Debates don’t spark extremism, economics and war does…

(C) mia!

There has been much pontification going on among those opposed to the BNP’s appearance on Question Time tonight. I keep hearing people saying that it legitimises them, that it gives them a platform from which to convert the masses. I couldn’t disagree more. For debates have never lead to extremism. Economics has.

The Nazi party, the most obvious example we could use, suddenly saw their popularity shoot up following the Wall Street Crash. The aborted Russian Revolution of 1905 took place amidst economic crisis as they fought a war with Japan, whilst the successful revolution of 1917 came during the First World War, at a time when Russia owed billions to their allies, and bread was a luxurious commodity on the streets of St Petersburg.

The reason for all this is very, very simple. If conditions are good, if you have money in your pocket and food on the table, and are relatively happy, you don’t seek a great change in government. You might throw a Conservative dice rather than of Labour in an election, but you don’t go wondering what the BNP could offer, because there aren’t any really great problems with society.

Only when times are bad economically, and you’re starving, do you begin to contemplate what extremists can offer. Currently, we’re not in that bad an economic climate. The recovery from the recession has come at the right time, and it is unlikely that any extremists will make up any significant ground in the next election.

The idea that simply discussing political issues will suddenly cause masses of sleeping racists to wake up and declare ‘now I see the light’ at the latest daft initiative from Nick Griffin, is simply ludicrous. The Green Party are an equally laughable party, and yet they have benefited relatively little from being able to air their views, despite the principle of environmentalism being a good one.

And there has been far too much moral comparison with the idea of allowing Hitler onto such a programme. ‘If he were here today, would we give Hitler this platform?’. Well, for one I’d hope we would – I’d love to see intelligent politicians rip his twisted world view to pieces. But for a second point, those who are against the BNP’s appearance on this ground are demonstrating a huge ignorance of the causes of the rise of fascism in Germany and Europe 100 years ago.

The reason that fascism rose was because of the effects of industrialisation; the peoples of Germany in particular, were highly intelligent and well read, and they had exposure to literary fascists such as Ernst Haeckel, who advocated the superiority of the German race. With insecurity heightened by the success of the British and French empires, the conditions in which imperialist and fascist ideology were able to rise were prominent.

There is no comparison with today. Britain is not in competition with foreign powers the way Germany was. Britain has passed the extremist phase of its history, with Oswald Mosley. One of the central tenants of any historical education you receive is, in the words of a famous American cartoon character, that ‘Hitler was a very, very bad man’.

Britain, more to the point, is a country less disposed to extremism than most; history proves this. Whilst the Germans teetered on the brinks of communism in 1917, before turning to fascism as the Russians swung dramatically to the left. Spain and Italy swung to the right, and France was working its way through Republics. We had Red Clydeside in the 1920s, and we came through that more unscathed than any of Europe. The US has never flirted with extremism. Why? They’ve never been invaded, and neither have we.

I don’t mean to trivialise the issue, or Nazism, by alluding to South Park, but to be quite blunt about it, the arguments against the BNP appearing are ridiculous. They completely misunderstand what creates extremism, and more to the point, what causes people to vote for extremist parties. If our financial system melts down completely, or if the French invade, it’s time to worry about the BNP. Until then, I think we can rest safely on our sofas and enjoy the fiery atmosphere that will envelop the Question Time audience tonight.