Stephen Daisley on the consequences of treating your political opponents as evil.
"How warm the righteous glow that finds villainy in an opponent’s policy and intent in their ineptitude. There is no longer any need to engage; indeed, reflection and self-criticism become a dangerous indulgence when confronted by the congenitally wicked.
At last the debate has been wrested from the dull confines of politics, where reasonable people may differ, and elevated to the eternal struggle between Good and Evil.
In a supposedly secular age, politics promises salvation through messianic leaders, the spurning of impious facts as blasphemy, and the denunciation of apostates. In place of faith, hope and charity, there is tribalism, fear and resentment. Armageddon plays out every day and the end of the world is forever just one election or parliamentary vote away."
"There is an incipient violence to this strain of politics, a shadow-boxing rehearsal for the real thing. Nigel Farage is not the most sympathetic of figures but when chucking a milkshake over him is greeted with hooting congratulation, and a rallying cry that others to his way of thinking be dealt the same treatment, an ominous change has occurred.
Our traditions of civility and courtesy have been replaced by swaggering intolerance. We have stopped listening to both sides of the argument. We no longer believe there are two sides.
More than the undercurrent of threat is this flight from reason. Heterodoxy is now heresy, a dissenting idea an offensive weapon and polite, respectful disagreement a form of hate speech.
Meanwhile, rivals are scorned as demons, literal assault defended as a political statement and incitement celebrated for expressing solidarity with one favoured group or another. All that is profane has become sacred.
How we pull back from this I do not know. The draw of apocalyptic politics may be too powerful to resist. These are angry times and it tells us our anger isn’t merely excusable but imperative — that there is something morally deficient with those who remain calm and respectful of obviously depraved opponents."
(Stephen Daisley, extract from an excellent article called "Neither Angels nor Demons" which you can read in full on his blog here.)
In a supposedly secular age, politics promises salvation through messianic leaders, the spurning of impious facts as blasphemy, and the denunciation of apostates. In place of faith, hope and charity, there is tribalism, fear and resentment. Armageddon plays out every day and the end of the world is forever just one election or parliamentary vote away."
"There is an incipient violence to this strain of politics, a shadow-boxing rehearsal for the real thing. Nigel Farage is not the most sympathetic of figures but when chucking a milkshake over him is greeted with hooting congratulation, and a rallying cry that others to his way of thinking be dealt the same treatment, an ominous change has occurred.
Our traditions of civility and courtesy have been replaced by swaggering intolerance. We have stopped listening to both sides of the argument. We no longer believe there are two sides.
More than the undercurrent of threat is this flight from reason. Heterodoxy is now heresy, a dissenting idea an offensive weapon and polite, respectful disagreement a form of hate speech.
Meanwhile, rivals are scorned as demons, literal assault defended as a political statement and incitement celebrated for expressing solidarity with one favoured group or another. All that is profane has become sacred.
How we pull back from this I do not know. The draw of apocalyptic politics may be too powerful to resist. These are angry times and it tells us our anger isn’t merely excusable but imperative — that there is something morally deficient with those who remain calm and respectful of obviously depraved opponents."
(Stephen Daisley, extract from an excellent article called "Neither Angels nor Demons" which you can read in full on his blog here.)
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