Last week was Easter, and an appropriate comment was posted on this site. It spoke of the vital meaning of Christian morality. And it spoke of the displacement of that Christian morality by an impersonal Ideal.
Many would dispute my assertion of the fundamental moral importance of Christianity. So this week I want to illustrate the point with a case history in the UK news.
Sir Roger Scruton is a highly accomplished 75 year old British philosopher. He has a PhD in Philosophy from Cambridge and is the foremost Conservative Philosopher in Britain.
He has 50 + published works to his name and has made serious contributions to Conservatism and to promoting freedom of thought in the world, notably his work behind the Iron Curtain in Soviet times.
Sir Roger is manifestly a Christian gentleman. His attitude and outlook are open and humble – a person who readily admits he can get it wrong.
Sir Roger is a thinker and examines issues as a Philosopher. He is aware of his own standpoint and concerned to understand the viewpoint of others.
But he is politically conservative. He is therefore a target for the modern Left.
Sir Roger committed the gross sin of occupying the unpaid chairmanship of a new commission, Building Better, Building Beautiful
Nothing to do with party politics, with any politics you might think. But not for today’s Left.
For today’s Left all such appointments belong, as of divine right, to their adherents. Because all and any positions of authority and power must be in the hands of those who implement their creed.
A totalitarian mentality they refuse to acknowledge because they see themselves as unquestionably correct. They are the ultimate in hypocritical Pharisaic self righteousness. They see every fault possible in others, but are themselves faultless. They are the self chosen elite and they have an ideologically divine commission to ensure that Society is built in the Image of their faceless, materialist Ideology.
Enter George Eaton, deputy editor of the Left wing New Statesman. Mr Eaton is not old, but young. He is not right wing, but left wing. He is a journalist with a first degree in History and Politics from Warwick university. Mr Eaton is evidently wanting to make his mark as a 30 something with bigger things before him.
Both as a journalist and fully paid up adherent of the PC brigade, Mr Eaton evidently thought it would be a service to the Cause and to his own career to oust Sir Roger from his post as Commission chairman [yes, I said Chairman – a “chair” is an inanimate object upon which a human being sits].
Being both a journalist and a member of the modern PC Left, Eaton had no moral scruples whatsoever about targeting Sir Roger, or about editing his interview to make the good doctor’s words fit his preset personal and political agenda.
Mr Eaton had already decided that Sir Roger is guilty of racism and ‘homophobia’. He called Sir Roger a right wing racist and homophobe when he posted a photograph of himself drinking champagne on the internet as he celebrated the news of the good doctor’s dismissal as a result of his handiwork.
Mr Eaton deliberately selected words from the interview to present Sir Roger as he, Eaton, conceived him. To do so he completely twisted Sir Roger’s comments to present them in quite the opposite way on issues concerning the Chinese, Victor Orban, George Soros and Muslims.
Mr Eaton saw and heard what he wanted to see and hear, according to his own warped world view – not according to what was actually said.
At first the New Statesman and Eaton refused to release the original tape of the full interview, but then someone anonymously sent a copy by email to Sir Roger.
Then on Friday 26th April 2019, the BBC early morning Today programme aired an interview with Sir Roger, quoting from the original text.
The New Statesman evidently then felt itself obliged to release a full transcript.
While he has apologised for posting the celebratory photograph and caption on the internet, Eaton still refuses to admit he has seriously wronged both Sir Roger and the truth.
In Eaton’s eyes, it is probably not immoral to deliberately portray Sir Roger according to his own false, straw man image, and not according to the truth.
And that is the problem with the Left today. It refuses to think and deal in the truth. It’s ethical system and mindset justify it in telling lies and smears. Marxism has always provided this justification to those who want to destroy the Christian religion and the nation state.
As history demonstrates, this sense of their own moral rectitude on behalf of the oppressed masses [who don’t ask for their help ! ] justifies them in every conceivable immoral act… imprisonment for political deviation cannot be far away when such a cavalier and self-justificatory attitude to the truth and the welfare of others reigns.
Sir Roger is left with a sense of being destroyed by this event. In the BBC interview he describes his reaction – it is the reaction of any normal person whose reputation has been shredded by shameful lies.
But for Mr Eaton and his ilk, this is just the unfortunate fallout from the War they must wage against Injustice. Never mind the gross injustice caused to Sir Roger… he is an enemy, he is fair game. It’s his own fault for being a bigot.
But this is not the worst of it.
The Conservative Minister responsible has not spoken to Sir Roger, either to ask his side of the story, or to tell him to his face that he was dismissed. Sir Roger learnt of the summary dismissal from a message via his secretary.
What sort of “Conservative” government obsequiously obeys the self righteous, self appointed Prosecution, Judge and Jury of the PCF – the psychological and conceptual fascists.
A spineless, treacherous, philosophically bankrupt and self-serving “Conservative” government – and I select my words to reflect the situation, based on the evidence.
Ray Catlin
further references: –
For an example of the mentality of the Left, see the following link to an article where the charge of a witch hunt against the Right is ignored and the contrived worldview which gave rise to Eaton’s behaviour is reasserted as if it were gospel truth, justifying the continued refusal to engage with the facts
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/26/roger-scruton-not-victim-leftwing-witch-hunt
and for some interesting insights and comments in the whole affair, see
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/12/fake-newstatesman-scruton-fires-back-leftist-hit-job-tory-back-stab/
and Sir Roger’s correction of Eaton’s assertions can be found in an article for the Spectator at
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/04/roger-scruton-an-apology-for-thinking/
Copyright ©2019 Ray Catlin. All rights reserved
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