Pim Fortuyn, R.I.P.
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori -- "It is sweet and fitting to die for your country"
Pim Fortuyn was no Charles the Hammer or William the Silent: he was a bald-headed, homosexual, Dutch sociologist. But the comic spectacle of his life turned to tragedy when he was assassinated on May 6, 2002.
Why (you may ask) would anyone assassinate a bald-headed, homosexual, Dutch sociologist? Good question.
Although he was a fairy, Fortuyn was a patriotic fairy. He led a new party called Leefbaar Nederland ("Liveable Netherlands"), campaigning for an end to immigration -- particularly, Muslim immigration. His first party ousted him for making "insensitive" and "xenophobic" comments about Islam, so he (admirably) bounced back and started another party, Lijst Fortuyn ("Fortuyn List" -- in countries like the Netherlands, which have proportional representation, a party presents a list of candidates for the whole country, rather than running one candidate in each constituency: hence the name).
Why (you may ask) was he so "xenophobic" about Muslim immigration? Another good question.
Being a fairy, he objected to Islam's intolerant attitude towards homosexuality. More generally, he understood that Islam is incompatible with the ultraliberal mores of the contemporary Netherlands (which has sunk a hell of a long way down from being the Netherlands of William the Silent, let me tell you). He was (admirably) as plain-spoken as he was clear-sighted.
His reward was to be denounced throughout Europe as "far-Right," "racist," "fascist," yadda yadda yadda. From this side of the Atlantic, it's almost funny to hear the Left-wing political/media establishment shrieking with horror at a man who had the audacity to be "intolerant" towards people who happen to have darker complexions than the Dutch -- never stopping to consider what would happen to the secular Left if the sign of the Crescent were ever raised over the ancient capitals of Christendom.
It is yet another perfect demonstration of my thesis that the contemporary Left is nihilistic: they hate their own civilization so much that they furiously condemned someone who wanted to defend the "progressive," decadent and libertine Netherlands from backward and intolerant Islam. It is yet another perfect example of xenocentric ethnophobia: people who champion the "right" of foreigners to overrun their country, and who hate anyone who speaks out in defense of their country.
The suspect in his murder is a Dutchman -- a far-Left extremist, though of course the "news" media, being Leftists themselves, would never call him that: to them, he is only an "activist." If shooting someone because you don't like his opinions isn't "extremist," what is? Never mind: to them, only the Right can be far out and extreme. To them, the Right is, by definition, far out and extreme.
Small wonder, then, that some fanatic went gunning for Pim Fortuyn. After all, if you had a chance to shoot Hitler before his rise to power, you'd do it, wouldn't you? In the fantasies of the international Left, it's always Germany in 1932; the fascist beast is always on the march. The thrill of sanctimony and make-believe heroism overwhelms their capacity to see the world as it actually is -- to see, for example, the absurdity of thinking that Pim Fortuyn (or for that matter, Jean-Marie Le Pen) is going to lead his country into a war of world-conquest and race-extermination.
Pim Fortuyn was no Jean-Marie Le Pen, far less a Hitler. He was what we in America would call a liberal on social issues and a conservative on economic issues. On the key nationalist issues, he was about as moderate as one could be without being totally worthless. Stopping Islamic immigration is only a good first step; beyond that, he advocated assimilating, not expelling, immigrants already in the country. This seems unduly optimistic, especially when one compares European and Islamic birth-rates. As for the European Union, he did not advocate withdrawal from that misconceived abomination -- only preservation of some vestiges of Dutch sovereignty.
Still, that was enough to launch the first rebellion in the Netherlands against the established parties, which are all committed to dissolving that country into a nationless, centralized, increasingly-Islamized European superstate. Similar rebellions are underway throughout the continent; and from this side of the Atlantic, I salute them all, as I salute their fallen, unlikely champion.
© 2002 by Karl Jahn