I long for the middle. But it has gone, at
least for now. If someone starts a
political party that dedicates itself to the middle ground, I’ll be the first
to support it. You see, no political
party currently espouses the middle ground. They talk of the middle class but
not of the middle ground. They now occupy one extreme or the other. The Liberal Party now has moved more left
than the NDP used to propouned. The
Conservatives, oh the Conservatives, now want to emulate Donald Trump, Ron
Desantos, and other luminaries of the US Republicans. The only thing they have not done is declare
that they were the real winners of the last election, that it was stolen from
them.
“In a time of
universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
- George
Orwell
I think I can speak for the many Canadians,
probably a majority of us, who yearn for a more centrist place in politics and
life. We support diversity, but do not
want it stuffed down our throats. We are a little bit conservative (note the
small ‘c’) with our family finances but want our governments to spend our taxes
wisely. When it comes to social issues,
we generally want harmony and acceptance. We think that our primary requests
for governments are good health care and education, just laws, and a competent
and fair judiciary. We don’t want to lose our rights to a notwithstanding
clause. We want legislatures where
discourse and debate are respectful and enlightened. We want a society where
you can discuss divergent view in a meaningful way and come away satisfied with
the results. We want compromise not
‘take it or leave it’. We want acceptance and support for immigrants and
minorities. Probably what we most want is honest communication. There are two
parts to verbal communication: speaking and listening. We don’t think the listening part is going
very well.
“Great
minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”
But we’re not getting any of things, are
we? Take a reasonable position and you are yelled down and even
threatened. Speak out and you’re
labeled. Make a request and you’re ignored. This is not how a harmonious and
civil society works. And for many
people, it is not working. We are met
with constant cynicism about just about everything.
“A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is
one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.”
- Sidney
J. Harris
So can we please move politics and life
back closer to the middle.
“Man is a credulous animal and must believe something;
in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.”
- Bertrand Russell
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought
without accepting it.”
- Aristotle
I
will now expect to hear things like, “It’s not like that anymore. Or “Who do
you think you’re talking about, not me.”
I
think I’m talking about real people. I think that it can be like that if
we demand it and live it ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment