"Pacifist" and "violent": Two great words that go great together
October 26, 2006 ~ 9:32 a.m.
Next time someone tells you they're a "peace activist" or a "pacifist," I would suggest you activate your body's natural fight-or-flight response system.
An apparently hippy-dippy New Zealander by the name of Christiaan Briggs, aged 30, was recently jailed for eight months for hitting a 19-year-old so hard that the younger man stumbled against a sidewalk, cracking his head on it and suffering a fractured skull that needed five hours of surgery to correct. The teenager, Billy Leeson, was the lead guitarist of a local band which had just played a successful London gig and was on his way home. While travelling on a night bus, Leeson had cause to reprimand Briggs because the alleged pacifist had been staring at his girlfriend.
Leeson asked him to cease his ogling and Briggs failed to do so. When, a short while later, Leeson and his partner got off the bus, Briggs followed and assaulted Leeson with the knock-out blow. According to Lesson's horrified girlfriend, Briggs walked away smirking.
The judge, Peter Birts, said that a prison sentence was inevitable for Briggs but that the violence-prone Kiwi was "someone who was so talented and gave pleasure to so many others in life." It seems to me that it would be a lot more apropos to say that Lesson was the talented one who, through his guitar-playing, gave pleasure to many others. What did Briggs ever do but hang out with The Great Unwashed? I mean, he's a white man with dreadlocks, for Chrissakes.
Briggs: Like, wow, llily-white men with dreadlocks are just, like, sooooo bad. Just depends on how you define "bad."
We could say this was a moment of madness for Briggs. But then again, "peace activists" tend to be mad to begin with. Briggs went to Iraq to act as a human shield shortly before the war in March 2003. He thought Saddam Hussein was as fond of the Iraqi citizenry as he was, so he joined the "Don't Attack Iraq" brigade. As the Dread Pundit Bluto so eloquently wrote: "Briggs' swinish behavior perfectly illustrates the utter arrogance of the mindset that leads people to become human shields for barbaric regimes."
This reminds me of an experience recounted by a fellow blogger a few years ago. He had attended a meeting of pacifists who were preparing for a march�what a joke, it should be called a "crawl," taking into account its dictator-appeasing nature�and had expressed regret at the tactless nature of a sign that announced "Tony Blair, Pull Out! As Your Father Should Have Done." (That, right there, should tell you all you need to know about the peace-loving mindset.) An individual, who in any other setting might best be considered a thug, apprehended him and asked if he had any issues that he'd like to settle outdoors.
Then there's the pacifists' constant wet-dreaming over Bush's assassination. There was a firestorm of controversy over the British TV station Channel 4's airing of a film by British director Gabriel Range entitled Death of a President. The film takes a look at the events leading up to, and the subsequent investigation into, the assassination of Mr. Bush at a Chicago anti-war rally. The film was�no surprise here��all the rage at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, as it fulfills every whim and wish of the "peace-loving" crowd, Canuckistani or otherwise. Many Americans were shocked, the G.O.P. was alarmed, and even the pro-war stalwart Senator Hilary Clinton opined to a local New York state newspaper, "I think it's despicable. I think it's absolutely outrageous. That anyone would even attempt to profit on such a horrible scenario makes me sick." But don't believe the hype.
In my honest opinion, Death of a President accurately predicts what could result from the President straying too close to an anti-war rally. In this respect, the film presents an up-front assessment of the anti-war, "pacifist" mindset. Furthermore, Bush is presented as a strong leader, assured and confident in the course he's chosen. Not exactly defamation-of-character material. Time film critic Richard Corlis described it best, opining that Death of a President was "not an incendiary documentary but a well-made political thriller." To be fair, Range is only speculating here, indirectly meeting Lefty consumer demand in the process. He's not trying to be Michael Moore�though no doubt Moore and his legion of scruffy fans were applauding the assassination scene.
Meanwhile, Briggs is off to prison to serve his sentence. He'll be free to assualt another man more than ten years his junior in eight months. It's just too bad that Briggs wasn't protesting in Israel. "Peace activists" tend to do the world a favor while doing that�just ask the relatives of Tom Hurndall or Rachel Corrie.
� M.E.M.
|
[Sign My Guestbook]
[View My Guestbook]
|
Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
AMERICA FOR TRUE AMERICANS!