George Orwell, in his seminal novel 1984, introduced the chilling notion of “thoughtcrime” – the policing of ideas deemed ‘unacceptable’. What he imagined as dystopian fiction is fast becoming hard fact, as the air of open debate is stifled. In his allegorical Animal Farm, Orwell warned that when those with power police thought, noble, age-old principles are swiftly perverted, until the promise that “all are equal” is reduced to the reality that “some are more equal than others.”
A later distinguished writer, Salman Rushdie, posed this searching question and powerful premonition: “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” Far from idle speculation, his was a grim reflection on the assumption that the inclination to disturb is unacceptable. For daring to wield his pen, Rushdie was condemned to death in 1989 by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini. The publication of The Satanic Verses unleashed Islamist fury which, for Rushdie, partially blinded after an attack, brought decades of fear and concealment. His plight is a stark reminder of the cost of indulging intolerance.
Against this backdrop, it is troubling that the Government is toying with an official definition of “Islamophobia.” Whatever their intentions, such a measure will certainly curtail free debate under the guise of ‘cultural sensitivities’. Yet to shock, and even to offend, is not a crime, but the inevitable price of free expression in an open society; once that understanding is compromised all other freedoms are put at risk.
Consider, the recent case of Graham Linehan. He may not share Rushdie’s literary gravitas, but his comic talent – notable in the creation of the TV hits Father Ted, The IT Crowd and Black Books – is beyond dispute. Yet, for posting satirical comments on Twitter that jar with an oppressive orthodoxy, he was arrested at Heathrow Airport last week. The tragic irony of a comic writer being hounded in this way tells us much about the worrying state of free speech in Britain. Be it fatwas issued by foreign despots or the slow advance of domestic censorship – an unrelenting assault on free speech is being legitimised by hard-headed ideologues and executed by bone-headed police chiefs. Unless we resist, the great British tradition of fearless speech will be no more than a relic of a bygone age.
Even the past no longer is subject to the cruel lunacy of political correctness. From the epic verses of Homer’s Odyssey to the charming creations of Roald Dahl and Dr. Seuss, re-edits, disclaimers, and trigger warnings are freely dispensed, as liberal repressors – themselves ever more poorly educated – deem much loved books to be too dangerous to be digested by the snowflake generation. All this to placate a society so fragile it can no longer bear even the faintest hint of discomfort.
What might once have been dismissed as an aberration in otherwise sensible policing has now become routine. Official figures reveal that the police now make more than 10,000 arrests each year – around thirty every single day – under the Communications Act 2003 and the Malicious Communications Act 1988. Increasingly, people are being arrested and detained for the supposed misdemeanour of causing offence.
All this is a long way from the foundations of good law enforcement. The public rightly expect policemen to devote their efforts to preventing and detecting crime. Which I know is how the rank and file of our excellent local force here in Lincolnshire see things too; they want to catch criminals and maintain order. Sadly, however, Mr Linehan’s case confirms that too many police chiefs, infected by politically correct poison, no longer grasp that the police are the guardians of order, not arbiters of thought.
They need to learn that, far from undermining a civilised society, the right to alarm, to disturb, and even to offend is its very foundation. If we fail to uphold the freedom to think, to write, and to speak without fear, Orwell’s dystopian fiction will cease to be a warning and become our reality.