I'm a linear kind of person - I prefer stories with a beginning, a middle and an end. TV drama writers have, of late, developed a penchant for non-linear plots, where the action jumps forward and backward in time willy-nilly. Annoys the hell out of me. Hay's watching one at present - I'm so disinterested that I can't even remember the name. I just go to bed and read a linear book when it comes on.
Should the rise of the far right in Germany be a worry? Any extreme movement is a reaction to a certain section of the electorate feeling they aren't being listened to and they are very susceptible to control by demagogues. Mainstream parties should use them as a barometer, not necessarily to change policy toward the extreme (who would consider it politically appropriate to swing policy toward ethnic genocide?), but to change the manner in which they engage with the electorate to make them feel more included.
One thing that's certain about extreme movements is that they all eventually tend to self-implode due to their tendency to focus on very narrow issues to the exclusion of everything else. Demagogues, who are attracted to the extremes, also don't like other demagogues, which leads to infighting and terminal splits caused by the very nature of extremism.
Extremists use the cloak of patriotism to further interests so narrow that they miss entirely the wider political issues that are essential not only to their own country, but to civilization and liberty itself. The danger is in the length of time it takes for them to self-implode - it took the Nazi Party over 10 years, with incalculable damage having been done during that time. That, however, was because the country was in the salvage yard and willing to consider anything, and anything was indeed an improvement on the situation then prevailing.
Should the rise of the far right in Germany be a worry? Any extreme movement is a reaction to a certain section of the electorate feeling they aren't being listened to and they are very susceptible to control by demagogues. Mainstream parties should use them as a barometer, not necessarily to change policy toward the extreme (who would consider it politically appropriate to swing policy toward ethnic genocide?), but to change the manner in which they engage with the electorate to make them feel more included.
One thing that's certain about extreme movements is that they all eventually tend to self-implode due to their tendency to focus on very narrow issues to the exclusion of everything else. Demagogues, who are attracted to the extremes, also don't like other demagogues, which leads to infighting and terminal splits caused by the very nature of extremism.
Extremists use the cloak of patriotism to further interests so narrow that they miss entirely the wider political issues that are essential not only to their own country, but to civilization and liberty itself. The danger is in the length of time it takes for them to self-implode - it took the Nazi Party over 10 years, with incalculable damage having been done during that time. That, however, was because the country was in the salvage yard and willing to consider anything, and anything was indeed an improvement on the situation then prevailing.
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