Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Quote of the day

"If you commit an act that compromises the security of a nation, they call you a traitor; if you commit an act that compromises its culture, they call you a progressive."

11 comments:

DJ said...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Honestly, I stopped reading once he came out with that most clichéd of quotes out of context from Lady Thatcher. Just another whiny snob reminiscing about the good old days when the proles worked for 2p a week, and damn glad of it they were too.

Everyone mocks the Edwardians, but at least they didn't spend 1916 prancing round drawing rooms complaining about how Arthur Balfour had ruined the fighting ability of the lower orders. They understood the essentials of leadership and responsibility.

If you want the real reason why Britain is screwed, consider the long, slow descent from aristocratic families seeing off their son and heir on the way to the Somme, and the Camerons strutting round London.

DJ said...

Oh, and of course there is another reason why 'we aren't the same people we were in 1940', but you'll be lucky to find anything more than a passing reference to all this from any of these people.

Anonymous said...

"They understood the essentials of leadership and responsibility."

Check out the glossy brochures of any commercial management training company - it'll be packed with courses promising to train your staff in these two attributes.

Want to guess how effective they are..?

Anonymous said...

I don't read anyone who writes in white on a black background.

Homophobic Horse said...

Re-Educating the next generation out of their memetic ideological infections to create an ideologically purified perfect man of the future and progress - 1950s Romania

Anonymous said...

They call themselves progressives, I'd still call them traitors, mostly..

Martin said...

DJ,

Your ill manners aside, I don't understand your comment.

I disagree with the comment that the Thatcher quote is either cliched or out of context - she's the one who said it, and presumably she's the one who meant it, and her supporters and apologists are the ones who have to live with it. The British left might never have declared their cultural revolution - but the British right certainly did, and that was it. Any attempt to justify that remark or criticise its use is an attempt to excuse cultural revolution.

In 1916, the leadership and responsibility you seem to admire were rooted in a grossly inefficient class system which, according to adult if capricious thinkers such as Correlli Barnett, was also responsible for the country's postwar nervous breakown. And you call me a snob. Hmmm...

With your remark about the Cameroons, are you suggesting that all we need is a good war to sort everyone out?

Anonymous said...

Are you talking about the 'there is no such thing as society' quote?
Although there is much I can disagree with Thatcher, the way she treated the miners, the closing of many grammars, defence sell offs, the globalisation, and sell-outs to the EU despite the hype, etc.
That misquote has gotta be one of the biggest repeated misrepresentations in history compared to the full speach what she actually said.
I didn't used to believe that the media was so powerful as some claim, but they've tricked most people on that one.

Anonymous said...

"That misquote has gotta be one of the biggest repeated misrepresentations in history compared to the full speach what she actually said."

Indeed. The old 'repeat a lie often enough...' tactic.

There are always idiots willing to believe it.

Stan said...

Actually, security and culture are interconnected so you can not compromise one without compromising the other. Ergo - all progressives are traitors.

Anonymous said...

No doubt the definitions of 'progressive' and 'traitor' boil down to anyone who disagrees with your good self, stan.