Sunday, March 27, 2005
Mob Rule Encouraged by Those Who Rule the Mob...
[Note: This is our response to the comments on the previous post - Editor]
Comments appreciated. But we think the degree and subject of our "mean-spiritedness" and "condescension" is presumed a bit by the commentators; all we said was "Pretty much all you need to know..." A picture may be worth a thousand words--allow us to point out we purposely didn't supply any words.
Since you asked, though, we'll admit our feelings about the photo would be different if we thought either of the people in it were in the habit of throwing themselves on the ground in a religiously-inspired fervor for the thousands of people who are starving--and are aware of it.
Or homeless. Or destitute. Or alone.
Who knows--maybe they do. But we doubt it. And even if they are the media isn't covering it--and the photo is about the media as much as anything else.
And if they are Congress and the President aren't flying back from Easter break to do anything about it--and the photo is about them as much as anything else.
Maybe we'd feel differently if the people in the photo had been as zealous for Terri Schiavo in the fifteen years leading up to this point; or even in the first few years after her trauma, when there was hope that she could recover.
And of course there are the thousands of other people with devastating brain injuries--do the people in the photo throw themselves to the ground and pray for each of them?
We just don't think so.
We aren't questioning or mocking their "beliefs". We're questioning their priorities, and their willingness to be sucked into a media and political maelstrom created and sustained by people who have hijacked the sad Terri Schiavo case for their own agenda.
We're very open-minded. We're not very tolerant. And we're truly frightened by the attack on the judiciary being mounted by the Right. It is a conscious effort to replace the rule of law with the rule of men by people who are currently in power. They believe that by replacing the rule of law with mob rule--while they rule the mob--that they'll increase and prolong their power.
This is the true subtext of the public face of the Terri Schiavo matter. And it's the true subject of the photo.
Comments appreciated. But we think the degree and subject of our "mean-spiritedness" and "condescension" is presumed a bit by the commentators; all we said was "Pretty much all you need to know..." A picture may be worth a thousand words--allow us to point out we purposely didn't supply any words.
Since you asked, though, we'll admit our feelings about the photo would be different if we thought either of the people in it were in the habit of throwing themselves on the ground in a religiously-inspired fervor for the thousands of people who are starving--and are aware of it.
Or homeless. Or destitute. Or alone.
Who knows--maybe they do. But we doubt it. And even if they are the media isn't covering it--and the photo is about the media as much as anything else.
And if they are Congress and the President aren't flying back from Easter break to do anything about it--and the photo is about them as much as anything else.
Maybe we'd feel differently if the people in the photo had been as zealous for Terri Schiavo in the fifteen years leading up to this point; or even in the first few years after her trauma, when there was hope that she could recover.
And of course there are the thousands of other people with devastating brain injuries--do the people in the photo throw themselves to the ground and pray for each of them?
We just don't think so.
We aren't questioning or mocking their "beliefs". We're questioning their priorities, and their willingness to be sucked into a media and political maelstrom created and sustained by people who have hijacked the sad Terri Schiavo case for their own agenda.
We're very open-minded. We're not very tolerant. And we're truly frightened by the attack on the judiciary being mounted by the Right. It is a conscious effort to replace the rule of law with the rule of men by people who are currently in power. They believe that by replacing the rule of law with mob rule--while they rule the mob--that they'll increase and prolong their power.
This is the true subtext of the public face of the Terri Schiavo matter. And it's the true subject of the photo.
