I am not religious. I do not believe in the supernatural. For me the essence of a ‘God’ is entirely socially constructed often by people who I would otherwise expect to know better. I do not deny that for many it brings order and perhaps harmony to an otherwise disjointed life and can offer an alternative to life’s rich chaos. But since I left my teens I have never had a need to be persuaded that religious texts are any more than long dead scholars trying, in their limited (and perhaps well meaning) way, to tie up loose ends. So that said it should prevent those who have restricted their outlooks to formulating reality in the guise of a table tennis match to attack me for bias.
Now I can turn to the ‘Harrow boy on his estate’s’ latest column without fear of being misunderstood.
Firstly – does Lee Rigby come from Dorset? Has he any connection to this county at all? I only ask as Mr Drax has yet again chosen to ignore all of the critical issues on his doorstep (not literally of course as he probably requires a helicopter to get across his). Please see last week’s column for just some. My understanding is that he was a Mancunian and I do believe they have their own newspaper and MP’s. The same can be said for Woolwich. The question therefore remains Mr Drax – are you bored in Dorset? Is there not enough going on around here to act on and discuss? I would offer to have a go myself but having already seen how parliament works and how the ‘democratic’ process is stitched up in favour of rich and greedy (mostly) men I can see that Mr Drax fits in much more than I ever would.
Second, Mr Drax says that ‘…he had fought for his country in Afghanistan and Iraq and we are indebted to him’. Are we? Why? We have no idea what he did whilst he was there or what sort of a person he was. Many of us would not have sent him there in the first place. The state of both countries, especially Iraq, is absolute turmoil and as expendable as those lives are (both British and non British) to the British establishment I don’t happen to agree. If you create a puppet and arm it you have to expect trouble. Doesn’t Harrow teach that?
He then goes on to say in true establishment irony ‘…it is incidents like this that fan the flames of prejudice and intolerance.’ No it is the intolerant and prejudiced who fan the flames of both Mr Drax. It is you, your mates at the Daily Mail and Express and the Telegraph and the Spectator and the Economist and all the other media that profit from distorting reality day in and day out. I don’t see you giving over your column to a condemnation of their propaganda and lies. There will be many corpses if we hold our breath on that one.
Now for the crux! What is extremism? Is it extremist to believe that two thousand years ago a man walked on water; turned water into wine; removed cataracts with a single touch or ascended through the atmosphere without burning up? Is it extremist to accept that a monarch can pillage a whole denomination just so that he can marry someone who will give him a male heir? Is it extremist to be treated unequally under the law and to receive preferential treatment because one is powerful or in a uniform? Or is this your mainstream view Mr Drax and are we expected to follow you into your promised land of misogyny, elitism and the supernatural? Once you have flown across your doorstep and removed the blinkers perhaps you will let us gather and discuss face to face and not hide behind ‘Toby’s tabloid’. Few welcome ‘hate’ in all its forms Mr Drax so stop being so choosy which bits you condemn!
Flora the Implorer
