Aslaug's Axe Shed

Time for another one of my rants. It happens, you all know it…so bear with me for it. Or skip it if you don’t feel like reading this.

 First of all, let me say what this is about, where I stand on the matter and why I choose to write this.

 I am concerned about two trends that have become increasingly commonplace in recent years, regarding debates about damned near anything and everything. The first trend I see mostly amongst conservatives or other right-wing supporters. The other one I see almost exclusively amongst left-wingers. Let it be said right away that this is not a generalization and that fortunately, it I am talking about minorities…but that these are minorities that concern me.

 As for where I stand, I’ve never made it a secret that I am a red-blooded socialist. However, I do not believe in totalitarian rule, I do not believe in one-party states, I do not believe in the loss of personal liberties or rights. What I do believe in is the obligation and responsibility of any state to care for it’s citizens. Not just the privileged two percent with all the money, but every citizen. Particularly those who, for some reason, are incapable of caring for themselves. Old people, the mentally infirm, those with serious physical handicaps and so on. I believe any civilized nation has a duty and an obligation to provide good, fulfilling lives to it’s citizens, when they are unable to do so themselves.

 Please make a note that I said unable, not unwilling.

I believe that taxation gives me more than I could buy myself. I live in the second most taxed country in the world. Those who pay the most tax in Denmark pay over sixty percent of their income in taxes. Even a student like me, poor as I am in financial terms, pays 41 percent taxes.

I do so gladly, because in return I get free education and state funding for my time in school. I get a schoolsystem that ensures that everyone has a RIGHT to an education…and the means to do so. I get public healthcare that means that even if I needed a quadrouple bypass operation, I wouldn’t have to pay anything. I didn’t pay for the extensive, four year therapy-process that I underwent, nor for the massive surgery involved in repairing my…physical condition. Because it is medically acknowledged that it was a matter of life and death. That it wasn’t simply some ‘fanciful idea’, but that it was either a matter of me getting through surgery, or me going irrevocably insane…or ending up taking my own life.

When I get old, gray and infirm…I’ll be taken care of as well, and before I get that far, should I be assaulted while walking down the street, I can rest assured that apart from our Swedish neighbors, no country in the world has a less corrupt police-force than us to take care of it.

 This is my stance. However, as a democratic person I fully acknowledge the right of others to disagree. One political opinion I have held for as long as I have had the right to vote, is that a country…a nation…which has the same government for too long, will suffer as a result. Any nation will benefit from occasionally having a change of system, because it keeps politicians from taking their power for granted, and from getting jaded.

 Let me make a concrete example, however, of the problem I started out talking about, coming from the right side of the political spectrum. Today, I read a newspaper article posted on the site of a Norwegian newspaper, dealing with the 19 South-Koreans who until yesterday were hostages of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The article was quite short, basically stating that they were back in South Korea, and that they were asking their nation for forgiveness for having caused so many problems.

 Following this short article, there was a string of commentaries by readers, longer than the tail of Halley’s comet. I kid you not…it was absolutely ridiculous. Amongst these many…often very volatile comments…I saw one which stated (somewhat abbreviated, admittedly)

 ”Now the Taliban has another 20 million $ with which to make suicide bombs. This is the work of socialists and left-wingers. Socialists and left-wingers all support terrorism.”

 It is easy to disregard that kind of nonsense. Socialists and left-wingers didn’t pay 20 million dollars for these hostages to be set free. IF it even happened, it was done by the South-Korean government (which denies having done so, may I add). The government of South-Korea at this time is headed by President Roh Moo-hyun, a reforming liberal. Liberal, however, only means ‘left wing’ in the United States and it only means ‘left wing’ there because the United States never HAD a left wing in politics. Liberalism is, by definition, a right wing political movement, stressing the values of the individual over the value of society as a whole.

 Nonetheless, the poster of this message decided that this was another opportunity for him to say that all evils in the world came from the fact that some people don’t vote for right-wing parties.

 The same types have, in the past, been known to sprout such infinite wisdom (insert thick irony here, folks) as ‘Oh so you are against the war in Iraq? Saddam-lover!’ or one of my favorites ‘it should be made a crime to be a social-democrat again, like it was in the olden days. That’s the only way to preserve democracy!’

 I’d like to leave that last one standing for people to contemplate a moment. Let’s ban political parties in order to preserve democracy, everyone.

 Yessir…

 Very effective. Let’s make sure that everyone who thinks differently than we do are put behind bars as dangers to democracy. Ohhh yeah.

 Very intelligent. I could name a few dozen political dictators who share that opinion…Fascist AND Stalinist, both.

 However, this is only trend numero uno, and while I can thankfully say that I have yet to come across more than one or two left-wing supporters who simply reversed this nonsensical argument, the political left has decided to flog another horse so badly there is now less meat on it than on a Chicken McGoldenwings…

“THE UNITED STATES IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL!”

 Sound familiar? Good Gods…am I getting fed up with this line of arguments too. Look, the United States has screwed up on a number of occasions. I think quite a lot of Americans by now acknowledge this fact. Of course no country is perfect. The mere notion that one country is incapable of making mistakes shakes the heavens by its sheer, unadulterated stupidity. But to lay all blame for all bad things happening in the world on the shoulders of the US of A is no less idiotic, and frankly it is hypocritical. It is running from responsibility. It’s finding a convenient scapegoat, painting a big, nasty image of it as horrible and morally corrupt and then forgetting one’s own responsibility in the process.

 I am against the way the war in Iraq was started, for example. I was not against finding a legitimate reason to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The man was an insane, massmurdering, vile, evil and tyranical piece of *insert colorful expletive here*. I am one of those people who have had the doubtful pleasure of seeing the physical results of what took place in the man’s prisons on the scarred bodies of human beings in Red Cross centers. I KNOW how vile he was.

 I was against starting the war on a lie, however. For a whole, complicated number of reasons, some of which I have already explained on my forum elsewhere.

 So…now the United States is embroilled in a war in Iraq which it may or may not be able to win, militarily but which has long since been lost on a human level.

 And of course…THIS IS ALL THE FAULT OF THE UNITED STATES…isn’t it? This is, after all, what a lot of people on my side of the political picket-fence claims.

 No it’s not.

 There’s no doubt that the United States must take a sigificant part of the blame for having started a war on a lie. But the government of my country chose to take part in this war. A government voted into power by direct elections. Meaning that each and every single person who voted for them holds a part of the responsibility.

 Even I do, despite having voted for a party who stood against this war. Because I didn’t help convince people to vote differently. I am guilty by inaction and apathy.

 Alright, my guilt is insignificant, seen individually. But my point in all of this is that it is too easy to simply stick up our noses and say ‘look it’s all the United States’ fault. Every time. Moneygrubbing, capitalistic imperialist gits, the whole barmy lot’o them!’. It’s too easy and it’s completely unreasonable.

 I may be a hopeless idealist, but I doubt I will ever stop hoping for the day where people are able to have a civilized political debate, without throwing mudcakes around. Without trying to disassociate themselves from blame and guilt, while painting the opposition as the evilest, most depraved human beings to walk this Earth since the dawn of time.

 Voltaire has often been quoted for saying ”I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

 Allegedly, it was said to have been a response to Jean-Jacque Rousseau, his most ardent philosophical rival.

 Problem is, he almost certainly never said it.

 Nonetheless, I believe that in order for the supporters of both the left and right wing to grow up and start acting like mature adults, they must first learn to truly appreciate, understand and value the absolutely fundamental democratic principle inherent in this quote, whoever originally said it.

 Otherwise, we will end up with a situation like the one I saw in that string of arguments, following an article about nineteen freed hostages. A string of arguments which included one man saying:

 ”Come what may, I wouldn’t lift a finger to defend Norway anyway. Why should I defend a Socialist state?”

 The poster had a Norwegian name.

 Think about that for a while…