A gloriously and justly angry post at Redstate by Lori Ziganto says almost all that I could think of to say and much that I probably couldn't about the vile comments of author Virginia Ironside apropos of smothering disabled children and about abortion as a kindness to the disabled and the unwanted.
Lori's post really leaves me almost nothing to add. Here are just a tiny number of additional reflections.
The alleviation of suffering is like Eros. As Denis de Rougemont once said about the latter, so it is with the former: When it is made a god, it becomes a devil. Here the horror of suffering means that Ironside proudly announces that she would be the first to smother a suffering disabled child of her own with a pillow. Wesley J. Smith presciently pointed out that our obsession with preventing all suffering is making us crazy, and he pointed to infanticide as one result.
I note also (my attention directed by Smith) a bit of unintended dark humor in the Guardian's defense of Ironside's odious comments: The Guardian has the gall to say that opponents of abortion and euthansia "silence [their] opponents in an underhand way by accusing them of hostility towards the disabled." Yes, we're so underhanded that we point out when people openly advocate killing the disabled, including born infants! Gosh, how underhanded can we get? No hostility there, folks, move along.
There is something increasingly dark and sick about Britain. It's not as though I am the first to say this, but something is seriously wrong in the Sceptred Isle. This is just one not-so-small manifestation.
Update: The title of this entry should be credited to Scott W. of Romish Graffiti, who uses almost this exact title from time to time. I stole it from him.
Comments (14)
O RLY? Is there an example of any pro-death gasbag closing the sewer under his nose when the hostility is pointed out?
Posted by Scott W. | October 5, 2010 9:57 AM
In Cthulhu's defense, he'd eat Ironside first. After he drove her insane.
Posted by Mike T | October 5, 2010 10:09 AM
"They Thought This Was Funny", Part 2 ???
I wonder, is there a pattern here?
Posted by johnt | October 5, 2010 10:18 AM
The Guardian has the gall to say that opponents of abortion and euthansia "silence [their] opponents in an underhand way by accusing them of hostility towards the disabled."
Oh, oh, how horrible - we accuse them of hostility. You mean, we silence our opponents by something a little more polite than stuffing a pillow down their throat? So, is stuffing a pillow down their throat silencing the disabled in an overhand way?
Posted by Tony | October 5, 2010 10:51 AM
Johnt, yes, it is sort of like that, only she's serious.
Tony, exactly!
Posted by Lydia | October 5, 2010 11:48 AM
Is it any wonder the Sceptered Isle has produced, "Brave New World", "1984" and, most recently, "Children of Men"?
Kamilla
Posted by Kamilla | October 5, 2010 1:39 PM
The thing that is sinister in the UK has been in it for centuries. It is the secret occult underground that has embedded itself in the British intellegestia since Tudor times. Dame Francis Yates has the story in her series of books on the influence of the occult on modern Europe. Cthulhu will emerge as the Prime Minister when the Anglican Church finally gives up the ghost!
Posted by stephen e dalton | October 5, 2010 4:53 PM
" . . . when the Anglican Church finally gives up the ghost!"
Funny, I thought that had already happened. A hollow shell is all that is left. The Druid-in-Chief's leadership has seen to that.
Kamilla
Posted by Kamilla | October 5, 2010 5:25 PM
Mr. Dalton,
Are you referring to something more pervasive, more occult than the influence of Freemasonry in both the C of E and Britain's government?
Kamilla
Posted by Kamilla | October 5, 2010 5:28 PM
My daughter-in-law's brother and sister-in-law lost a baby this week. Little Jacob was born very early and would no doubt have been "disabled" in some of the ways our 16-year-old granddaughter Alissa is (also very premature). His parents would rather have him with them, disabilities and all, than be grieving his loss. What a horrific, insanely evil thing to say not only that it is good he died but that they should have actively murdered him. He brought a little light and a lot of love and beauty and goodness into the world before he left it . . . how dare we judge the worth of his life, however short and however "disabled"?
Posted by Beth Impson | October 5, 2010 5:40 PM
She managed to work the notion of suffering in there, Beth, and that was apparently her idea of a fig leaf. It doesn't cover much, does it?
Posted by Lydia | October 5, 2010 7:03 PM
Indeed not!
Posted by Beth Impson | October 5, 2010 7:37 PM
Miss Kamilla, in answer to your question about "something more pervasive,more occult than the influence of Freemasonry in the C of E and the British government?" the answer is yes. Dame Francis Yates books, "The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age" and "The Rosicrucian Enlightenment" shows the grip that occultism had on the British establishment. Freemasonry was only a part of the total picture. Dame Yates books gives you the whole picture.
Posted by Stephen E Dalton | October 5, 2010 10:36 PM
"After he drove her insane." So any minute now?
Posted by DmL | October 6, 2010 2:37 AM