It has been a long time since I posted two articles on the same day, but the stuff is coming in so rapidly that I have to do this just to keep up.
Last year I wrote an entry called "Joy Connection," dated September 1, 2024. That entry is partly political. A commenter named Worley wrote:
But postings that aren't well-aligned with that brand [Tellers of Weird Tales] are going to tend to dilute your brand, and may well reduce readership rather than increase it.
I might be a little prickly, but I took that as an attempt to influence what I write about on my blog. Maybe Worley was just expressing his displeasure about a topic he wasn't interested in. If that was so, I guess I should say that I can't satisfy every reader every day. If you hang in there and keep reading, though, hopefully you'll find something you like.
I don't have anything against Worley or any other commenter. I always invite and welcome comments, even when there is disagreement or criticism. Every writer should hear different opinions from his own and should listen to constructive criticism. I would like to thank Worley and everyone else who reads and leaves comments on what I write here.
Receiving comments of any kind is rewarding, although sometimes I have to deal with some pretty unpleasant things, such as an insinuation that I am a Nazi, one that I think came from a friend, who posted his comment anonymously. (See the comments in "The Conservative vs. the Zombie," October 4, 2015.) To be fair to my accuser in that case, I quoted from and referred to ideas by David French, who is supposed to have been a conservative but appears to be something else now. He seems to have gone off the deep end. (And why has he taken such a resemblance to Boss Tweed?) To be fair, too, I can now say that most people on the left side of the political spectrum probably don't identify with monsters depicted in movies and television but instead identify with the human characters. It's only in real life that their sympathies go towards monsters. Not all of them, jeez, but at least a large number of them. We see that every day, for example, in people in the West who carry their flags of red, green, black, and white and who call for the extermination of a whole people.
Anyway, my readership has not been reduced at all. In fact, it has increased really rapidly in the past several months. I'm beginning to think that I can write about anything at all and still receive hundreds, if not thousands, of visits per day. It took fourteen years and four months to reach 2,000,000 visits to my blog. It has taken less than four months to add another third of a million. I don't know how to explain this except to surmise that a large portion of those visits are from AI.
In short, no reduction.
"Joy Connection" has also proved popular, if the number of visits to a blog posting is a measure of popularity. By my count, only four of my entries from 2024 are more popular in terms of the number of visits.
And now, to touch upon a theme from this week . . .
In "Joy Connection," I wrote:
British veterans of World War II must be wondering why they did what they did and why they even fought their war. What was the point if we were just going to give up everything to totalitarian regimes anyway?
Now I learn that a British veteran of World War II said pretty much exactly that. His name is Alec Penstone, and he is 100 years old. In an interview on Good Morning Britain on Friday, November 7, 2025, Mr. Penstone said:
"My message is, I can see in my mind's eye those rows and rows of white stones of our friends and everybody else that gave their lives--for what? Our country today, no I'm sorry, the sacrifice wasn't worth the result that it is now. What we fought for was our freedom, we find now it's a darn sight worse than what it was when I fought for it."
It's heartbreaking to hear things like that, even more heartbreaking to realize that what Mr. Penstone said might be true. I would say in solace, though, that their sacrifice must have been worth it, if only for the sake of moments, the innumerable moments in people's lives from 1944 until today in which they have enjoyed the freedom and security won and defended by the men and women who fought the war. Although it's true that freedom is under threat in Mr. Penstone's home country, the beacon of freedom continues to burn in the place where it was first lit, at least in modern times, and that might be enough, for the future of England and of freedom itself.
I only hope we can wake ourselves up from this nightmare.
Original text copyright 2025 Terence E. Hanley
As you say you always like feedback, I thought I'd send you some :-)
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I admit to being one of those who isn't very interested in "postings that aren't well-aligned with [your] brand" but that isn't a problem. I scan the start of each post and, if it doesn't interest me, I just mark it as read and move on. Experience shows there will always be another one along soon that does interest me! I don't follow many blogs but, of those I do, yours is by far the most interesting.
With regard to Mr. Penstone's (and your) comments I feel my only response is to say "Get a grip", particularly to Mr. Penstone (I agree that the US is in a rather more perilous situation than the UK).
My father fought in the war, behind the Japanese lines in Malaysia, and he never doubted that the effort had been worthwhile. Like many (possibly most) people I look at the present (and future) with some foreboding, and am very depressed at the rise to power of people like Trump, Musk, Netanyahu, Modi, Orbán, etc., etc. but to suggest we are in no better a situation now than if Hitler had won the Second World War is extremely naive (and, I would suggest, an insult to all the Jews, Gypsies, intellectuals, gays, etc. who were persecuted under the Third Reich).
It is fundamentally depressing when a gay person is spat at or beaten up; when travellers are "moved on" because they are "dirty gyppos"; when synagogues are daubed with graffiti, or even attacked. However, I'm sure that all of those so persecuted would agree that their situation is much better than if they were being rounded up and killed by the millions.
Sadly most of those in the UK (at least) who complain about the "current state of the country" are actually complaining about immigration which, all too often, verges on fascism itself. I didn't listen to Mr. Penistone's interview on GMB but I'd be fascinated to know quite which "freedom" he was complaining about that was worse now than in 1939.
Also, with the greatest possible respect, given that you are (I believe) in the US, I'd love to know what evidence you have for a statement such as "it's true that freedom is under threat in Mr. Penstone's home country" (i.e., the UK, where I live). If it is, I see no signs of it. I know that is the message that real fascists like Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson want you to believe, but there's no evidence for it "on the ground".
There's an easy way to wake yourself up "from this nightmare" - persuade people to stop voting for demagogues like Trump; oppose bullies like Netanyahu and Putin; boycott all products (such as X) produced by fascists like Musk. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing".
Hi, Phil,
DeleteAnd thank you for writing. Thank you, too, for writing at length. It's something I do in the comments section. I sometimes wonder whether I get a little long-winded. Maybe so. If I do, then maybe you and I are in a category together. I'll take it.
There's always a hazard in making comments on places that are unfamiliar to the writer. I have never been to the United Kingdom, and I can't possibly know what things are like there. I would consider you and your countrymen to be experts on life in your own country. All I know is that I read about some pretty alarming things happening there. I'll give just one example, that of Isabel Vaughn-Spruce, who was arrested for praying inside her own head--a literal thought crime.
I'm sure you have read about equally alarming things happening here in the United States. I have, too. I think it safe to say that alarming things happen wherever there are people. I think it safe to say, too, that freedom is always and everywhere under threat because, although we may be free in our very being, there is in every person the potential to deny the rights and freedoms of other people. I have said before that we are all experts on our own rights but very often numbskulls when it comes to the rights of other people.
Part two below.
TH
Part Two
DeleteI should clarify that I believe the sacrifices the Allies made in World War II to have been worth it. I can't be an expert, because I wasn't there and lost nothing, but maybe you don't have to be an expert to say things like that. I consider Mr. Penstone's comments to be heartbreaking partly because he believes them--or believed them when he said them--to be true. We can interpret them as the comments of a very old man who is looking back on his life. Who of us will be without regrets? Who now? It's just that his regrets appear to be on a much greater scale than our own. World-scale regrets. History-scale regrets. Maybe this is all too much for a man of 100. (In reading about the interview, I was reminded of the story "A Late Encounter with the Enemy" by Flannery O'Connor. They aren't similar. I was just reminded.)
I think we should also consider that Mr. Penstone is like a time traveler. He has jumped through the decades, from a time that he must remember like it was yesterday into the current moment, without touching all of the in-between. This, I think, can lead a person to another common kind of belief, that none of it was ultimately worth it, or to the question, why did we ever do what we did, for in the end it meant nothing, came to nothing. Things like that are said in moments of weakness and doubt. They are said at the end of things, including life. We have to hold ourselves up better. We have to have hope. Suffice it to say that there would have been far worse regrets if no one had done anything as the Nazis rolled over Europe and the world. There are regrets enough about the war as it was.
Part three below.
Part Three
DeleteLike you said, "Get a grip." We should all get a grip. We should all learn to tell the difference between our own opinions and objective facts. We should also all avoid hyperventilating when contemplating the people who disagree with us, and seeing Nazis or fascists or whomever under every bed. You have your opinions about Trump, Musk, etc. Others have their opinions of Keir Starmer, Ursula von der Leyen, etc. We think of the other side as being so horrible and nefarious. What we should all remember is that all things come to pass. There will always be turmoil, struggle, and activity because we as human beings do not live in stasis. There will always be turnover, including in whom we think of as the current bugaboo. Today's villains will be forgotten. There will be new villains tomorrow. (And now I'm reminded of Saul Alinsky, who joyed in the activity.)
Thank you for writing. Thank you also for letting me know how you feel about my blog. You should know that I have a series on H.P. Lovecraft ready to go. I hope you enjoy it.
Terence Hanley
Hi Terence,
DeleteI think we're probably in broad agreement on most points, but I did want to respond to your comment about "Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, who was arrested for praying inside her own head--a literal thought crime".
How familiar are you with the case? As I'm sure you know, it's all about the hot-button topic of abortion which is almost guaranteed to preclude reasoned discussion from any side.
For many years, vulnerable young women who went to a pregnancy advisory clinic had to run the gauntlet of pro-life supporters who would harass them at a time that was already difficult for them.
For right or wrong, a law was subsequently passed, implementing a 150-meter "buffer zone" around such clinics.
Vaughan-Spruce is a self-confessed "anti-abortion activist" who deliberately chose to challenge that law and was arrested as a result, although I believe she has not been charged.
Naturally those opposed to abortion want to portray this as an erosion of free speech (although, of course, no speech was involved) but, IMHO, that is a very naive attitude.
As rabble rousers through history have always known, words are a very powerful tool and can do immense damage. I'm afraid I don't believe that everybody has, or should have, the right to say whatever that want to anyone at any time. That way lies anarchy. Certain constraints on freedom of speech, just as constraints on freedom of action, are necessary for the smooth functioning of a civilised society.
It is interesting that many of the most vocal proponents of "free speech" are the first to threaten to sue people if they they same something they don't like. "Freedom of speech" all too often means "freedom for me to say what I want but not for those who disagree with me to say so".
IMHO.
Hi, Phil,
DeleteFirst, a correction: I misspelled Ms. Vaughan-Spruce's name in my previous comment.
I can't say that Isabel Vaughan-Spruce considers herself an "anti-abortion activist." I think it far more likely that she calls herself pro-life. That's a more accurate term and the term that most, if not all, pro-life people prefer.
We have similar laws in this country when it comes to such clinics. I don't know whether anyone here has been arrested for a thought crime by praying in his or her own head, but I doubt that it has happened. Although there are sometimes violations, we have the benefit of having our rights enshrined in a written constitution, including the right to speak freely and to practice our own religion freely. I feel certain that there are lots of countries without such protections, including in Europe. Europe actually includes several countries with official state religions, an idea that is anathema to American ideals.
With that being said, we in the United States don't have a right to say anything we please. There are limits. For example, a person can't incite violence and then claim free speech rights. But we are generally free to say all kinds of things, including some really awful ones. One of our founding principles, after all, is the concept of unalienable rights, free speech being one of them. The right to speak freely is, essentially, the right to dissent, or to oppose the official line.
I offered Ms. Vaughan-Spruce's case as an example of rights and freedoms that are under threat in the United Kingdom, at least how we see things in this country. Like I said, we have threats here, too. I'm sure that people in other countries are keen to those, whether they be real or imagined.
Thanks again for writing.
TH
Again I think we agree more than we disagree, particularly that "Freedom of Speech" is not an absolute, unalienable, right.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the right to dissent and to oppose the official line is a key principle and one I feel is keenly guarded in the UK. I am aware that there is a significant section of the US that feels that this principle is under threat, just as there are many of us in the UK who feel the principle is under very severe threat in the US. I suspect there is a kernel of truth in both.
IMHO, in the UK the biggest threat to freedom of speech recently has been the suppression of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli sentiments. The standard trick we see is when Netanyahu sympathisers immediately equate any anti-Israeli sentiments as being anti-semitic and hence abhorrent. I agree entirely that anti-semitic sentiments are unacceptable, but that doesn't excuse the war crimes of an individual or his government.
Vaughan-Spruce and her supporters use a similar trick when they say they are not "anti-abortion" they are "pro-life" because the latter is a soft, friendly, term that people can't possibly object to.
There is a legitimate debate on abortion, and not one to air here, but I hope we can at least agree that a lawful response to somebody breaking the law is not an attack on "freedom of speech" (Vaughan-Spruce is perfectly entitled to say what she wants on the subject, short of inciting violence).
I am very proud of the freedom of speech in the UK, and very concerned at what I perceive as a significant erosion of that freedom in the US, and suspect you feel the precise opposite. However, hopefully we can both agree that both countries are still much better off than regimes like Russia, China or North Korea.
I suggest any further discussion (which I'm quite open to) be taken off-list. I don't get any sort of notification when you reply and don't really have time to keep checking a post that is rapidly vanishing into the past.
That sounds good to me, Phil. It's amazing how quickly things vanish rapidly into the past these days. Sometimes it takes only a few minutes. It's one of the reasons why I have so many unanswered email messages.
DeleteTH