One does not expect The English National Ballet to feature in Machiavelli Blog very often but here they are in the middle of a controversy involving the ultra right BNP and the Anti Nazi League.
The British National Party is not the natural home of prancing terpsichorean we imagine, or imagined until ENB lead ballerina Simone Clarke was outed as a member.
In response to this news a protest was organised and fifty shaven headed thugs paraded outside the theatre where Ms Clarke was due to perform. No, not BNP minders but anti fascist protesters. Fair enough, they have a right to protest. What was not acceptable was that when the performance began a group of anti - nazi protesters who had got inside the theatre tried to disrupt the performance.
The thing I dislike about the anti - fascist movement is their readiness to adopt fascist tactics to achieve their aims. A fascist BTW is someone who believes in power through strength, or might is right, so lets have none of that wussy, politically correct business of "if you call someone a fascist that means you're a fascist." which always comes up when I use the term. That kind of response is really at the level of kindergarten kids saying "if you say someone stinks that means you stink, nyhr." We aim at a higher level of debate on Machiavelli.
In trying to prevent a dancer from practising her profession not only are the protesters deploying the same tactics as were used to marginalise Jews from the late Roman era to the end of World War 2, they are also denying the other dancers, the musicians and the theatre staff the right to earn their living. On top of that the audience who have paid to see a ballet are being deprived of their rights. All because of the political views of one performer.
My personal opinion of the BNP is that their racist views are repugnant. Having said that, on a number of issues they are quite left wing on some issues. All that aside, if we claim to be a liberal democracy we must protect their right to contest elections and publish their literature so long as it stays within the law. The best way to strengthen an organisation like the BNP is to exclude it from the democratic process. If you doubt me, read up on Hitler's rise to power.
The Anti Nazi League and their supporters made two mistakes here, firstly they have made a personal attack on an individual. In a free society and individuals politics and religion are their own business. Even if the organisations they belong offend our sensibilities, individuals must be free within the law. That freedom only ceases when extremist organisations try to impose their view or try to silence alternative opinions.
Secondly, they assumed that people in the arts are uniformly left of centre. Most creative and performance artists are left leaning, but the one issue that will align them all behind Simone Clarke is the attempt to curtail her right to free expression.
I wholly support the aims of the anti nazi league and understand that one of their tactics is to oppose fascism as stridently as extreme right groups oppose liberalism, but this time they missed the target and shot themselves in the foot.