the fear of extremists

This week’s question was about e-extremist. I know that extremist parties have strongly over-used the Internet, the possibilities given to them by forums, and the help the Internet gave them to to reach millions more of potential future partisans. They will continue in the future to use whatever technology can help them to continue their propaganda. I have decided to speak more of the extremism world in general because I am still puzzled at the reasons why so many extremists parties still exist in 2007 (with members from different parts of the society: poor or rich, young or old, educated or not, …) with the history knowledge everyone has nowadays. This subject is for me on an equal level to the GM technology, I could talk about it during hours as I feel strongly about it (family in law from Germany, own family from France, my grand-father was in the French Resistance so you can imagine the reasons of my strong interest), and it has been extremely hard not to write more about it.

Extremism parties have since a long time existed and nearly everyone in the world knows about one of the most famous extremist party “The Nazi” and its repercussions, the second world war and the extermination of so many Jews, gays, mentally ill people, and many other people that are not fitting in the correct society. This is one of the common and main traits of nearly every extremist group: “faithfulness to racial purity” (Ray and Marshall, 2001;2). We, or I at least, would think we would have learnt with history that this is something we do not want to happen again.

But we should think again to the light of what is happening in the world and the list we can find on http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=354. Some recent events can be frightful and so similar to what was happening in the Reich Era from 1933 to 1945. Except this time we are in a global international world and aware of it via the Internet and the TV. I must personally say I always taken the United States and the horrible stories I could hear on TV about the extreme and astonishing acts (hanging and killing families of black people, dragging them behind a car until they die, stories often heard on American Channel while in Japan) of the KKK as something that could only happen there, especially in 2007, and could not happen in Europe or Australia. I am a bit of an utopist and one event that is still shocking me is the event of Cronulla in Australia, where a few extremists have been able to reach, with the help of mobile phone, many more and have led to the event we know. Australia, this country formed now largely of migrants with only a few aboriginals left. One of the only country in the world were something like what happened in Cronulla should never happen, where everyone should accept everyone, regardless of their race or of their ancestors. Another more recent event is what is happening right now in France. It is now in France the election time to name a new president and it is well know that Mr Sarkozy will perhaps win with the help of the vote of the extreme right party of Jean Marie Le Pen. Mr Sarkozy is going against Mrs Segolene Royal but she does not have much chances against him and the help of Mr Le Pen hundred of thousands followers will help him to perhaps win. Jean Marie Le Pen has tried since many years to be elected without success and I was hoping that the French people were clever enough not to make the same mistake that was made in Germany in 1933 with the election of Hitler. It looks like perhaps I will be proven wrong.

Thinking a bit to the future and looking at the history of the Nazis on http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/index.htm we could argue that if Mr Sarkozy win the election and become the president of France, events like the one happening during the Nazi Era could happen in what we would like to believe to be an educated world. Why is it that after so many years those extremism parties are still going on strong?

Extremists use the natural fear many have and also the natural protection we have in trying to put problems on the count of others. Some of the extremists’ ideas look pretty serious and credible. As we can read in the Australia First party website, rebuild Australian Manufacturing Industries or strengthen the family looks as credible ideas until you read further.


But do we think about the future, to what would happened if a majority of voters would allow some extremist powerful people to take the reign of our country. In the case of the Nazis, people were often obliged to do what was simply told to them in order to save their family. In today’s world, do we think it would be so much different and were would it stop? What would you do if someone was telling you “you have to get rid of that person because she is not white or because she does not believe in our government? If you don’t do it, we kill your family”. Would anyone be sure that he or she would refuse to arm someone if their children life was at stake? I hope I would never be put in front of such an horrible choice, I hope no one will ever live again what happened with the Nazis.

Extremists exist in many different countries of the World, not only the so-called white countries. We do not want to allow extremists group like the talibans, KKK, Japanese Extremists (http://www.nieuwsbank.nl/en/2007/04/20/r016.htm ), to take over and be in charge of their country so how can we accept a party like the Australia First Party or the French Front National (FN) to try to gain votes without doing even half of the action we would against the talibans for exemple. Are they better because they are white. …like the majority of us.

By searching and reading information on a lot of extremist websites I was shocked to think to what would happened to us if we would allow someone like Sarkozy or Le Pen to govern us, especially with the advance that cloning has made (cloning in extremists hands would allow them to make the humanity at the image they think is the only possible). We are fighting the cloning advance being afraid to what will stop the keeper of the power of cloning to make the world to their perfect view of it, but we do not fight as much extremist parties.

To give an exemple, my friend Ann’s family is from Germany. Her mother in law is what you would call perfect Aryan, white, blond, blue eyes. So if Ann were living during the time of the Nazism, the family would be safe with their really white skin, blue eyes and dark blond hair. Think again, their child is like her husband (he has also 100% German blood but looks more like a Muslim, which is funny. Especially to see the way people act at the airport custom for exemple). So her daughter has darker skin, dark blond hair and brown eyes. What would you do if someone were telling you she does not pass the test, she has to go. Anyway, she would not have been born in the Nazi era as her husband would not have passed the test either and would have been a reject. I am horrified to see that this is exactly what could happen in a perhaps not too far future if we do not stop extremism to take the power to govern our countries.

Our world is exactly that, a world made of different countries, with different races, different people, different languages, different cultures. That is what exactly gives our world this interesting place to live. Extremist parties would like the world to be at one image, in the case of Australia or the United States, to the white Anglo Saxon image, with the same culture, the same goals. It does not look too interesting does it? This should be one good reason to stop them to propagate their “one race only” policy.

So to finish this week’s blog, I would say that I strongly believe we will for a long time have to fight the extremists’ parties, and they will, if not for ever, at least for a long time, continue to make their propaganda with the technologies at their disposal (internet, or in the future perhaps other technologies). Perhaps one day will we be able to eradicate extremists parties, but again, we will have to be careful not to eradicate every little extremists (I could be called an extremist as often I am not really easily ready to accept to change my ideas on a subject that is dear to my heart, so does this mean I should be eradicated and if so how?!?) as this will in the end also give one only thought, race. We have to accept perhaps that not everyone sees or accepts things the same, that they are crazy people everywhere that will commit horrible things we could not even think about, and that we have to live with this idea and try more to lower, as I do not think it is possible to totally eradicate those actions, the violence and crimes that are parts of the extremist world and part of the majority of their members.