Wow. This guy is unbelievable.
Dr Rowan Williams risks causing a new controversy by inviting a comparison between Gordon Brown’s response to the economic downturn and the Third Reich.
In an article for The Daily Telegraph, he claims Germany in the 1930s pursued a “principle” that worked consistently but only on the basis that “quite a lot of people that you might have thought mattered as human beings actually didn’t”.
Dr Williams, the most senior cleric in the Church of England, then appears to draw a parallel between the Nazis and the UK Government’s policies for tackling the downturn, which he says fails to take account of the “particular human costs” to the most vulnerable in society.
As for the Marx reference:
But after the collapse of banks around the world in September, Dr Williams called for governments to increase regulation of the financial sector and claimed Karl Marx had been right in his analysis of the dangers of capitalism.
Winston Churchill would have more than a bit to say to Williams. But then, he said it long ago:
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
I frankly don’t have a clue how the Archbishop of Canterbury is chosen, but they sure picked a real gem in this one. Thankfully for Williams, he doesn’t actually live in the totalitarian state he fantasizes about. Or he would be up against the wall in the first group.
The fact is that capitalism gave Williams the bully pulpit he preaches from. Without the enormous standard of living he enjoys he would be a very small voice in a very different world. Not a world he would recognize – or enjoy. His violation of Godwin’s law by proxy says rather a lot about the man. None of it flattering.
That someone so phenominally ignorant could be taken seriously is proof positive that Britain is on the edge of the abyss.
Parenthetically, can anyone think of any major or middle-sized industry which Hitler did not regulate more than Germany ever had before?
When Williams opens his mouth, those of us in the Anglican Communion think fondly of Henry II and Becket.
SJR
The Pink Flamingo
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“Equal sharing of misery” may be an “inherent virtue” in theory, but we all know what the practice is.