Kafka & Humza Yousaf's Hate Crime Act.

 

I read Kafka's 'The Trial' many years ago and wasn't that impressed with the novel. It took a while for the penny to drop and for me to realise just how profoundly important this book was. The utter alienation and despair that Joseph K finds himself facing is deeply shocking. He's arrested by two agents and prosecuted by some remote and vague authority and the nature of his alleged crime, is never revealed to him or to the reader. He's eventually stabbed to death while being strangled and we never really get to know what's going on or who is killing him or for what purpose.

We now talk about being caught up in a 'Kafkaesque' nightmare or experience. You're accused of something you know to be untrue but your denials are not believed and it's difficult to acquit yourself. In a totalitarian society like Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia, they encouraged informers who would denounce people. It was unlikely that you would ever be told who'd denounced you. It became a good way of getting your own back on a rival, a person you dislike, a nuisance neighbour or somebody who is chasing you for money. You just denounce them as an "enemy of the people" or the party. Jealousy can be another motive for arousing a person's enmity towards you.

In the first week of Scotland's 'Hate Crime Act', the police received 7,152 complaints and judged that only 3.8% of the complaints were legitimate. I believe that many of the complaints were made anonymously. You can bet your bottom dollar that the Scottish police didn't investigate all these complaints because they don't have either the time or resources to do so, or because they considered many of these complaints to be frivolous and vexatious or motivated by animus.

There are serious concerns that these measures will be become weaponised by trans-rights activists to silence criticism by gender-critical feminist groups and that it will curtail free speech, because people will fear being denounced for 'hate crime'. The act could also be used against others including pro-Palestinian campaigners in Scotland. The Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling has said the act is "wide open to abuse" and she's challenged the police to arrest her.

The Russian human rights campaigner, Sergei Kovalyov, spent seven years in jail under Brezhnev for something spuriously called "anti-Soviet agitation." He says that in the Soviet Union "we had jokes and people were sent to prison for them." He recounted one such joke in which several prisoners meet and begin to discuss their cases. One says, "I'm here for criticising Radik (one of Stalin's adviser's). The second says: "I am here for praising Radik." They ask the third prisoner what he is there for, and he replies: "I am Radik."

What happened in the Soviet Union was a tragedy of monumental proportions.  What is happening in Scotland under the SNP and Humza Yousaf' and his Hate Crime Act, is a farce, but just as ridiculous.