Tommy Robinson and the rise of the new extremists

Other people’s worries are no different from yours. Just as you worry about how to pay the bills, and wonder where you will be in five years, so do extremists. You give them an unwarranted respect if you imagine them to be solely motivated by their ‘ideals’ such as they are. Think instead about the importance of earning a living: the politics of having enough brass to put food on the table. The most mundane reason why communists and fascists did not prosper in the 20^th century has nothing to do with the supposed moderation of the British national character and everything to do with money.

If you wanted to dedicate your life to the far left or far right, there were few ways to earn a living. Unless you had a private income, like Oswald Mosley, or the upper class leaders of the 1968 generation of far leftists, you could not sustain yourself.