As everything from outspoken actors to Uncle Ben's is forcibly consigned to the dustbin, it's worth asking: will anyone or anything be spared from a similar and quite sudden demise?
The erasure of culture is becoming more and more widespread. It seems that not a day goes by without the news of something or someone having been lobbed into oblivion. Acts of publicly erasing that to which the cancel mob has taken a dislike are spiralling out of control. It's difficult to retrace where this all began, such is the extent of 'cancel culture' evolution.
I do not believe, however, that the continuous erasure of both people and things can continue for much longer. I realise this may appear oddly optimistic during the strangest of times, but I just can't see the current obsession of cancelling culture being tolerated much longer. Surely, it must be an inevitability that ' cancel culture' will, at some point, also find itself the subject of cancellation (for the time being at least).
We shouldn't for one moment underestimate the increasing rapidity and frequency with which culture is being dismantled bit by bit, piece by piece. We should, however, be reassured by the fact that the British people have never and will never cede to those who are vehemently intent on taking our freedom hostage and subverting our democracy - because that's what this is really all about.
Let's take an historical perspective. On May 10th 1933, Nazi activists and members of the National Socialist German Students' Association organised nationwide book burning ceremonies, during which they threw into the flames the works of 'un-German' writers and Jewish authors. The new Reich Culture Chamber quickly followed as an organisation tasked with the regulation and censorship of all facets of German culture. The German historian George Mosse referred to this censorious and dark period in German history as an effort toward a 'total culture', affecting the everyday lives of ordinary Germans. The intentions of the Nazi leadership was to dominate through terror, tightening its grip on the German people. Fortunately, its success was relatively short-lived.
German occupation and fascistic rule had a devastating effect and I'm in no way diminishing that. But there is hope that those who intend to terrorise and thereby divide us through the selective erasure of aspects of our culture have always found themselves on the wrong side of history.
For many, including myself, the resurgence of 'cancel culture' is considered so ridiculous that it is difficult to believe there are those who are genuinely offended by a brand of rice or a comedy sketch. Perhaps it's difficult to believe because I often question whether those who perpetuate such nonsense even believe it themselves. It might well purely be - for those who are often referred to as 'snowflakes' - a way to disrupt. Just like a child throwing a tantrum because they haven't got their own way, it's irrational and an expression of defiance. It doesn't help, of course, that many people who are displaying irrational outrage are students who are somewhat devoid of the ability to either form a cogent argument or engage in nuanced discourse. They have been forced onto the conveyor belt of a liberalised education system and presently find themselves sleepwalking through early adulthood. When your school, college or university is no longer a centre of learning but a cesspit of indoctrination and the only form of attainment obtained is a certificate of participation, what hope do you have?
But it's not just our education institutions that have suffered from the affliction of 'wokism'. The police have also embarked on the path to woke enlightenment. They can be found kneeling before baying mobs who howl for the cancellation of their next unwitting victim. Similarly, television and radio broadcasters - and most notably the BBC - now refer to Churchill as a 'divisive figure'. Sir Winston Churchill: a man who fought and defeated fascism across the continent and beyond. Katie Hopkins has also faced the chop. Twitter has decisively and definitively cancelled the self-proclaimed 'biggest bitch in Britain'. I should point out that I disagree with much of what Katie Hopkins has to say - or, in this case, tweet - but nobody has the right to not be offended. I have no right to stop or restrict others from exercising their freedom of expression simply because I disagree with their views. This is protected under and enshrined in the Human Rights Act and other such legislation. This does not give one carte blanche and an unconditional entitlement to say anything one may please, but it does attempt to ensure we don't adopt the type of 'cancel culture' we currently find ourselves absorbed by. But, of course, many on the Left will defend the Human Rights Act and European Convention on Human Rights whilst also relentlessly attacking those they disagree with. It is total hypocrisy but also symptomatic of a group of people who do not believe the rules apply to them. They set standards that they themselves are unable to meet.
Where does this all leave us - the ordinary and decent in society who simply wish to get on with our lives free of the hindrances others in less fortunate places around the world experience? We could be forgiven for believing everything will simply return to normal. We could be forgiven for thinking 'cancel culture' is so utterly ridiculous that it cannot possibly survive. But despite believing the British public will never accept the systematic dismantling of our cultural heritage, we should not be complacent. We must not continue to allow our public institutions to be usurped by those desperate for power. And we must not allow our democracy to be subverted by anarchistic agents recruited for the sole purpose of deceitfully exploiting social injustices and legitimate causes in order to insidiously peddle lawlessness and destruction. To quote a hero of mine, and of the British people, who thankfully now finds himself freed from the sarcophagus in which he was recently placed, "Never give in, Never give in. Never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy".