The government’s newly launched “Anti-radicalisation awareness kit” has attracted ridicule and condemnation for linking alternative music and environmental activism with violent extremism.
Whilst the news gave me a bit of a chuckle, the whole project seems to be nothing more than a rather expensive joke. Why didn’t the government simply enlist Mr Mackey from the animated television show South Park to tell kids that violent extremism is bad, m’kay? It’s bound to be as successful as as these anti-radicalisation kits.
The tragic aspect is that if our educators and media actually imparted and celebrated our Western culture with its glorious and unsurpassed achievements we wouldn’t be having this problem of radicalisation.
It is only because we have created a cultural vacuum in recent decades by a relentless attack on Western culture, that violent, and frankly inane extremism has become appealing.
Similarly the return of fascism onto the political scene is an unsavory, but entirely predictable reaction to both the denial and attack on Western culture and the rise of militant Islam.
Thankfully, the solution to this problem is exceedingly simple.
When it comes down it – All we need to do is teach and celebrate our culture. The West with its Enlightenment and Judeo-Christian foundation is exceptional among cultures. It has given birth to successes, freedoms and equality that could not be imagined, let alone achieved elsewhere. We easily forget these things.
We need to re-instill a sense of cultural pride and identity in our children. We need to tell them stories about brave knights, explorers, composers, thinkers, and saints who have gone before us and enriched our culture, making it the exceptional culture it is.
And that will be a lot cheaper, and a lot more successful than any “anti-radicalisation” kit.