By now,if you read this column on a regular basis,you've no doubt detected a certain political bias.That's perfectly all right with me,it's even intended.So let me thank you for your patronage.
A long time ago you were not really allowed to think for yourself.The masses of us were told by The Church of the day what was orthodox ,and therefor required of every creature that lived within it's long shadow.The Church also held great sway over the otherwise legitimate civil rulers of the day too,such that they were often hamstrung in administering their realms.The only real authority of the day was The Church,and you couldn't challenge them. You see,most laymen could not read,while most clergy could and therefor "Scripture" could not be questioned.It was what The Church said it was.Not to say that religion was all bad,but there was a great monolithic entity,a malevolent deity if you will, deceiving us and inventing it's own reality.All because of the absence of liberals and liberalism.
But then we discovered that the world was not flat because nobody dropped off of it's edge,that it revolved around the sun and that neither priest nor king was infallible,and that men had certain inherent freedoms.This all happened because men invented a thing called the light switch.Well,actually that was a bit later,but,in this sense I'm referring to light as being the ability to reason,challenge and endeavor to improve upon the world as we find it.
Zoe Slusar,the former Vice President of Student Life at Mount Royal University and I disagree. I've never met Zoe,but I'd venture we disagree on a lot of things.Most fundamentally we disagree about what it means to be a liberal,which is what I'm assuming Zoe Slusar calls herself,based on behavior from a video that can be viewed either on Facebook or Youtube.
In the above mentioned video,Ms.Slusar is seen asking,really more like demanding,that a man,Matt Linder remove a cap he is wearing.The cap in question says "Let's Make America Great Again." A Donald Trump Campaign hat.Ms.Slusar insists that the hat is offensive because the only thing "Making America Great Again." can mean is making it all white,with no room for different races or sexual orientations.For her,there can be no other meaning,thus,she feels unsafe and insists that others feel unsafe as well. Mr.Linder must therefor be forced to remove his cap.
I will grant that Donald Trump seems to stand for some outlandish things.In fact,I'd rather vote for a horse than accept what he is bent on trying to sell the American public.Over the past few months I've been one of his harshest critics.A world which offers the potential to make him the most powerful man in the world disturbs me.But there is a missing link here so far as Zoe Slusar is concerned.That would be reason,and it's fundamental to a liberal world view.
Reason is also,or should be what going to university is all about.I'm fairly certain that's escaped Zoe Slusar though,as she reaches for the switch in a misguided effort to extinguish enlightenment.There was a time,not that long ago when a high quality of debate was what moved the political world.What happened? What happened,in part was the emergence of people like Zoe Slugar,and,ironically enough Donald Trump,who seem dedicated far more than anything else to their own dogma and entitlement.
So the rule of the day here seems to be stifling dissent,whether for Trump,or Slusar. If you disagree with someones ideology,shut him up.Don't bother debating him.Force the utter removal of the offending opinion.
Again,and I stress,I find Trumps views intolerant on a number of levels and thus intolerable.But the way to deal with the intolerable is to debate it fully and continually without ceasing,Fight the good fight and realize that that battle goes on and on,requiring the greatest intellectual rectitude possible.People like Bernie Sanders get that.People like Slusar do not.That is simply because they lack the ability or the inclination to debate,seeking instead to outlaw thought that they find disagreeable.Well,that's not how liberalism was intended to work.Intellect and inquiry is central to liberal thought.Trump seems to find that offensive,and that concerns me.But the attitudes of someone like Slusar I find vastly more disturbing.In fact,I wonder if her thoughts proceed directly out of having lived in a repressive culture and being innately conditioned to proceed to the most dramatic and drastic means possible to address grievances and disagreement.Clearly this makes her a waste of a potentially perfectly good liberal.
blyndpapaya
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