SECOND OPINION
THEODORE DALRYMPLE
One of the great advantages of a multicultural society is that it gives you a clear view of the varieties of human evil. If it were not for a multicultural society, indeed, you might be inclined to suppose that all evil was committed by people very like yourself. And how narrow-minded and deeply parochial that would be! For, of course, believing yourself to be the only source of evil in the world is but another form of selfcongratulation and aggrandisement.
Evil, like misery, is protean, and never greater than when it is committed in the name of right. To commit evil thinking that you are doing good is among the greatest pleasures known to man.
That, no doubt, is why the father of a patient of mine was a very happy man. He had come to this country from Pakistan many years back, but didn’t hold with any of this multi-culti nonsense. That is why he took his daughter out of school, aged 12, sent her back to Pakistan and forced her to marry her first cousin when she was nearly 16. She was allowed to return home to Britain only when she was pregnant (which, of course, she soon was), the baby being a guarantee that her husband would be granted an entry visa.
He behaved himself well for the first 12 months after his arrival in Britain, during which time his wife could refuse to sign his permanent residence papers. But the day after his permanent residence was granted, he took his revenge upon her in the traditional way for having had power over him: he beat her, and continued to do so for several years.
Eventually she called the police and had him removed, but in so doing brought indelible shame upon the family. Her father, mothers and brothers disowned her; her sisters had no choice. The house in which she had lived had been bought for her by her father; he started a campaign to get her to sign it back to him. She had bricks through the window, petrol through the letterbox, insults in the street. She was a whore, a slut, a prostitute (though not, interestingly, a sex worker). And the father was secure in his righteousness. This is almost enough to make one long for psychopathy. It is better to have no morals than these morals — or is it?
It is difficult to say. I went into the prison that afternoon and saw a man with those clear, light-blue eyes that seem so often to proclaim an inner emptiness. I took his history: like my patient above, he had left school at the age of 12, though for different reasons. He was expelled.
‘What for?’ I asked.
‘I stabbed a teacher in the eye.’ Things had gone downhill ever since, he said.
‘What things and who for?’ I asked.
Well, among other things relationships with women. They always ended in tears.
‘Whose tears?’ I asked.
It depended. I asked him whether he was jealous and possessive.
‘Yes.’ ‘Do you accuse your girlfriend of being unfaithful?’ ‘If anybody looks at her, I f*** them off.’ ‘How?’ ‘I beat them up.’ ‘And your girlfriend?’ ‘I head-butted her.’ He asked for medicine to calm him down.
‘If I’m like this, someone’ll get hurt.’ ‘How?’ ‘I’ll mars-bar them up.’ ‘Mars-bar them up?’ ‘Yeah, slash ’em, cut ’em up.’ I pinched myself for having been so slow. Mars-bar them up — of course, scar them up. I love to learn something new every day.
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