This morning the New York Times web edition featured an article comparing the present political situation in the U.S., the issues, the way they are debated, the language used to that of the years immediately before 1861. The names have changed but the characters, the religious right, the liberals and the conservatives in a word the same mix is there. The author concluded that the U.S. and its parts are still fighting the Secession War.
The situation is not privy to the U.S., Canada is in the throes of a federal election. Our conservatives are using very old tricks such as denigrating and demonizing the opposition and talkingthe religious right’s talk. They even brought out the pork barrel. Their star candidate in the Lasalle riding went so far as to claim that Conservative counties would get, as is natural, more money than the others. The opposition is dismally disorganised and splintered.
Elsewhere on our planet the situation is no better. Democracy is progressing back to quasi dictatorships in many countries where the leaders call elections but reject the results when not in their favour. Other countries have been punished by world powers for not voting the way they should have according to superpowers.
In some parts, as in the Middle Ages, warring parties rape women, torture captives and burn villages. Schools are blown up and literacy condemned.
Maybe I should start looking for a suitable cavern?
