Any government making David Icke sound sane needs to look hard in the mirror...
Sometimes it takes a madman to make you see truth.
A case in point was last Christmas time, and was brought about by none other than David Icke, who, for the uninitiated, is a somewhat enigmatic character who was written numerous book espousing the view that all the major players in the world’s history have been descendants of- and there’s no easy way to put this- reptiles. A reptilian master race, apparently, spawned The Queen, George Bush, in fact any major player in world politics, past and present.
I need surely say no more to convince you that the man is mad. Should you remain, for whatever reason, unconvinced, however, peruse if you will the title of just one of his many books- Tales from the Time Loop: The Most Comprehensive Expos of the Global Conspiracy Ever Written and All You Need to Know to Be Truly Free. Oh, and he once told Terry Wogan, on air, that he believed himself to be the Son of God (what Jesus Christ might have to say about this- and whether Jesus was himself a reptilian- he didn’t say).
Yet Icke’s flagrant insanity isn’t what made Channel 5’s “David Icke: Was He Right?” a chilling piece of documentary television. It’s the fact that he, for a while at least, made sense. Not about the Reptiles, and not about the myriad other conspiracies he’s convinced of. Before he got onto this stuff- his bread and butter material- he was making convincing noises about the nature of modern government, and in particular whether ours may be considered a Police State. It was convincing not particularly because of what Icke was saying, but because of footage of Brian Haw, an anti-war demonstrator who has been camped in Parliament Square since 2001. Haw has been a thorn in the side of Parliament and the Police throughout his five-year vigil, falling foul of numerous laws and legal tussles along the way.
Police succeeded in denying Icke’s wife, filming him talkin to Haw, the right to film, despite there being no legal basis for doing so. It made uncomfortable viewing .This was right before the Lizard conspiracy was discussed at length, reminding the viewer of just who it was that we’re dealing with here. The question is, why did the Police bother? What harm was the filming of that one already well-publicised man going to do? Even if they didn’t like the idea of it, what happened to shrugging the shoulders and accepting people’s right to do things that don’t break any laws?
Icke’s job is made easier, when speaking to groups of hundreds of paying devotees at a time, because he can so easily dovetail conspiracy theories in with the post-9/11 climate of suspicion, human rights infringements, and press restrictions. Global politics is now easy pickings for someone like him, given the climate of mutual mistrust between governments and people. He can push the “Bush is a terrorist” argument. He can prey on people’s suspicions about Blair. He knows that we don’t really trust what we’re being told from day to day.
In a lot of ways it’s a lot like listening to George Galloway. The man is, to be frank, frightening. He has, over the last five years, been accused of being complicit with Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime, after his name was found in documents following the Allied invasion in 2003. He has been ejected from the sanctity of the Labour Party for bringing the party into disrepute after speaking out against the invasion (which hardly made him look innocent of the prior accusation of impropriety). He formed his own party, Respect, and managed to become MP for Bethnal Green. He was then accused of deserting those very constituents by ludicrously entering the Big Brother house, ostensibly to spread his political message to a new audience, but in reality ended up dressed as a cat, crawling around at the feel of Rula Lenska.
Yet to hear him speak is a troubling affair. He is obviously convincing enough, even in his new Respect guise, to win a constituency election. He speaks uncompromisingly and skilfully on all manner of Middle Eastern issues, and sticks to his guns fiercely. The problem for the listener is, that both he and David Icke, men who few would choose to agree with if they had the choice, have got so much ammunition. Galloway will have a constant supply of material on which to rally because of the simple fact that, on many topics, he is right, and is certainly not shy about telling us so. Our government has failed to listen to its people with regard to the War in Iraq, and as such, men like Galloway become to the torch-bearers for the people. His Talk-Sport weekend phone-in is evidence enough of that, and all the more worrying for it.
Even the lunatic Icke. Ninety-nice per cent of his credulity-stretching tirades are nonsense. But it doesn’t matter if you are a mad ex-Coventry City goalkeeper turned conspiracy theorist and holocaust denier , as Icke is- the footage he presented spoke, worryingly, for itself. Not, perhaps, enough to make you start examining Blair’s face for reptilian features. But enough to make you think.
A case in point was last Christmas time, and was brought about by none other than David Icke, who, for the uninitiated, is a somewhat enigmatic character who was written numerous book espousing the view that all the major players in the world’s history have been descendants of- and there’s no easy way to put this- reptiles. A reptilian master race, apparently, spawned The Queen, George Bush, in fact any major player in world politics, past and present.
I need surely say no more to convince you that the man is mad. Should you remain, for whatever reason, unconvinced, however, peruse if you will the title of just one of his many books- Tales from the Time Loop: The Most Comprehensive Expos of the Global Conspiracy Ever Written and All You Need to Know to Be Truly Free. Oh, and he once told Terry Wogan, on air, that he believed himself to be the Son of God (what Jesus Christ might have to say about this- and whether Jesus was himself a reptilian- he didn’t say).
Yet Icke’s flagrant insanity isn’t what made Channel 5’s “David Icke: Was He Right?” a chilling piece of documentary television. It’s the fact that he, for a while at least, made sense. Not about the Reptiles, and not about the myriad other conspiracies he’s convinced of. Before he got onto this stuff- his bread and butter material- he was making convincing noises about the nature of modern government, and in particular whether ours may be considered a Police State. It was convincing not particularly because of what Icke was saying, but because of footage of Brian Haw, an anti-war demonstrator who has been camped in Parliament Square since 2001. Haw has been a thorn in the side of Parliament and the Police throughout his five-year vigil, falling foul of numerous laws and legal tussles along the way.
Police succeeded in denying Icke’s wife, filming him talkin to Haw, the right to film, despite there being no legal basis for doing so. It made uncomfortable viewing .This was right before the Lizard conspiracy was discussed at length, reminding the viewer of just who it was that we’re dealing with here. The question is, why did the Police bother? What harm was the filming of that one already well-publicised man going to do? Even if they didn’t like the idea of it, what happened to shrugging the shoulders and accepting people’s right to do things that don’t break any laws?
Icke’s job is made easier, when speaking to groups of hundreds of paying devotees at a time, because he can so easily dovetail conspiracy theories in with the post-9/11 climate of suspicion, human rights infringements, and press restrictions. Global politics is now easy pickings for someone like him, given the climate of mutual mistrust between governments and people. He can push the “Bush is a terrorist” argument. He can prey on people’s suspicions about Blair. He knows that we don’t really trust what we’re being told from day to day.
In a lot of ways it’s a lot like listening to George Galloway. The man is, to be frank, frightening. He has, over the last five years, been accused of being complicit with Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime, after his name was found in documents following the Allied invasion in 2003. He has been ejected from the sanctity of the Labour Party for bringing the party into disrepute after speaking out against the invasion (which hardly made him look innocent of the prior accusation of impropriety). He formed his own party, Respect, and managed to become MP for Bethnal Green. He was then accused of deserting those very constituents by ludicrously entering the Big Brother house, ostensibly to spread his political message to a new audience, but in reality ended up dressed as a cat, crawling around at the feel of Rula Lenska.
Yet to hear him speak is a troubling affair. He is obviously convincing enough, even in his new Respect guise, to win a constituency election. He speaks uncompromisingly and skilfully on all manner of Middle Eastern issues, and sticks to his guns fiercely. The problem for the listener is, that both he and David Icke, men who few would choose to agree with if they had the choice, have got so much ammunition. Galloway will have a constant supply of material on which to rally because of the simple fact that, on many topics, he is right, and is certainly not shy about telling us so. Our government has failed to listen to its people with regard to the War in Iraq, and as such, men like Galloway become to the torch-bearers for the people. His Talk-Sport weekend phone-in is evidence enough of that, and all the more worrying for it.
Even the lunatic Icke. Ninety-nice per cent of his credulity-stretching tirades are nonsense. But it doesn’t matter if you are a mad ex-Coventry City goalkeeper turned conspiracy theorist and holocaust denier , as Icke is- the footage he presented spoke, worryingly, for itself. Not, perhaps, enough to make you start examining Blair’s face for reptilian features. But enough to make you think.
Labels: Politics
posted by Matt at 4:42 pm
4 Comments:
I agree with you fully, but sometimes I think its the fault of people who are deemed "sane" for accomodating these people.
Take NUS conference, there was an argument about what consitutes legitimate criticsm of Israel and what constitues anti-semitism. Respect (Galloways little cronies) wanted any criticism whatsoever of Israel to be legitimate, apparently including comparing Jews to bloodsuckers, and a "cancer".
At the end of the day, Israel has terrible foreign policy, but no country deserves to have its' people racially abused and then have people deny its' racial abuse. Same probably applies here, too. Things like Iraq are a terrible mistake, but people have to be sensible enough to look at some of the other things Galloway believes.
Well, exactly. But how do we try to stop "accomodating" people like these, without denying them their basic rights to speech and opinion, which you or I would hold as dearly as any. When we as normal citizens can't speak out for fear of being labelled a bigot, those who aren't afraid to preach their own prejudice and bigotry get all the exposure they like. It's a vicious circle, which is why I just wish there was less ammunition for lunatics to use...
I think at the end of the day, government has to be more responsible to concerns of its' citizens, rather than be so top-down in its' approach to problems. This doesnt actually mean that the government has to do WHATEVER it is told, or even agree with the wishes of pressure groups/etc, but it has to engage in dialogue and discussion with other groups and find common ground.
That was a biiiiiig issue at NUS conference, of which I shall soon be posting a report! It was people who want to actively be "militant" and take on the government over things like top up fees etc and occupy buildings, demonstrate etc, and those who want to carry out a demonstration pragmatically and engage in dialogue with the government. Even if we dont agree with them 100% of the time, you have to negotiate to get what you want, even if it involves compromise. As you can imagine, I was with the latter of those 2 groups!
Well written article.
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