The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #162670   Message #3873946
Posted By: Steve Shaw
27-Aug-17 - 04:27 PM
Thread Name: BS:Statues-Are we any better than ISIS or al-Qaeda
Subject: RE: BS:Statues-Are we any better than ISIS or al-Qaeda
I seem to think that thinking for myself is far more valuable than thinking that a cheering audience must be right. Fascist crowds cheered Hitler, Franco and Mussolini. I've been catching up with Michael Portillo's history of the Spanish Civil War on the telly and can attest to that. I'm told that the baying crowd persuaded Pontius Pilate to favour a criminal over Jesus. As a matter of fact, it's not beyond the bounds that what you hear on the wireless could just be a quarter of the audience cheering while the other three-quarters sits still, seething. I was once in a Question Time audience, at the Eden Project (I even got to ask a question). When I watched the recording later, the applause and cheering was not especially representative of the general sentiment of the audience in most regards. What you may hear is quite likely the consequence of the accident of microphone placement. But, in any case, think for yourself and beware of being uniformed.