As a former Leftwinger myself, but one who managed to be cured and is now on the centre-Right I have to say that I’ve seen an awful lot of pointless protest gestures in my time. At various Lefty demos I attended either as a participant or observer I encountered acts of political virtue-signalling utter uselessness that boggle the mind, especially those committed by members of the ‘peace’ movement. Acts such as breaking down part of the fencing at an RAF base in order to light some candles in the shape of a peace sign on one of the taxi-ways or taking a hammer to an aircraft are but two examples of pointless protest related arsery.
These actions didn’t move one Cruise Missile out of the UK or convince any ordinary informed member of the public about the merits of nuclear disarmament, it was a useless and pointless act of protest. These sort of political theatre protests, whose intended audience were other activists, were very affirming and exciting for those taking part in them. They may convinced a very few deluded people to follow them but they were completely without any real effect. Thankfully, they failed I say now, as the ‘peace movement’ back then in the 1980’s had no real answers to the problems posed by the Cold War and their answers were dominated by ‘magical thinking’ of the ‘if we lay down our arms then the Soviet’s will too’ variety. Such thinking would have got people killed in their hundreds of thousands if not millions had the disarmers and the peace movement had had their way.
This ‘magical thinking’ and the ‘peace at all costs’ attitude was one that I found in many of the peaceniks of the Greenham, MolesworthMolesworth and Conway Hall variety. It expressed, and gave truth to George Orwell’s quote on pacifists which is that they are ‘objective fascists’. This is because those so dedicated to peace at any costs would not stand up to Fascism or Communism or any other oppressive aggressor.
The peaceniks I encountered and sometimes mixed with, were taking the view of ‘peace at any price’ with the Soviet Union. That made these peaceniks pro-Soviet and as we now know, following the fall of the Soviet Union, the old SU was not a place of peace, freedom or justice, far from it. They were often people who could be defined by the term ‘useful idiots’. Personally I now despise pacifism as an ideology. It stands for nothing because it is prepared to protect nothing. Although many of the pacifists I encountered were nice people in themselves and I understood their world-view, pacifism is completely ineffective against a violent enemy. In Nazi Germany for example, the pacifists ended up in the same concentration camps as the other Germans that the pacifists had failed to protect.
The reason for these musings on the anti-nuclear and peace protests of the past is that there are some on the Left who are yet again engaging in ‘magical thinking’ of the sort that characterised the left and the peaceniks of the early 1980’s These Lefties and deluded peaceniks are going to have a big protest about the war in Syria, but this time they are doing it on a scale far bigger than smashing the cockpit of a bomber or singing ‘peace songs’ on the runway of a military base. This latest protest plan is for 2,500 to march from Berlin in Germany to Allepo in Syria. Oh and for extra peaceable effect on the various groups of violent savages in terrorist controlled areas, they will be carrying white flags. I had to read this story several times just to check that it was not a spoof because it’s a plan which is so obviously gormless and doomed to failure.
I’ve seen the Left do some pointless and stupid stuff over the years but this really is the most mindless and ill considered protest I’ve ever seen. This is not just Turkeys voting for Christmas, this is the Turkey knocking on to your front door on December 24th, carrying cooking instructions and demanding that you ‘baste me’. This is a group of ready made hostages who ISIS or whatever other bunch of armed violent Islamic savages cares to pick them up. This one is a peacenik fail par excellence.
Here’s the Breitbart coverage of the story. As is normal policy for this blog the original text is in italics where as this blog’s comments are in plain text.
Two and half thousand Europeans plan to march into Aleppo waving white flags in a three month long, 2,000 mile demonstration against the civil war taking place in Syria.
This protest action will not save one Syrian civilian or prevent one bit of ordnance being used in anger. It’s a pose, an expensive, virtue-signalling empty, risky pose.
This year, like last, has been characterised by the massive flow of people northwards through Europe, many of them Syrians fleeing the bombs of Assad and the opposition factions. But a group of Europeans has decided to make the trek in the other direction in order to bring an end to the war, now in its fifth year.
If you wanted to design an event that had idiot middle class Left, deluded peace at all cost Quakers and the Social Justice Warrior mentality all rolled into one, then you would get this one. It’s a suicidal gesture of monstrous proportions to march into enemy territory like this.
“We’re carrying these white flags to let the whole world know our message: Enough is enough. This war has to stop!” the group say in their manifesto.
Contrary to what this group’s manifesto is, the white flag does not signify an opposition to war it signifies a surrender. A bunch of Western idiots carrying white flags will not be seen by the various groups of Islamic savages in Syria as representing solidarity with Syrians in their hour of need, but as a symbol of weakness that will be exploited. It will be exploited either for propaganda purposes or by supplying these groups with easy access to hostages.
The march, which departs Berlin on Boxing Day, 26 December, was organised by journalist Anna Alboth.
“I was having dinner with Syrian women I know in a refugee centre and they were showing me photos of a lot of people who had died,” she told the BBC.
“People like me in safe countries can’t take it any more, and we see this as a chance to transform things.
“Refugees who hear about it say that if we are willing to give up our comfortable lives to do this, then it is a real demonstration.”
Virtue signalling guff that says more about the speaker than it does about the Syrian war. She’s so eager to tell the world that she lunches with Syrian ladies and how concerned she is. She’s also arrogant enough to think she can speak for others such as Syrian refugees. I would guess that any real refugee, if there are any left that is, will probably think these people at best misguided and useless. They are the modern Leftist equivalent of the ‘Judean People’s Front crack suicide squadron’ from Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’.
The precise route the march will take is yet to be finalised, but the group will leave Germany via the Czech Republic, then head through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey before finally entering Syria.
Lawyers in each of the countries en route are preparing paperwork to ease the crossing of borders along the way. “If no-one will stop us, we will go all the way,” Alboth said.
As is the way of protests like these, I suspect that many of the original 2,500 will drop out before the German border because they’ve started to realise what they are getting into. Others may drop out for other various reasons and this will leave a hard core of activists to get as far as they can. This is par for the course with these sort of long distance march type protests.
The plan is to cover 9-12 miles a day, but are happy to travel more slowly in some places, or even use transport if required. Local contacts are planning the daily routes and liaising with local places of good will, such as churches and hospitals, to offer the marchers beds for the night and food.
Hmmm! They are not even going to walk if they don’t have to. Sounds odd. Seems to be a bit of a get out for organisers if the event ultimately turns out to be a quick photo-op with a couple of activists somewhere in Syria, rather than what is being promoted in the group’s manifesto. It also looks as if this hard core of leftists on the later stages are going be poncing off churches etc. Typical lefty hippies always poncing.
“We want to keep it as official as possible to ensure we get any police or ambulance support we might need,” Alboth said, but admitted there was inherent risk, saying: “Yes it is dangerous but we are getting in touch with humanitarian and aid agencies to get their advice.”
Probably the same humanitarian aid agencies and security forces that the organisers will rely on in order to lift the sorry arses of these protesters out of trouble. If this lot does make it to Syria I suspect that good people from various security forces will die trying to protect or rescue these idiots. They are going to put stress on aid agencies on the ground in Syria and provide an all round security nightmare for the governments of the countries from which these leftie hippy fools hail from.
But she was unconcerned about the prospect of being bombed, saying: “People like me think that if five or ten thousand people are marching and getting everyone’s attention, then it’s impossible that they would bomb you,” she said.
I think this person may change her mind once she does start to get bombed. Her final statement is naivety defined. It doesn’t matter how many people are marching through a war zone singing peace songs and waving white flags, it’s not impossible that they will be bombed. In fact it’s highly likely that they will be bombed. ISIS and groups like them will not be dissuaded from killing these fools merely because the eyes of the world are on them. To the Islamic extremists this bunch of deluded leftists are a justifiable target merely because they are infidels. The Islamic terror groups may even consider it a propaganda win to kill the marchers with effects that outweigh the predictable condemnation from Western politicians. I’m afraid that current of Gandhian pacifism and non violent direct action of a sort that is probably strong in demonstrators like these, only really works when you opponent is relatively civilised. It doesn’t work when faced with violent Islamic savagery.
I’ve seen some Leftist idiocy in my time but this really does take the biscuit. If ever a protest deserves to fail then it’s this one. I hope it fails quickly before it gets any of the participants killed, or worse causes a member of any security force protecting them to lose their lives.
This is a bad idea with so many echoes of bad protest ideas of the past and if it teaches us just one thing then that is this: The Left and the ‘peace at any price’ types will always cycle bad ideas back again. We saw this with the appeasement mentality of the Peace Pledge Union in the 1930’s. We also saw it in the nuclear disarmament protests of the 70’s and 80’s. Time and again we see bad ideas, bad protests and bad thinking getting recycled like this. This is the moment when for me the Left and the peaceniks have really ‘jumped the shark’ though, even if there are ‘shades of Greenham Common’ about it. It’s a plan that is beyond stupid and probably doomed to failure. It will also accomplish absolutely nothing. I hope they see sense and all turn back but if that’s not the case then I would settle for these useless Lefties, fools and troublemakers staying in the land of their intended destination
Links
Original story from Breitbart about the lefty idiots who are marching to Syria
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/12/24/lefties-marching-aleppo-stop-war/
Judean People’s Front Crack Suicide squad video
