Cancelling Culture

They make a desert and call it peace

Robbers of the world, now that the earth is insufficient for their all-devastating hands they probe even the sea; if their enemy is rich, they are greedy; if he is poor, they thirst for dominion; neither east nor west has satisfied them; alone of mankind they are equally covetous of poverty and wealth. Robbery, slaughter and plunder they falsely name empire; they make a desert and call it peace

Tacitus, Agricola 30.4

Well, what empire? At the moment people with houses full of Chinese trash are shrieking about an evil abroad. They have been silent to many evils nearby, as the custom with this kind of fast food-for-thought is to count your care miles. The further away some horrible news - the closer it is to home.

Why do so many people have such strong feelings for the abstract and yet so little response to the concrete? What makes there so much more compelling than here?

The scale of outrage we have seen of late has been immense, with little to nothing said by the same people on the near…