Boris Johnson and the Burka

[Steve Burak]

You cannot write an article and in one breath argue it's fine to wear the burka and in the next breath draw similes between these women and letter-boxes and bank-robbers. Even if there were a jot of sense in Johnson's argument, which there isn't, on a coherent, rational level alone, his dog's dinner of an emotionally and intellectually paltry scrap, does not hold together in any way. Or, putting it another way, and so far I am only examining the utter absence of intellectual faculty about what Johnson wrote, you cannot reasonably designate something as both black and white at the same time : either it is black or it is white but it cannot be both. You cannot say it's alright to wear the burka and then mock the people who wear it and then make sinister associations between them and bank-robbers. Not only is he encouraging people who treat them as living jokes but also to solidify sinister mental associations with not only the bank-robbers he suggests but also with all sorts of dark and destructive forces : with ghouls, horror, ugliness, and so on - because, that is how the human mind works.
In his Tantalean overreach for shockingly purple grandiloquence, trying to flood us with the worrisome images of his similes, by which we know him all too well, Johnson unwittingly turns himself into the monster : he becomes the mirror-image of the pessimistic horror he is trying to formulate in our minds, whilst it is our moral duty as the human beings each and everyone is, to be unmoved from careful circumspection. We must not allow ourselves and others to be perversely twisted into comfortably embracing the random ejaculations of negatively-connected images that Johnson is encouraging us to conjure.
We must all live by the light and lead and be led by the light. Whether he realises it or not, Johnson is dragging us by the choking scruff of the neck in a wholly different direction, towards a very dark place which holds no promise.
We must protect our Moslem brothers and sisters, just as it is our duty to look after everyone, or else we lose ourselves. Collective Oblivion hangs like a Damoclean sword over all of us if we forget that we always need to try to love and understand everyone whether we feel they are like us or not. No single human being should ever be able to justifiably claim that they and only they are the light : everyone sees the world through their own eyes, or, if they do not possess the sense of sight, with their own heart. Boris Johnson and all of us need to put our hearts together, or else humanity's window is broken, and it is more than the wind and the rain that will blow in.

Only Peace and Love Steven Burak





Sent from my iPad

[Peter Dombi]

To be honest I don't really understand the logic in saying that Boris's argument is incoherent and contradictory. Whether you like the man or not, it seems to me to be perfectly reasonable to criticise a certain behaviour, while at the same time arguing people's legal right to behave that way if they wish.

It is also interesting to talk about protecting 'our Moslem brothers and sisters' when there is no mention in the Koran of full-face coverings, and its use is purely a cultural invention for men to oppress women. Some women may wish to wear it, but many don't, and it is their rights which also have to be protected from a tyrannical patriarchy. Otherwise defending minority rights simply becomes an exercise in protecting the right of one minority to oppress another minority.

On Friday, 10 August 2018, 15:57:44 BST, Ann Narkeh <occupy...@lists.riseup.net> wrote:

Hear hear Steve. Powerfully articulated exposition of the cognitive dissonance inducing antics of the far-right spectacle. 
I'd like to share this to my little occunetworks. Would you prefer I make it anonymous, or are you happy for your authorship to be divulged?
Peace, love, respect.

On 10 August 2018 at 12:23, Andria E-M <occupy...@lists.riseup.net> wrote:

Well said, my favourite hippy compatriot. I might steal that line about the sword of Damocles if I may?

Andria

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Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt MSc

London, NW52RA, UK

www.usersvoice.org

OCCUPY London

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