The Niemöller syndrome

JuliaM on Ambush Predator points out the latest similarities between Britain and Zimbabwe.

This should be the eye opener for anyone who still believes that we live in a democracy - we don't anymore.

First of all, a true democracy requires that there be a choice of political ideology - not just a choice of party. The traditional choice in 20th century Britain was between conservatism and socialism, but that ended in the sixties. Now all three main parties offer the same ideology of progressive liberalism. They differ, slightly, in approach but all three subscribe to the same ideology.

Although there are a few alternative parties which are not progressive liberal - the socialism of the BNP, the conservatism of UKIP or the libertarianism of the UK Libertarian Party - and you could, therefore, insist Britain remains a true democracy the reality is that it is nominal as those parties are sidelined by a media which is largely progressive liberal too - and in the case of the BBC, state owned. Also, membership of at least one of those parties will see you subjected to discrimination, prejudice and persecution which should be, and probably is, illegal.

It is because of this lack of choice in our political ideologies that we are now in a situation where certain individual rights and freedoms which we traditionally associate with democracy are being eroded - freedom of speech and property rights in particular - in favour of the rights of certain groups.

It has long been the case that your right to voice your opinion about certain groups is now trumped by the rights of that group (or individuals within that group) to not be offended by your opinion - though they retain the right to be as offensive about individuals as they want to be (even to the point of actual violence against an individual).

That is., essentially, what socialism is all about - the rights of the collective above the rights of the individual - but that is also completely contrary to the way democracy developed here in Britain. The rights of the individual were established first (through implements such as Magna Carta and the 1689 Bill of Rights) and from that flourished the roots of our parliamentary democracy.

Progressive liberalism is not true liberalism - just a fancy name for socialism. Now we are seeing the collapse of democracy as the authoritarianism of socialism takes over - as it inevitably does and exactly as Hayek warned it would do in the "Road To Serfdom".

Hundreds of years of struggle by the people to create a truly free and democratic society have been obliterated in a single generation of progressive liberalism. Your home is no longer your own - all sorts of people can force entry for all sorts of reasons by state decree. Even power companies can force an entry into your home, while you are not there, and install a meter without your permission.

The trouble is is that too many people still have their head in the sand about this. They refuse to accept that what seem like small, insignificant steps will, when put together, have huge implications. It's the Pastor Niemoller syndrome - whereby, because something doesn't apparently affect you directly, you do not considerate it a threat. Only when it finally does affect you directly does the reality sink in.

Is it too late to stop it? No - it's never too late - but it will require a political revolution the like of which we have not seen since the Civil War and the longer we leave it the harder the change and the more dire the consequences will be for all of us.