Sunday, September 11, 2005
CAN IT REALLY BE FOUR YEARS AGO?
In the last twelve months, we have seen how all the rhetoric is not necessarily hollow: with great effort, it really can be put into practice. The country had also gone to the polls in November 2004, and on the major issue on which the election turned -- the War on Terror in all its manifestations -- gave this administration's policy an overall thumbs up.
In life, nothing ever works out entirely as one wishes, of course. Defeating one enemy or another sadly doesn't in an instant make for global peace, but along with our friends, squaring up to threats is no longer something from which we shrink. But there remains much to do, with the likes of long simmering "anger", thinly disguised near-admiration posing as convoluted "deep reflection", and ridiculous demands made of equal citizens in a democracy, seemingly more out in the open than ever before.
However, out in the open is actually the very best place for such. Let those who argue on behalf of the idiotic, the oppressive and the anti-freedom extremist in general, to borrow a phrase, "stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." Even when dealing with the less than rational, we must always strive to be hardheadedly factual, respectful and straightforward in our responses. We are liberal democrats: we do not fear debate.
On the other hand, as to those who choose to move from argument to "action" (or actively back such), that is another matter.
All that said, on balance, while we have by no means gotten to where we want or need to be, I'm actually somewhat more optimistic than I was a year ago. ¶ by Robert, Sunday, September 11, 2005
In the last twelve months, we have seen how all the rhetoric is not necessarily hollow: with great effort, it really can be put into practice. The country had also gone to the polls in November 2004, and on the major issue on which the election turned -- the War on Terror in all its manifestations -- gave this administration's policy an overall thumbs up.
In life, nothing ever works out entirely as one wishes, of course. Defeating one enemy or another sadly doesn't in an instant make for global peace, but along with our friends, squaring up to threats is no longer something from which we shrink. But there remains much to do, with the likes of long simmering "anger", thinly disguised near-admiration posing as convoluted "deep reflection", and ridiculous demands made of equal citizens in a democracy, seemingly more out in the open than ever before.
However, out in the open is actually the very best place for such. Let those who argue on behalf of the idiotic, the oppressive and the anti-freedom extremist in general, to borrow a phrase, "stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." Even when dealing with the less than rational, we must always strive to be hardheadedly factual, respectful and straightforward in our responses. We are liberal democrats: we do not fear debate.
On the other hand, as to those who choose to move from argument to "action" (or actively back such), that is another matter.
All that said, on balance, while we have by no means gotten to where we want or need to be, I'm actually somewhat more optimistic than I was a year ago. ¶ by Robert, Sunday, September 11, 2005
