More tolerance: in Virginia, the Boy Scouts are going to get rid of Robert E. Lee. America’s history must be abolished, because her great men aren’t good enough for us any more. Since this is America, outside the big cities, and in the South, the event is played down—it’s just the “right thing to do,” for reasons that are left somewhat obscure.
In England they know how to have more fun. The Guardian, heir to the tradition of middle-class radicalism, plainly relishes the prospect of turning state power against the “anti-gay, anti-Islam” Brigitte Bardot. Their lead-in:
It takes a lot for the French to lose patience with their ageing stars, and Brigitte Bardot, an unabashed fan of the National Front leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, was given a lot of rope.
Yesterday the free ride for her tirades against the decadence of modern society ended after two anti-racist and human rights movements announced they would take the 68-year-old to court.
William Blake said that the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. That’s bad as advice, but he’s right that if you do and say what seems right to you, you’ll make mistakes but learn something. And that seems to have happened with the former “sex kitten.” While going to feed her goats one day she suddenly realised that “the intrinsic and fundamental values of mankind no longer existed.” Hence the series of public pronouncements that is once again causing her legal problems.