Good Question
There is a scene in Seinfeld when Elaine is at a job interview and the interviewer is talking about Jackie O and she says, "Jackie had grace" and Elaine says, "I like to think I have a little grace" and the interviewer says, "Oh, but you can't have a little grace. You either have grace. Or you don't."
I'm like that about torture, capital punishment, academic freedom, abortion rights - and so on and so forth and more of the same etc etc.
You can't have a little torture. You either have torture. Or you don't.
What about bad guys? Can you torture bad guys?
No. That's because, you either have bad guys, or you don't.
You see, if you allow a little torture of a few bad guys, all a government needs to do (and I'm talking about government sanctioned torture here - something many people seem to believe is a good thing in this post 9/11 back-to-the-middle-ages New World Order XXXVII we live in these days) to turn "a little torture of a few bad guys" into "murdering anybody it wants dead" is expand the definition of torture and bad guys.
And we've seen how much and how easily even a lightweight like Bush the Junior can and will successfully expand very entrenched government powers to suit his desires. I mean, the only cry one hears south of the border more than Reverend Lovejoy's wife's cry of: "But what about the children?!" is "But what about the Fore Fathers?!"
You can apply the same logic to all the other "hot button" issues (as they are called during elections). Interestingly, almost every other issue matters more than tax cuts - and yet - as Kim Campbell so famously said, "An election campaign is no time to debate issues." To which most of us said, "Quite right." But thought, "HUNH?"
Which leads me to a question asked of me by my daughter yesterday. We were talking about politics and I was equivocating in my allegiances but did allow that I was on the left. I guess she really just wanted to know how I vote but I wasn't giving her a clear enough answer so eventually she asked: "Well, what don't you agree with about the NDP"?
Brilliant. What don't I agree with about the NDP. Not: "What DO I agree with about the NDP"? But: "What DON'T I agree with about the NDP?"
And, you know, Dear Reader - for a pretty wobbly NDPer, I realized: "Not much." I had always thought I had a big bugaboo with the whole Labour allegiance thing, nationalizing banks, weird-looking-caucuses - but no longer, I guess. And I really thought about it. I tossed in the other Parties' platforms - I've always thought of myself as a kneejerk Liberal, who secretly likes it when Tories slash and burn so a more competent government can come along later and redo everything better - BUT - there are so many things about BOTH Parties I DON'T agree with that it was really quite striking.
There just isn't anything I can put my finger on re the NDP that I DON'T agree with - at least in principle. Practice? Well, if an NDP government stuck to its principles - I'd be one satisfied voter, I guess.
Kids do ask the darndest things. I am going to suggest she be a professional pollster when she grows up. Because wouldn't that be a great poll for the NDP to conduct? It has a very well-defined Party platform. Decisions are made democratically at conventions. But most people really only know the NDP by what the other two Parties and the mainstream media say it is. I was shocked to realize there isn't much I don't like about the NDP. I had always thought I was rebelling against myself by voting for it.
Oh. Crap. Okay. I was tagged by Sheena of SheenaVision to list 6 things about myself and then tag six other bloggers to do the same thing. It's a blogger chain letter, I guess. I don't want to break the chain (although if this were a paper chain letter, I'd toss it - no problem), so, here it is:
1. I rebel against myself.
2. I defy all standards of beauty by being asymmetrical and yet, if I do say so myself, I'm hot stuff.
3. Once I notice a pattern (I've used the word "myself" in #1 and #2 already) I have to continue the pattern.
4. I am constantly trying to re-invent myself but I always revert to type. For instance, I tried not to use the word "myself" in this entry to prove #1 and put the lie to #3 but I couldn't do it.
5. I have "all or nothing" beliefs and behaviours. See the above entry. About myself.
6. I feel tremendous pressure not to let people down - but I often do. SO, even though I don't know six bloggers, myself, I have such faith in people, that I know someone - many someones, perhaps - will come along and help me out.
