England Supports Germany's Ban on Satire



In a great day for tolerance, we read:

"England supporters who give Nazi salutes during this summer's World Cup in Germany will be prosecuted and banned from domestic and international football matches, the home secretary, Charles Clarke, said yesterday... Invoking the Nazi era - including giving a Nazi salute, denying the Holocaust and wearing Nazi symbols - is illegal under German law, and Mr Clarke said he would support the German authorities in prosecuting fans for such offences."

Source


Not much freedom of expression there. Satire and mockery have always been potent forms of political expression but bans on political expression are what we have come to expect from Europe. The satire in this case might be crude but satire often is. And is it not a good thing to keep alive memory of past follies? I forget who it was who said: "He who does not remember the past is bound to repeat it".

And the ban is in a way self-mocking. It shows that the German conception of individual liberties and human rights still has not completely emerged from Hitler's intolerant shadow. The Muslims protesting against the Mohammed cartoons would understand and agree with the ban.

The pic above is of course of John Cleese -- a great English comedian -- doing HIS famous Nazi "impersonation". I wonder will future screenings of "Fawlty Towers" (the series concerned) be banned in England now?

(For more postings from me, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and DISSECTING LEFTISM. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

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