Thought for the evening.

[ysobelle]

Our planet is being held hostage by radical fundamentalists.

I had a highly enjoyable day of Celtic music and crafts that stretched long into the evening, with good friends and good food, and much amusement. Perhaps it switched my brain on, but rereading the Jyllands-Posten issues, I followed a link to an article about my detested Rick Santorum and his far-right agenda, and I took a step back and came to the above conclusion. As a planet, we have the large-caliber barrel of radical fundamentalism held to our heads every day.

Because it's not just from the East. It's here at home, too. It's the religion of one small group screaming loudly enough to drown out the more moderate, inclusive, but by-nature more quiet views of the rest of the populace. It's hard to go out to a streetcorner and scream, "Hey! It's cool! Chill out!" and be taken seriously. No one gets television coverage for that. But let that asinine Fred Phelps show up vomiting hate and vindictiveness at a soldier's funeral, and the world hears about it. Let a politician or a preacher decide what a woman can do with her body, and people start to think it's actually okay for the few to make that decision for the many. And no one from the quiet moderates says, "You don't get to decide for others. It's none of your business." Or if they do say it, the lack of fire-and-brimstone in the message guarantees it carries too little smoke and flame to stand against the flashfires of the Right.

So there again, the outspoken Right makes waves and prevails, simply because so many people are borne along in their wake. The envelope gets pushed and stretched so far to the Right, we forget what it's like to butt out. It becomes normal to meddle in someone else's medical decision. We hear so much about mifepristone and a pharmacist's morals, we start thinking it's a valid argument. We forget it's no one's business but the patient's and the doctor's.

Move the scenario a few thousand miles East, and a few radicals screaming against cartoons drag the moderate center along with them. From this far away, we can't hear the quieter voices, urging sanity and peace. All we see is the blood-in-the-eyes riot inciters, and we forget that Islam is a religion of peace and scholarship. We've forgotten there's a Left and a Center because we just can't hear them any more.

So when I asked a few weeks ago where our outrage is, perhaps it was the wrong question. We know where it is: dragged off to the Right, unable by its very nature of moderation to dig its heels in and start pulling back. It's a horrible thought that we need to fight fire with fire, but what other choice do we have? It doesn't feel like an answer: to go scream with vitriol and rhetoric to match the Imams and the Santorums. There must be another way.

I just have no idea what it is.

Comments

[well-artesia.livejournal.com]

There must be another way.
I just have no idea what it is.


This sums up my entire political philosophy in two lines. :)