Tuesday 26 February 2013

The fundamental conundrum of broad mindedness

Today on Facebook I saw this photo and caption...


I shared it with the note... "OMG how true is this?"

It got me thinking about how much damage is done by narrow-minded, bigoted people because broad-minded people are broad-minded.

Let me clarify - Commentators like Rush Limbaugh, Alan Jones (here in Australia) and all the other ranting conservatives can whip their audience into a rage of righteous indignation on almost any subject.  They can (like the nit wit pictured above) ride the single issue with evangelical passion and seemingly almost without opposition.  This is allowed to happen because those of us who take a more balanced and easy-going attitude to the world at large THINK TOO MUCH and RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS TOO MUCH to create a frenzy of passionate zeal.  We are too liberal (definitely small "l") to deny these bigots their right to an opinion in spite of the fact that they want to deny us all kinds of rights.

There is a reason that left wing talk-back radio hosts don't really get the ratings... it is because everything they say MAKES TOO MUCH SENSE!  Tony-bloody-Abbott can ride the "Carbon Tax Is the Work of the Devil" horse right through to the elections in September without having to propose any real policies or alternatives.  The good government we have been enjoying from Julia Gillard is just too calm and steady to stir the electorate into action.  Why can't people realize that we have a steady ship, when the rest of the world is still struggling to come out of the GFC, simply because of good government?

Thank Herbert that Obama managed to get reelected as it is the only thing giving me hope at the moment.

The zealots have cornered the market on passion and it is IMPERATIVE that level, open-minded people find theirs!

While I am in a praying mood I need to thank Herbert for Rachel Maddow, Bill Maher and Jon Stewart too and ask if someone like that, someone more enigmatic than Charlie Pickering, could emerge in Australia - soon please!