a free society should define. Philip K. Dick type laws pre-empting online hatred (for example, in Canada) can be linked with ‘woke’ attempts to recreate humanity, especially the idea that asserting fundamental biological identity is hateful, whereas recognising someone’s self-proclaimed gender identity is a legal requirement. And very shortly, Starmer’s Government will be following this lead, with the Home Secretary urging police forces to ramp up recording of ‘hateful but legal expression’.
Why wouldn’t people hate this stance? It’s likely the proponents of tyrannical legislation know that response is inevitable. As many have argued, they need to prevent debate because they know their position is utterly indefensible. Small wonder they draw that conclusion. But they’re actively seeking to provoke, to flush out the largely fictitious ‘far Right’ haters they claim threaten society. And now they’ve achieved this, the real free-speech clampdown can begin.
All this is perhaps obvious. My position is that – allowing for the the Common Law restrictions on threats and incitement – hate has to be accepted and sometimes welcomed. Let’s be honest! It’s produced some of the greatest art and without it, we’d probably have had almost no human progress. On its own, hatred is a limiting, negative and exhausting thing. But as a component of other drives, it’s often essential.
Warfare itself, whilst cruelly destructive, has always been a huge catalyst for human invention: would we have had antibiotics, jet engines or nuclear power without World War Two? As for art, some of the greatest writers were enormous haters. Obvious first-rankers are Shakespeare, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Rimbaud, Celine. Not just hate-driven of course. And what about Caravaggio? He produced his greatest paintings whilst literally on the run for murder. Shakespeare’s most memorable characters are usually driven by it – Macbeth, Iago and Edmund being superb examples.
It’s hardly been discussed how Starmer’s approach to free speech will affect creative work at this level. But one look at the sort of anodyne liberal-establishment literature being approved (though barely read) shows how the job may already be done.
How could any Dostoevsky possibly be published now? To use a famous line from Yeats: “How can we know the dancer from the dance?” The best exploration of what I’m discussing is by that greatest of novelists, in Devils. The horrific but compelling character of Stavrogin – a maniacal revolutionary student, devoured by ideology – is guilty of a prolonged and terrifying act of child-abuse, detailed in a confessional chapter which is very often removed from the novel. It leads to the heart-rending suicide of an 11-year-old girl. But censoring this horror completely destroys the purpose of this character.
Dostoevsky’s entire body of work is a wonderful resource, as an artistic exploration of how totalising ideologies and obsessions capture and corrupt individuals, then entire societies. Written prophetically in the mid to late-19th century yet foreshadowing the horrors of the 20th-century, in Russia and worldwide, his warnings are just as applicable to the insane excesses of ‘Progressivism’ we’re now mired in. He was especially farsighted in his suspicion of credentialism and the folly of uncritically following ‘intellectuals’. Needless to say, assessing his writing through the narrowest of Overton windows would destroy it.
Devils should be required reading for anyone dismayed by where we are. This greatest of writers could see how intellectualism, elite arrogance and hatred of the ‘masses’, asserted through lofty claims of the opposite, would play out. Just as with Dickens (from whom he otherwise much differs) the individual is everything. He or she must never be sacrificed for ‘the greater good’ or any other airy ideological claim.
Moving closer to home, Dickens’s novels overflow with preachy ‘liberal’ figures who are in truth selfish, authoritarian hypocrites exploiting the vulnerable – especially children. His message is that ‘progress’ counts for nothing when it ignores the sanctity and essential freedoms of individual life. And that many who claim to be progressive are in fact callous, selfish and dangerous frauds. This doesn’t imply progress is impossible or undesirable, but we need to be endlessly wary of those who claim they and their beliefs embody it, demanding others accept their moral authority and actions as ‘progressives’, however idiotic, cruel and incoherent they are.
And film? The three best 1970s British films (all 1971) are Get Carter, A Clockwork Orange and Straw Dogs – all explorations of hate. Not just of that, but without it they’d be nothing. They’re not celebrations of the emotion, but any honest viewer should admit that the nihilistic violence is enjoyable and artistically essential. Probably the greatest film of the decade – Taxi Driver – is an exploration of corrosive hatred and redemption through violence. No one could claim it’s advocating this, but nor can it be claimed this isn’t the film’s central idea.
Teaching English at A-level, I found both Easton Ellis’s American Psycho and Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night worked superbly, as novels. Both are frenzied and hate-filled, but (in differing ways) use this to create great pieces of literature. It’s true that the former provoked parental complaints, but I found explaining the serious purpose (and Ellis’s use of factual accounts) satisfied them. And needless to say, most pupils found the progressive equivalents – books like The Colour Purple or Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – dull and obviously preaching what students already constantly hear. There’s no challenge in them; they effectively say nothing.
No doubt these views may provoke hatred! As long as that’s genuine and not performative outrage, I’d welcome it.
Paul Sutton can be found on Substack. His new book on woke issues The Poetry of Gin and Tea is out now.
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The Chinese will be laughing.
All the way to the bank – literally as Rishi appears to be aware.
Zero Carbon, Zero Covid – this fixation with ‘Zero’ before some made-up crusade or the other but what always seems to be just another excuse to control and micro-manage every aspect of our lives – where did it come from? Sounds extreme and uncompromising – a decision to wipe-out or eradicate something completely and without logical thought or even mercy – reminds me of that other genocidal programme to destroy and transform society by that maniac Pol Pot – Year Zero.
I think our political class have all gone stark staring mad and we are being governed by control freaks and megolamaniacs..
Fits in with Zero Brains!
I would be happier if inddeed they’d gone ‘stark staring mad’ but I’m afraid this is yet another scheme hatched decades ago under the banner of Agenda 21/30 for the complete control of our lives and depopulation..
But what will be the point in the west aiming for zero carbon, which I think is bonkers, when there is India, Asia, China, Africa and South America? I doubt the globalist movement can take control of these populations. And which people are the ones doing the over populating? On a personal level of my friends inmost keen on depopulation it is those with children. I don’t understand at all what the west thinks will happen to it if it tries to depopulate itself?
Wendy.. in my post above I mentioned a man named Maurice Strong. Instigator of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. This man openly called for the collapse of the first world industrialised nations.. that’s exactly what’s happening now right before our eyes. The chain of events and timing is no accident or coincidence.
It can’t be long before the idea of carbon dioxide overproduction gets wedded to the idea of oxygen overconsumption.
Will they announce something big at COP26? I thought yes, but now I think the main message may turn out to be “Fight China”.
Welcome to Britain – its armed forces got their a**** kicked to kingdom come in Afghanistan for 20 years until the rulers eventually “realised” there was no mileage in defending Afghanistan against the Afghans when the US, which had sent them in in the first place, decided to withdraw. But wait… Hot on the heels of NATO’s humiliation, the British press now tells us the government of Taiwan views Taiwan as an independent country (it doesn’t), as opposed to a “renegade province”, so…hey, let’s have a Pacific version of NATO too, to help Australia fight China. It’s reminiscent of Monty Python’s Black Knight.
Zero carbon, zero Covid, all thanks to Bill Gates and his lackeys like braindead Johnson.
WEF puppets
It would be an insult to fag packets to say that all this farrago of nonsense has been scribbled on the back of one.
It’s just grandstanding by stupid people who habitually reside in La-La Land.
There is a handy review of the various forecasts of climate armageddon in https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/10/16/failed-serial-doomcasters/ which shows what the true consensus is amongst climate scientists. Their predictions end dates range from 20 or more years ago to 20 years in the future.
I think the one thing that we can agree on is that the science they are using is not something they agree on.
A couple of years old but this ones good too –
As is this one from last year –
The zero carbon cult want to change the weather. Good luck with that!
I think the one thing we should agree on is that “climate change” is another load of absolute BOLLOX designed to hide the control agenda.
Carbon zero? FFS!
The climate is changing and it has always changed. Ask anyone who lives in an area where there’s lots of peat, or who has read about the ice fairs that used to be held on the Thames in London. The lie isn’t that the climate is changing. It’s that human action is causing the change. They say they want human action to stop the climate changing, which is insane. Anyone who still manages to be a little bit in tune with nature, to the extent that that’s still possible in a world of mass smartphone use and psychokiller culture like Game of Thrones and the Squid Games, should be awed at the climate changing.
“The Government may need to consider changes to existing taxes and new sources of revenue throughout the transition in order to deliver net zero sustainably, and consistently with the government’s fiscal principles.”
That if nothing else should worry us. Lower energy bills? Don’t make me laugh.
They borrow Ferguson’s Magick Modellinge Macheene when he ‘s not monkeying with it to tell us the sky’s falling in. The lunatics have taken over.
Rishi, forget your concerns, scruples and conscience. Just stick to the plan, there’s a good boy. Agenda 30, in case you’d forgotten you’re a technocrat.
Fishi Rishi, who poured magic money into the Great Furlough Scam.Has he suddenly acquired the ability to count up to ten?
‘Green jobs, lower energy bills and avoiding the disastrous impact of global heating‘.
‘Green jobs – all massively subsidised by us, the tax payer.
‘Lower energy bills‘ – rubbish. Just like we currently pay a 25% ‘green’ surcharge on electricity bills to line the pockets of Gummer and Chinese turbine/solar manufacturers.
‘Disastrous impact of global heating‘ – +0.7C over the last 30 years is ‘disastrous’? I don’t think so.
Government, lobbyists, media, climate scientists and othe rvested interests all march towards their great reset, which, conveniently, lines their own pockets with our £££.
No thanks.
There’s not a grain of truth in this climate scam. It was cooked up by the Club of Rome for the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, courtesy of Rockefeller stooge Maurice Strong and his henchmen. The same people who are also responsible for the corrupt IPCC and those hacked emails..
We are now at the first stages of a global cooling after an interglacial period. Its why they had to dump the ‘global warming’ headline and rename it Climate Change which just about encompasses everything.
Read the Club of Rome’s ‘First Global Revolution’.. they tell you in that document exactly what they intend to do, and what we the masses are in for.. Agenda 21/30.. dystopia on steroids.
Carbon of course is the ideal target as there’s nothing that doesn’t include it, even us mere mortals are 2/3rds of the stuff. In short, just like Covid its a pack of lies..
The First Global Revolution: https://tinyurl.com/mkms5ncn
Ha ha.. yes.. The First Global Revolution.. I stand corrected..
The human carbon problem won’t be with us too much longer.
But spot the opportunists. A good investment for many, no doubt.
Ahh the old lead the country by leaks, classic, strong…. blergh.
Rushi suddenly finds a new found concern over the finances he happily blew up over the plandemic.
What a farce. A little punch and Judy show for the blue pilled MSM consumers.
The reality is the winner will be the Climate cultists and those looking to destroy the vestiges of the middle classes and ensure our submission to the total full spectrum control these lunatics are pushing us towards.
They are only putting this act up so those of the blue pilled that are fretting over inflation and supply shortages still think someone in the government has some modicum of sense. It just helps to keep the whole shitshow running into the next manufactured crisis so that Rishi can take over if things get too much for the electorate to bear.
BlackRock and friends don’t even try to justify this as anything to do with ‘climate’. Its just a way of making $trillions by creating new investments with all the risk covered by taxpayers.
There are as usual with these things a load of willing idiots to talk about ‘climate’ and loads of politicians willing to have their bank accounts enriched.
Dovetails nicely with the covid scam to disguise the on-going transfer of wealth from the 99% to the 1% globally, along with killing any lingering hopes of demos.
We know the true cost is several trillion pounds. We also know most countries won’t attempt it so will leave us at a massive disadvantage for decades to come.
Energy costs will climb through the roof (as will blackouts) and quality of living is going to drop measurably.
Net zero as well as being impossible is the biggest act of economic and social self harm any country has ever subjected itself to.
Let’s not forget Emperor Bokassa who forced parents of school pupils in the Central African Republic to buy extremely expensive school uniforms made in a factory owned by his wife, and then started having children who didn’t wear them beaten to death. But this time it’s global.
Nowadays “the science” says an extinction like the one that did for the dinosaurs is lurking around the corner if we don’t go all-electric. Like yeah, right. Those reptiles must have been very naughty to bring a meteorite down on the planet like that.
In 2021, Antarctica records coldest winter since records began in 1957 as we head into a new grand solar minimum. Global climate will continue to cool significantly for a long time and yet the globalists will carry on hosing us all down with their climate change slime as a feint to implement their fascist regime.
Who authorised this “leak”? Don’t get excited, folks: it’s bollocks.
Boris is happy to destroy what’s left of British industry and plunge most of the country into fuel poverty if it gets him a kind word from the BBC or the Guardian for one 24 hour news cycle.
Convenient leak …. Johnson knows his Green Lunacy is alienating traditional conservative voters so Sunak has “been allowed” to send an alternative signal.
The COP26 Boondoggle will still go ahead. Johnson will still posture and preen on the world state at our expense making all sorts of unaffordable promises. And the Green Lunatics will still continue with their mission to destroy our economy; drive millions into fuel poverty and tax the bejesus out of us …….. as punishment for the Original Sin of starting the Industrial Revolution.
It seems to me we would be better off building our fishing industry and marine life instead of injecting miles of concrete into the sea bed for wind power where the blades have to be expensively renewed every 20yrs and they do no biodegrade, doesn’t provide enough energy let alone the electricity for cars that will only travel a few hundred miles before a recharge.
unless someone stops this nonsense in its tracks, yet again these loonies will destroy what chance UK has of creating a prosperous future for our grandchildren. Innovation from true entrepreneurs and not folk attached to government/corporate socialists, is the way to go.
The treasury is right to be concerned; this article shows how we have paid £20Billion to trash Oil and Gas in the North Sea and give all the renewable businesses and jobs to China. A total farcical disaster.
This is utterly obvious to anyone with the wit to put on a matching pair of shoes.
We’re not reducing emissions of vital plant food one whit. All we’re doing is beggaring (and soon to be freezing) ourselves while shifting output to the Orient, where China alone is currently building 100GW of new coal plants, double the output of our entire grid.
Nobody can credibly pretend to believe otherwise, or that this is about ecomentalism. So we have to ask what it is really about, and cui bono, because it’s not any UK prole, of that we can be sure.
The rush to a zero carbon industrial complex is laughable. Is CO2 REALLY the devil incarnate? I feel I am living in a parallel universe, where those in power and authority seem to have totally lost their minds! ( Or the evil bastards are enthusiastically following Herr Schwab’s dictats).
And herein lies yet another monumental con/lie being perpetrated by these megalomaniacal monsters, on the great unwashed and unjabbed.
Christ on a blowhole! Is there no limit to their evil chicanery?
Just have a look at this and decide for yourselves. Pretty compelling if you have an open mind. (What’s one of those?) The PDF is available to download.
http://www.beautyandthebeastlytruth.com
Unfortunately, there is little or no place in the arena we currently inhabit for calm rational discussion, just hysterical tooth grinding, spittle spraying ranting, and finger-wagging, cheered on by the puppetmasters, else this would be compulsory reading for all. It would in saner circumstances help many to achieve educated and informed opinions.
They do not want the plebians to be informed. Much better they are at one another’s throats.