The presumption of innocence saves both bodies and souls in this civil war with ‘Identity Politics’.

Oct 11, 2018 by Jill

by Gavin Ashenden:

Probably not many people know that in 1919, all the BoyScouts in Moscow, were shot. The following year, in 1920 all the members of the Moscow Tennis club were executed. They were executed because of identity politics. The belonged to the wrong class, and the wrong group and held the wrong ideas.

Soon even the Russian peasants found they belonged to the wrong class. After all, they had tiny pieces of land they worked. Stalin killed 2 million of them, and supervised the state enforced starvation of another 10 million. They didn’t exist as individuals to the Soviet State, (which was practising equality of outcome), just as members of a group. That’s the history of identity politics.

In Washington last week, identity politics made a formidable attempt to overturn the rule of law; to destroy one of the foundational bricks of our democratic culture and personal freedom. ‘Innocent until guilty’ melted under an onslaught of inconsistent memories and uncorroborated allegations. How many of us would escape with our reputations intact if some or any of our teenage excesses were dredged up? How many of us could defend ourselves if we got caught up in mistaken identity accusations from 30 or 40 years ago?

When I watched Dr Ford accuse Mr Kavanaugh in the Senate Committee meeting, I found myself wondering what the real script was.

There has already been one civil war in America; tragic and terrible; it divides and scars the nations memories still.Suddenly it seemed we were on the verge of another one. And not just in America, but across the whole West. It’s between identity politics and the integrity of the individual.

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