Some of you may have noticed that I have not posted anything for some time. The reason for this is that, as well as working on AA100 assignments, and doing a full-time job, and family and relationship commitments, and contributing to AA100 forums, I have been working on an essay about the BNP (about how much I despise the BNP and how important it is to oppose it).
I considered the idea of posting sections of that essay in this blog. I am undecided about this, because I am unsure about whether this blog is a suitable forum for an openly political essay about the BNP.
I will say a few more words about this particular essay. I work in an office where there are a great many people who stand to lose a great deal by any success that the BNP may achieve. Most, but not all, of these people are British Asians. I have spoken to a selected few of these colleagues, and enlisted their help in sounding out the rest of the group, and I find a surprising degree of indifference towards what the BNP does. (When I say it is surprising, I mean that it is surprising both to me and to others.)
This essay is therefore not simply an exercise in writing all that I know about the BNP. Its purpose is to convince a certain group of people (a) to believe my argument (b) to take certain simple measures (such as going out to vote - for any constitutional party) (c) to be more vigilant in future.
This is what I propose:
- If an official of the Open University tells me that openly political essays are not allowed here, I will immediately comply with any instruction. I would never knowingly do anything that would jeopardise my standing as a student of the Open University.
- In the absence of such an instruction, I would be interested to hear any comments that anybody can be bothered to make.
- Any-one who is not an official of the Open University who tells me not to go ahead will almost certainly encourage me to go ahead.
- Any-one (of any standing) who tells me to go ahead will definitely encourage me to go ahead.
Comments
Just an idea
As much as I share your disgust towards BNP politics I was would hazard a guess that you would be 'preaching to the converted' here at the OU. Ignorant politics grows in areas of ignorance. OU students by their very nature are not ignorant. Why don't you post your essay to the BNP? Or even better you could write letters to local papers in areas that have strong BNP support explaining why their politics stink! You could also celebrate that you work in a pleasant and multi-cultural environment. If you are feeling particularly impassioned why not form a group to encourage greater understanding between those who traditionally view each other with suspicion? You could invite Nick Griffin along for a chat.Thank you for your comment
Thank you for your comments, which I found constructive. The questions you ask and the suggestions you make give me a chance to put some of what I was saying before more clearly (for which I am grateful).
The idea of posting this material in an OU forum is not to influence any hypothetical BNP supporters. I agree completely that students and staff of the OU are among the last people on earth who would support the BNP. However:
Everywhere I look, I see complacency and lack of vigilance.
Furthermore, what I would expect to gain from posting these writings here would be to enable other students to exercise their critical faculties on it.
As I believe I implied in what I wrote earlier, this would not be an activity in isolation. It would preparation for further steps.
New comment
Ah I see, sorry I should have read your post more carefully/critically.Thank you for the chance to clarify
Not at all - I should have been clearer. This more-or-less the kind of critical exercise I had in mind.