Liberals who have become like conservatives—grumbling about the results of liberalism, while still accepting liberalism itself

Mark Richardson writes about the recent trend “for big name celebrities from the 1970s and 80s to come out against aspects of liberal modernity.” Comedian John Cleese, rock musician Roger Daltrey, and pop star Gary Numan have all criticized the ethnic and cultural changes that have transformed Britain: the diversity that has robbed London of its Englishness; the immigration that has damaged the English working class; the thuggery that has become an omnipresent threat. The problem, though, Richardson comments,

is that none of the complaints go far enough. Gary Numan’s solution is to relocate to another Western country with its own crime issues. Roger Daltrey is politically articulate, but as mentioned he cedes a lot of ground when arguing against the effects of open borders. And John Cleese has in recent years supported the Liberal Democrats in England and Barack Obama in the U.S., so he doesn’t really seem to have connected the changes in society he dislikes to the political forces pushing those changes onto society.

If you are serious about opposing the alienating trends within modern society, then you have to make a serious effort to recognise the political beliefs which have brought them about—and then learn effectively to counter those beliefs.


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Richard O. writes:

In 2008 John Cleese held forth on the necessity of America’s electing Obama in order to prove that it’s not a “backwoods, redneck, racist society.” The interview at the link is a classic of spite and condescension. Cleese is a creative and entertaining man who’s given me lots of pleasure in his TV and movie work. I have little respect for him now.


Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 14, 2011 09:14 AM | Send
    

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