In the early 20th century, crazy people thought they were Napoleon or Teddy Roosevelt, and were locked up.
Beginning in the mid-20th century, crazy people thought they were victims — of satanic ritual abuse or alien abduction — and encouraged to roam the streets.
Barbara Kay’s otherwise distinguished column neglects to tie up loose ends and state the obvious (i.e., what I’ve been saying for years):
That of all the 60 or so “men” who fled the Montreal Massacre — and who could have at least charged their Muslim attacker* or at least raised an objection on their way out the door — only one had the decency to commit suicide.
Kay puts the reactions of the men on the Titanic down to the amount of time they had to get a grip on themselves and decide to do their duty. However, note:
Compare the case of Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 people, (using the same cartridge [as that used in Montreal]) but was stopped by being bashed with a fire extinguisher, and beaten to death on the scene of the crime.
By Muslims, of course.
Presumably, they had been fully indocrtinated into what “doing their duty” entailed since birth, and were prepared to react decisively, even “instinctively,” in what was a decidedly more chaotic atmosphere than that in Montreal.
In contrast, the “men” of 1980s Montreal, being modern day Canadians, (and worse, Frenchmen) had been brought up in an atmosphere of entitlement, free-floating resentment, laziness, and a conviction that religion, morality and therefore duty were for suckers. (And I’m pretty sure that classroom had state-ordered fire extinguishers, aren’t you? All the better to keep us safe, you know!)
You see: Muslims, for all their flaws, really do have something on us in one respect, don’t they?
Alas, it is also The One Big Thing…
