In the Big Lebowski, the bigger Jeffrey asked the lesser Jeffrey, “What makes a man, Mr. Lebowski?” The lesser implied that a pair of testicles might be the answer.
The Moscow Show Trials from 1936-1938, instigated by Josef Stalin in Soviet Russia, had the patina of a system of justice, but the ingrained communist ideology of getting to the ends by any means necessary. With incredulous charges and fearful, fantastic confessions, the ‘judges’ and ‘defendants’ all played their demanded parts with the ennui of passionate conviction.
There are versions of everything, except perhaps the truth. Today’s version of these show trials are the Islamic Apologias for anyone socially or criminally convicted of potentially upsetting one or many Muslim individuals. Clive Pinder presents a great contrapuntal example of the ‘before’ and ‘after’ psychologies of these modern-day defendants. In the 1960s he could have passed as one of those cockney gangsters that flourished alongside Reggie and Ronnie Kray. In 2017 he’s the shell of a man, a man who is clearly afraid, a show trial defendant, an Islamic apologist – a man with no testicles.
Pinder’s pathetic case is neatly encompassed by the tale of two videos¹. In the first he gives his mild opinion, and in the second he gives his fearful, fantastic confession.
Islamic State thugs, don’t risk jumping in a taxi with one in Milton Keynes, especially this Friday…Call us, Cyber Cabz, for booking a taxi in Milton Keynes and don’t risk getting into a dodgy cab at the station at Milton Keynes with someone who might be an Islamic State thug. [Clive Pinder, before the show trail confession]
I owe a public apology..I was very ill…I had suffered massive psychological trauma and shock…I was mentally ill at the time…I apologize for the video offending anyone…I want to apologize for upsetting anyone…I won’t be repeating this behaviour… [Clive Pinder, at his own show trial]
The Moscow Show Trials required confessions, extracted through coercion, incentives, torture, or all of the above, otherwise the patina of legitimacy would be clear; the sham could become publicly known. The Islamic Apologia show trial confession must also require coercion, incentives or torture, mental or physical. This is the story. Otherwise, what makes a grown man, a man that made an innocuous comment, turn into a spineless jellyfish? What makes a man, Mr. Pinder? That is the question: perhaps only the ‘Dude‘ has the answer.
Life, liberty & the non-pursuit of socialism 