I was thinking earlier about the political right; in recent weeks I’ve come into contact with people with some far right views, and I think I need to mull them over. Before I go on, though, I should point out that this is unconnected with my recent musings on Tolkien: although his work has been used by those on the far right to support their views, to claim that Tolkien was somehow writing about racial politics is to gravely and deliberately misinterpret his work.

Anyway, the question I ask myself is, what do I make of the far right? I’m not talking about the Tories, who, frankly, are bad enough, but people like members of the BNP and EDL; people who seem revolted by almost all I hold dear. People who still think black people are somehow different to and inferior to white people, that disabled babies should be killed at birth, and that transsexual people are somehow degenerate. People who rail against the progress society has made towards sexual and ethnic equality over the last fifty years, and then hypocritically claim that they are being discriminated against due to their views. For a long time, I thought it was best to think what they liked, and that if I was entitled to my views, they were entitled to theirs.

This is, I think, the view taken by most on the liberal left. But I’m beginning to think we must engage with such people. it is my conviction that this is an argument we can win, as we have logic on our side. I know this sounds arrogant, but I really believe that if you engage with the far right on any intellectual level, their views quickly fall apart. For example, the entire concept of race can easily be shown to be an artificial construction by pointing to genetics, history and sociology. I also refuse to let the idea that disabled people or transexuals go uncontested. The far right is diminishing as, time and time again, it’s arguments have been shown to be baseless, but I think there are a few far-right extremists left who continue to spread their moronic yet dangerous views. Rather than letting them get on with it, I think its time those with the inclination engaged with such views and demonstrated how intellectually baseless they are.