One great gift we’ve received from the Blair government is a series of sure-fire cures for Anglophilic snobbishness. Did you know, for example, that anti-Christian children’s writer Philip Pullman just got a CBE, and the chairman of the Gay Police Association got an MBE for helping “modernize attitudes” within the force?
Various eminent rugby players and rock stars also made the honors list. The Germans, in contrast, just gave a rock ‘n roller three years in the slammer for extremist lyrics like “bombs on Israel” and “Now our white brothers stand with their backs against the wall.” The guy does seem troublesome (he used to call his band “Final Solution”). Still, isn’t there a middle way between knighting rockers and chopping their heads off?
“Still, isn’t there a middle
“Still, isn’t there a middle way between knighting rockers and chopping their heads off?”
Yes, knighting them is strange, indeed. And it seems that Germany, after all these years, could try to follow our freedom of expression example. Ours does not force perfection, but no punishment for criminal thought dissemination seems to. Our freedom to speak against what we consider to be unhealthy indulgences might be about as close as we can get to control against actual criminal takeovers of governments.
All of that said, I think we should make a law to arrest rockers who practice public indecency. Tie them to the “cart-tails” (as with indecent women in the early American years) and beat them silly.
…being silly here, somewhat.