The Death Of Charlie Kirk – Some Reflections

Some 30 years ago I had a boss who was fond of quoting the poetry of John Donne, the first of the English metaphysical poets from Jacobean times.

More specifically, she liked to make speeches where she quoted solemnly from No Man Is An Island, which is an important passage in English literature:

No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thine own Or of thine friend’s were. Each man’s death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.

The message about one’s humanity is clear: Each man’s death diminishes me. One cannot be truly human unless the death of another human is something to be mourned, not celebrated.

Some of the actions of many people in the past week do cause me pause: the public gloating on social media by many people, particularly those in America with leftist tendencies, over the murder of a conservative American activist Charlie Kirk.

I have, prior to his death, never heard of Charlie Kirk before. I am, as readers of this blog would know already, pretty much to the right of centre with some personally cultural and social conservative views, as well as being politically classical liberal (I dislike the term ‘libertarian’ and a lot of the people who claim to be such). But that does not mean that I follow the various evangelists of the American Right.

I have made it clear that I think a second Trump presidency is at best unfortunate, and nor do I feel comfortable around firearms the way most Americans do. Nor do I, being reluctantly pro-choice, celebrate the reversal of half a century of case law on abortion by the US Supreme Court.

And I especially am not enamoured of the sort of intense Protestant Christianity espoused by many Americans, which seems to have been a signature characteristic of Charlie Kirk.

But the best thing about a truly pluralistic society is that people can agree to disagree peacefully. The alternative to that is somewhere people seek to shoot their religious and political opponents, as in failed nations like Afghanistan and Iraq (places about which, in my former career, I knew far more than I would like to remember).

So how do I feel about the outpouring of vicious self-congratulatory social media espousing joy at the murder of this public figure.

I am appalled. That so many people who claim to have social consciences and strong opinions about their own rights have been celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk is appalling. That they see his death as a matter for joy casts dark doubt on their own self professed humanity. That they see ultimate violence against someone who would debate their views peacefully suggests that they are zealots who are unfit to live in a free country.

It is with some wry amusement that I observe on my social media feed that ‘cancel culture’ is being turned against these appalling self absorbed individuals, and that they are being named and shamed, and that their employers are being pressured into taking action against them for their vicious comments.

That is America for you, perhaps.

In Australia, we have had three particular instances who have been especially self indulgent in celebrating Mr Kirk’s death.

The first is The Chaser, the irreverent left leaning comedy website. They made a tactless comment about ‘R U OK? Day’ in the context of the murder. This is unbecoming of them, and suggests that in devaluing human life, they are most unfunny, and indeed only toxic.

Then there is Hannah Ferguson. She is also a comedian. And an Ambassador for the Australian Conservation Foundation. She made a very smug post about Charlie Kirk being a victim of gun violence. I wonder whether she regrets that now.

And of course we have the vacuous Abbie Chatfield, whose main claim to fame is a physical beauty which is only skin deep. She has been able to make a career out of being an influencer for several years based on her superficial beauty, and has been able to project her equally shallow political opinions (the few of which I have seen in the more mainstream media are more irritating than disagreeable) through her social media platforms. She used her smart phone to message something after Kirk’s death about ‘hating’ him. Not ‘disagreeing’ with him – actually hating him.

And then she complains that this ‘hate’ is being reflected back at her through the dark extreme depths of social media? She probably should not have cast the first stone – although I do not think anyone making threats of violence (either direct or indirect) against her is any better than her morally.

I do however think that the various sponsors of her influencer career should reconsider their links to someone like her who publicly states that she hates anyone, let along a murder victim.

But I think the bottom line is, as John Donne would have expressed far more poetically than I, that we are all human beings. We are diminished by the murder of any of our fellow humans, particularly someone who is peacefully expressing their opinions. Celebrating such violence is to diminish your own humanity, and your suitability to live in a peaceful pluralistic society.