Sunday, July 31, 2011

Examination of conscience ...

... Who Is to Blame? By Theodore Dalrymple. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Is it possible ... that by emphasising the less attractive aspects of modern society and culture, by repeatedly drawing attention to the deleterious social and psychological effects of welfare dependence, by criticising multiculturalism as a doctrine and as corrupt bureaucratic opportunism, I may have contributed, if only a mite, to the poisonous, paranoid, narcissistic, grandiose and resentful brew in the mind of Breivik, who took what I wrote, even if at second-hand, in completely the wrong way and drew ludicrous but murderous conclusions from it? And if I did contribute that mite, does it mean that I should now retire into guilty silence, lest there be other Breiviks in the world?

2 comments:

  1. More than a mite, I'd say. Because habits of rhetoric do add up, over time.

    But I for one actually believe in free speech, even when it's misused by the insane, so I wouldn't reduce Dalrymple to silence.

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