From NRO’s The Corner:
…The Wilders case embodies the key Western litmus test for lively free-speech rights, and, predictably, there has been, for the most part, an eerie silence across Europe. Free-speech absolutists on the European liberal Left are terribly uninterested in flexing their political muscle to defend Wilders’s rights. It is a depressing time for the advocates of robust free speech in Europe…
I don’t think it really represents anything more than pure, unadulterated fear. The people going after Wilders are going after him because they are afraid of what Wilders might do – he might force action in defense of truth. The Ruling Class would much rather not.
You see, for them, its a matter of realizing that things will probably go on pretty much as usual at least through their life times – and that is all the Ruling Class really cares about; their own, personal lives. This is what comes of people who are post-Christian. Having no hope or thought for the life of the world to come, the only thing which matters is squeezing every last drop of pleasure out of this life.
The people of the European Ruling Class are a bundle of fears – they fear that the people of Europe will wake to their peril and demand action; they also fear that if they don’t put a lid on people like Wilders, the Islamists might attack the Ruling Class, directly. The risk of loss of power, wealth and even life because of someone like Wilders just can’t be tolerated – so, they go after him and attempt to shut him up.
As for the groups which claim to be for freedom and yet are silent about Wilders – that is simply because the groups which claim to be for freedom are bogus. The Catholic Church is for freedom; the Evangelical churches are for freedom; the United States Marine Corps is for freedom – if you’re looking for defense of freedom outside these sorts of institutions, then you’re looking in the wrong places. The only time you can be for freedom is when you recognize something greater than yourself – and when was the last time a liberal felt himself less than another?
Wilders will be fine. He’ll either awaken his fellow Europeans to their peril, and thus lead a revival…or he’ll be hounded out of public life and eventually emigrate to America, thus enriching us yet another good man.
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