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ed_rexI've said it before (though not, I think, here) that it's worth keeping in mind that the fundamentalist religious folks actually have a point. From their point of view, the "secular humanists", "feminazis" and the "homosexualists", to name just a few of the usual suspects representing what I like to call the unfinished project of world civilization, really are a threat to them.
Feminists really are a threat to traditional patriarchal families; gay-rights (and every queer variant thereof) really are a threat not only to traditional standards of "decency" but — because it demands to be seen and heard — also to the traditional hierarchical structure of just about every traditional culture. The fundamentalist's rage is, in a weird way, a completely rational defensive response to a very real threat posed by even the meekest among those of us for whom tolerance of just about anything but intolerance is the highest ethical good.
How can they possibly expect their daughters to be good and obedient once those daughters have tasted a little freedom? How can they expect their wives to be obedient, their children to follow the arbitrary diktat's of their particular "revealed truth"?
The mullahs and their suicide bombers, the anti-abortionists who really believe abortion is murder, the racists who really believe that miscegenation will "pollute the race" — there's no possibility of rational discourse with them because who believe individual volition, the questioning of received wisdom, the acceptance (not just the tolerance) of the other, we really are destroying their world, or trying to whether passively or aggressively.
Just as Galileo's discovery that the Earth is not the centre of the cosmos really did bring into question the authority of the Church, so an Alberta farm boy who moves to Vancouver and learns that gays aren't monsters but "just folks" is quite likely going wonder whether all sorts of other "truths" he learned at Parson Manning's knee are also false.
Nothing is inevitable, but the long-term trend is one that should see the old guard slowly wither and die, and they know it. And so the scream their fear-based hatred and answer argument with ad homina, tolerance with hatred and ballot-box defeats with violence.
But our way really is better and so we must not lose heart, but keep in mind the long-term successes of our often accidental project of human liberty.
On a lighter note, this just might be the best book review it has ever been my pleasure to have read. It's certainly the funniest. But be warned; the content might break your brain.
All right. Good day, eh.
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Re: Farm Boy Blues
Date: 2009-08-18 01:34 am (UTC)You are correct that I may, in part, be seriously misinformed about the details of various goings-on in Canada. For example, I now understand it's technically a Provincial system -- and one guy I know, in one of the Maritime provinces, is really upset because his region is economically depressed -- and thus stuck with horrible care.
I am very well informed about the House's (not actually Obama's) health reform proposal, thank you. On the particulars you mention, sounds like the US proposal is far worse than anything Canada has, and for several reasons.
My HMO allows a choice of physician.
(What about, where each physician is allowed, and/or instructed, to set up a practice?)
Government does not built highways, at least down here. They pay private contractors to do it for them, and then do one of their few legitimate functions -- inspect the work for safety. (Same with NASA and spacecraft, the Air Force and jets, etc.)
Usually the various county and state agencies in the USA do a good job of food and bridge (etc.) inspection, but a whole lot of dead people might disagree. (Salmonella poisoning, sudden bridge collapses, etc.) The more 'local' an agency, in general, the more accountable and conscientious they are.
Re: Farm Boy Blues
Date: 2009-08-18 02:26 am (UTC)Nope. There's been some talk of requiring young doctors who've had their education paid for to be required to spend a year or two in remote communities, but even that, so far as I know has gone nowhere.
In truth, most of our system is "private", in the sense that they're not working for the government, but rather are in private practice or working for non-profit hospitals and clinics, as well as in some for-profit clinics (the latter is controversial and also varies from province to province). So it's closer to what you meant about highways than not.
I'm still curious about your claim that women have given up control of their bodies.
Re: Farm Boy Blues
Date: 2009-08-18 04:51 am (UTC)Only in the USA are they supine beneath the Federal beast.
That new bill contains mandates for everything from pregnancy to death, that is, "shall" appears in the bill's instructions to the 40+ new agencies, and to US citizens, several hundred times.
(The same liberal groups that pushed so hard for easy legal abortions, tend to support this "reform" effort, with its vastly greater restrictions.)
There's also talk about requiring medical students to accept various specialties, or more exactly, to become General Practitioners, because the President says they charge less money.
In reality, the number of US medical students would plummet, and thousands of doctors would retire (or set up 'medical tourism' clinics), instead of taking the drastic cuts and intrusive supervision the bill calls for.
How to 'cover' tens of millions more people, including 12+ million illegals for free, while not encouraging a gazillion new doctors to enter practice, is something the bill's proponents all gloss over.
(How people can compare this proposal to Canada's system, when the whole place has what, 33 million in total, is beyond me. California is crashing-and-burning right now, and we've got 36 million.)
Excuse me for bitching. Since Canada is such a paradise on Earth, and I don't mind cold weather, you might see a moving truck soon! ;-D
Re: Farm Boy Blues
Date: 2009-08-18 12:47 pm (UTC)Only in the USA are they supine beneath the Federal beast.
Is this sarcasm to evade my question or are you conceding the point?
Paul, you've more than once provided me "facts" that I've challeged. I don't recall that I've been wrong (when I've challenged your facts) even once.
Which is why I'm going to harp again on your statement that the Canadian health care system denies women control over their own bodies. Where did you hear that? If you still think it's true, please provide your source(s).
And if you're conceding that it's not true, are the other arguments you're making based upon the same source(s)? If so, maybe you should search further afield. I think you're being misled.
Anyway, Canada ain't no paradise, but we do seem to stumble along in our own boring, long-winded and argumentative way and yet somehow have created a pretty decent place to live for ourselves. And our immigration policies are pretty open. You're welcome to join us. :)
Re: Farm Boy Blues
Date: 2009-08-18 11:14 pm (UTC)Around here, I can gain hugely diverse input from the programmed buttons on my car and truck radio -- ultraconservative to radical leftist radio. (KSFO and KPFA, in case you're wondering, with KGO usually right in the middle.)
I also subscribe to Mother Jones and to National Review magazines, plus about 20 others. (Some are hobby-oriented, and publications like National Geographic are centrist.)
As for being sarcastic and/or conceding the point, a little of each. :-)
I don't know about Canada, but in the US, one of the largest differences in ideology and voting patterns is between married and unmarried women. (*Less* so between mothers and childless women.)
Both right and left know this, and tailor campaigns to those mindsets.
In short, for some, Government is the (more dependable) man in their lives.
You will likely jump in with a no-moralizing response, but I'm talking about raw neutral statistics.
Kids from single-woman households have, in general, a markedly different outcome in life, and not a better one.
Maybe not in Canada, but down here, whole cities have been ruined by a culture of dependency.
Overall:
From 15 years of writing opinion columns, I've learned to state my case in the strongest terms, even (in some cases) to overstate, in order to make my meaning and mindset totally clear. Even to readers (about 8000 of them, for one column I write) who are uninformed, or not paying close attention.
Yet it's always possible to pick apart the details, and the intentions, and the sources, and so much more.
If there anything that could be improved, in the Canadian medical system, it's *probably* the wait times.
Here, I can (and have been) seen for minor elective surgery in about 2 weeks, and for simple requested exams in about 3 days. It has to be cleared with my regular doctor, and he normally sends his approval by email, so I will go directly to the specialist.
Hope this clarifies things. :-)
Re: Farm Boy Blues
Date: 2009-08-20 06:17 pm (UTC)Sarcasm is fine by me (at least when it doesn't fly over my head), but I have a problem with "overstating" if by that you mean you play loose with the facts. "What is true?" is perhaps the most important question in my vocabulary, so I get frustrated when I suspect someone is using rhetoric with enough regard for Truth. Which is why I kept hammering you on the women's rights question.
In short, for some, Government is the (more dependable) man in their lives [...] Kids from single-woman households have, in general, a markedly different outcome in life, and not a better one.
Maybe not in Canada, but down here, whole cities have been ruined by a culture of dependency.
I think there's more to those ruined cities than just a "culture of dependency", but I take your point and it is a problem. I'm not aware of similar Canadian stats but my intuition tells me there is likely a similar correlation here, but a smaller one.
So far, we don't have any ruined cities and I think we have a much lower rate of multi-generation welfare culture. So far, at least.
Re: Farm Boy Blues
Date: 2009-08-21 03:24 am (UTC)Play loose with facts? Moi?
Sometimes my memory plays tricks, but I don't make stuff up. Reality is bizarre enough as it is!