'Enough is Enough!'

"Enough is enough!" declared Theresa May in the wake of the most recent terror attacks.  Couldn't agree more, I thought, we've had more than enough of your knee jerk reactionary 'policies' and opportunistic attempts to use these attacks for your own political purposes.  Fuck off and fuck off, now.  But sadly, she's still here.  Until Thursday, at least.  Apparently we're too tolerant of extremists, she says.  Really?  Who is too tolerant of them?  Which extremists are we too tolerant of?  I suspect that what she really means is that we are simply too tolerant.  That we should be busy attacking and harassing anyone who looks or thinks differently to 'us'.  But as is so often the case with right wingers of her ilk, May clearly has no grasp of the origins of 'extremism'.  She can restrict immigration all she likes, try to close down the internet, force Muslims to 'integrate' or enact any number of new laws repressive of our freedom of speech, but it won't make any difference: there will still be nutters prepared to drive vans into pedestrians and stab random passers-by.  Because extremism thrives on repression.  It also thrives among those who feel disenfranchised and ostracised by the establishment.  The terrorists always traditionally recruit their foot soldiers from the ranks of the dispossessed.

Jeremy Corbyn clearly has a better grasp of the roots of extremism: the creation of failed states by Western military interventions which achieve not so much 'regime change' as a power vacuum in which the extremists can operate freely and spread their ideologies.  Which isn't the same assaying that terrorism is our own fault for invading Iraq or bombing Libya, despite what the right wing press would have you believe.  It is a simple statement of fact - the reality is that whilst deposing dictators, such actions have failed to follow this up by creating strong (and stable) successor regimes.  which, in the long run, results in nutters running around our streets stabbing strangers or blowing themselves and lots of innocent bystanders up.  Which doesn't mean that we 'had it coming' or 'deserved it' because of our role in the interventions which created the environments which breed extremism.  It just means that we have to accept that these things don't happen in isolation, they are the consequence of an historical process in which we played a part.  All of which is pretty heavy stuff for a Monday, but hey, I had a shitty day at work (one which has moved me ever closer to the exit door, as there is only so much disrespect, rudeness and downright stupidity I can endure - enough is enough), so I'm not in the mood for anything light hearted.  Back to the usual bad taste tomorrow. Hopefully.