An Illusory Unity? Individuals on the Far Left are insisting that our secular, humane, democracy is nothing more nor less than an evil machine for the exploitation and oppression of marginalised and despised minorities That everything that has brought us together since Friday, 15 March 2019; the love that piled the floral tributes higher and higher; the solidarity that drew 12,000 Wellingtonians to the Basin Reserve; is nothing but a sham and a lie.
‘PROPAGANDA OF THE DEED’ is a concept formulated, and made
notorious, by the followers of nineteenth century anarchism. Mikhail Bakunin,
the most famous anarchist of the era, wrote: “we must spread our principles,
not with words but with deeds, for this is the most popular, the most potent,
and the most irresistible form of propaganda.”
After the terrible events of the past week, few New
Zealanders would disagree. Possessing infinitely more force than a rambling
73-page manifesto, the murderous message delivered by the lone-wolf terrorist
attack on Christchurch’s Muslim community has, indeed, proved irresistible.
We’ve been overwhelmed, principally, because the meaning of
the terrorist’s message is so very hard for ordinary, decent people to fathom.
What method could there possibly be in an act of such indescribable madness and
horror?
That is the key question. But, to unlock the answer it is
necessary to go deep and dark.
The evocation of abject terror and horror is not the sole
purpose of the terrorist. His overriding objective is to completely eliminate
his audience’s capacity for rational thought. The use of the word “audience” in
this context is deliberate. Above all else, terrorism is a form of dreadful
theatre. Staged by the terrorist “playwright” to ensure that our responses are
formulated whilst in the grip of the most disorienting emotional agitation.
Bluntly, what the terrorist is trying to do is rob us of our
free will. After the deed, he is counting on us doing exactly what the
awfulness of his actions prompts us to do. He wants our reaction to be driven
not by what we think, but by how we feel.
And, it’s working.
For the past week, New Zealand is been in the grip of the
most profound emotions. We have recoiled in shock and disbelief. We have been
overwhelmed by pity and compassion. We have reached out to the Muslim community
with love. We have stood with them in solidarity.
Our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has embodied and
expressed these emotions with a dignity and grace that has not only made a deep
impression on her own people, but also on the peoples of the entire world.
Surely then, you will say, the purposes of the terrorist
have been thwarted? Light has driven out darkness; love has overwhelmed hate.
And, if our leaders are able to hold the ship of state to this present course,
then New Zealand will, indeed, emerge from this deadly storm a stronger, more
decent, and more loving nation.
The terrorist will, however, be confident that holding to
their present course of love and decency will likely prove beyond our leaders’
powers. Human psychology being what it is, anger, recrimination and the desire
to punish will sooner, rather than later, overwhelm what Abraham Lincoln called
“the better angels of our nature”.
Wreaking vengeance on the single perpetrator of the
Christchurch Mosque Shootings will not be enough for those who refuse to see
him as a lone-wolf terrorist, but rather as a symptom of New Zealand society’s
deeper ills. The temptation, especially on the Cultural Left, will be to hold
conservatives and conservatism individually and severally liable. Not, of
course, for the deed, but for creating the ideological climate out of which the
deed emerged.
Those even further to the left (among whom we must now
include an alarming number of Greens) will go even further. They will tell New
Zealanders that all this horror is, really, their
fault. That they must simply accept that, be it the United States, Canada,
Australia or New Zealand, the sins of the colonial fathers will out. That
Pakeha New Zealanders must, accordingly, surrender their “White Privilege”.
Only then will they see the truth: that our secular, humane,
democracy is nothing more nor less than an evil machine for the exploitation
and oppression of marginalised and despised minorities That everything that has
brought us together since Friday, 15 March 2019; the love that piled the floral
tributes higher and higher; the solidarity that drew 12,000 Wellingtonians to
the Basin Reserve; is nothing but a sham and a lie.
That’s the moment when the embedded propaganda message of
the terrorist’s dreadful deed will stand revealed. Our fellow citizens cannot be trusted. They are not worthy of our love.
They are not us.
And then we will know he has won.
This essay was
originally published in The Otago Daily Times and The Greymouth Star of Friday,
22 March 2019.
