Igor Zalowski in his latest column comments “Super Express” on the arrest of Rafai Zemkiewicz at London airport and his return to Poland. The columnist points out London’s famous Hyde Park and the British approach to free speech. – But that, unfortunately, is the past. Britain is devouring the ideology of political correctness, writes Igor Zalosky.
Freedom, Limited Edition
In London’s famous Hyde Park there is a corner called Speakers’ Corner. It used to be that everyone there would shout out what was important to him. Hyde Park has become a symbol of the British approach to free speech. A very liberal, liberal, and unlimited approach.
I admit to slight embarrassment that I was pie from an early age. She preferred Shakespeare over Moliere, Sherlock Holmes over Inspector Maigret, whiskey over wine, and the British Empire over the Russian Empire. I saw British colonialism as Niall Ferguson did in Empire. How Britain Built a Modern World.” That is, as the most liberal power in history, relatively little oppressive, sometimes doing good, as when the British fleet hunted slave traders. And, as befits the believer, it turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed by the British in Ireland or Selling opium to the Chinese Well, the world – even when Queen Victoria ruled it – is not perfect.
In the British model, I have always liked its liberalism in the traditional sense of the word. But even more – common sense. The British, unlike the rest of Europe, did not succumb to the ideological smoke. All extremisms, whether right-wing or left-wing, did not take root in England. Common sense prevailed and the cult of freedom.
Unfortunately, this is the past. Ideology of political correctness consumes both Britain and the United States, and it determines which opinions may appear in public debate and which should be excluded. In addition, there is Rafał Ziemkiewicz, but before that even Donald Trump, who is still struggling to unblock his Twitter account.
Well, there’s probably no room for Hyde Park today. Not out of common sense. Winston Churchill, who is the epitome of former libertarian England, is wrongly credited with saying that fascism would return in the future under the name of anti-fascism. Churchill may not have said it, but this adage is unfortunately accurate. Because burning books and deleting Twitter accounts are basically the same thing.
