The Axeman Cometh & Ludwig Wittgenstein

 ASPECT BLINDNESS in ROCHDALE & BEYOND

by Brian Bamford

Editorial Note:  Below I have tried to lay out

the editorial position of our NV Blog in the light of the 
axeman's attack on a team of tree surgeons after
a group of Asians in the Newbold area of Rochdale 
had trapped them, called them 'white bastards' and 
cut off one of their hands.  

 https://www.gmp.police.uk/news/greater-manchester/news/news/2019/october/Four-men-have-been-jailed-for-their-part-in-a-brutal-gang-attack-which-left-a-man-with-life-changing-injuries-after-being-hit-with-an-axe-in-Rochdale/

As I write these words Barack Obama, the former US 
president has  called out the cancel culture on the 
Internet, saying that it is not an effective form 
of activism.  

He said: “This idea of purity, and you’re never compromised, 

and you’re always politically woke and all that stuff, 

you should get over that quickly.  The world is messy. 

There are ambiguities.”   

https://www.nytimes.com › politics › obama-woke-cancel-culture

 We believe the case of the actions of axe man in Newbold 

Rochdale illustrates better than any form of words the

dilemma facing the liberal left and community relations.

The Newbold axeman case better than any clever intellectual 

argument clearly shows us the 'aspect blindness' of the 

current spirit of our age.  

For the relevant post on the story of the Newbold gang's assault on the tree surgeons go to:

https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk › blog › when-is-a-hate-crime-not-a-hat..    

**********************

“What can be shown cannot be said,” that is, what cannot be formulated in sayable (sensical) propositions can only be shown. - Ludwig Wittgenstein.

***************

WHEN Northern Voices was established in the summer of 2003 at a meeting in The Buffet Bar on the Stalybridge Station in Greater Manchester, it was decided we would produce a regional publication dedicated to local news and cultural issues in the North of England.  The editorial in the first issue began with a quote from Ray Monk's biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein:

'We do not ... need to consider imaginary wild tribes to find examples of people with a world picture fundamentally different from our own.' 

Even among our neighbours we can find distinct differences as the curious Newbold axeman case shows so clearly here and Ray Monk no doubt had in mind what Wittgenstein had already said to one of his students: 'Hegel seems to me to be always wanting to say that things which look different are really the same ... Whereas my interest is in showing that things which look the same are really different.'

At that time we wrote: 'Northern Voices' editors seek to find variety and differences within our local northern communities at street-corner level.  We do not seek easy generalisations and simple minded explanations, which so often lead to hole-in-corner ideas and solutions.'

Since then we have tackled a wide variety of news stories, cultural events, political scandals, and items of interest to northerners.  In doing so we have built up a readership outside the narrow confines of what has been called the political left to embrace a more general northern constituency.

This blog aims to establish a web presence for Northern Voices. It will feature some current and past articles from the printed journal, as well as things that don't quite fit in the magazine - both for editorial and technological reasons.

**********************