I am also grateful for our human diversity, which must be something huge. I was thinking of this again yesterday while hearing on the radio the points of view from people to whom I wouldn't ordinarily give the time of day. That's right, on the program the host had interviewed a select group of Canadian luminaries, mostly journalists and politicians, and some of them were not just conservatives, but pretty right wing conservatives (nothing really pretty about them, actually!)
When I turned on the radio there was this journalist, Barbara Kay, who writes a column for the Canada Post. Now I have never in my life read or heard of Barbara Kay, given that I never read the Canada Post (the Globe and Mail being a much better publication, in my humble opinion!), so the first thing I wondered while hearing her spout off was, who the hell is that bitch? (I know, such Christian love!) She was saying that people will only stretch so far when challenged to change about anything and then they'll resist. I think she was referring to things like immigration and same sex marriage and her absolute distaste at the progressive left for daring to impose their social engineering on her. Her interviewer, a confirmed lefty like myself, was showing her admirable patience and restraint.
I would have suggested to the dear lady (if she is indeed that) that maybe the person who really refuses to change is herself, and that she is simply projecting her rigidity and stubbornness onto John and Jane Q. Public, when really Mr. and Mrs. Public just might be a little more flexible and more open-minded than she is. But we all tend to do this, don't we Gentle Reader? For example, the brainless extreme leftists on Coop Radio who praise the Cuban Revolution without any modifiers and adore with reckless abandon the great Fidel and the great Che as though they were two members of the Holy Trinity, without even once considering all the blood both those men had dripping from their hands, how their wrong-headed and badly informed misinterpretations of Marx (Karl, not Groucho) turned Cuba into a giant prison camp, and I especially take exception with their use of the word "the people", as if only those who agree with their bastardizations of socialism qualify as human beings and everyone else can go drown or get eaten by sharks while escaping to America.
See, here I am, a confirmed lefty, openly and snarkily disagreeing with other confirmed lefties. But I still disagree with Barbara Kay.
What I do try to appreciate is that she, like others with whom I disagree, are also human beings, each with an inner life and personal biography that don't necessarily touch upon their political beliefs. For example, I am informed that she has a son, who is the editor of a left leaning periodical. The apple sometimes does fall very far from the tree. She might have grandchildren, but this I do not know. Could someone with such rigid and odious opinions actually love her grandchildren, be a doting granny who bakes cookies and plays with her little darlings? Well, why not? Maybe she does volunteer work at the local food bank? I hardly expect that torturing small animals would be among her hobbies, despite her odious political beliefs.
What I mean to say here is that very often, our character, our personality, and the way we live, aren't necessarily going to mesh with our belief systems, be they political, religious or philosophical. We humans are not merely egregious hypocrites. We are incredibly complex psycho-social neurotics who live the most compartmentalized existences discordant with every manner of cognitive dissonance and all sorts of moral, ethical and behavioural inconsistancies.
In my province, British Columbia, we are in the first week of our provincial election campaign. I have argued in the past, always with futility and mutual ill will, with those who support right wing, conservative political parties and now I want to stop doing this. I have thought at times of politely approaching home owners who have political lawn signs on display endorsing such candidates, but only to get a sense of why they support them and what kind of people they really are. I don't think I am going to do this.
It really is very easy to be black and white about other people's political beliefs: leftwing progressive is good; rightwing regressive is bad. Well, maybe so. But the people who espouse these beliefs are human beings, infinitely complex and in the eyes of God infinitely precious. I really don't believe that when we face God during the Last Judgment that he is going to welcome those who were faithful social democrats, like me, into the New Jerusalem and toss the neo-liberals and conservatives into the depths of hell. I believe that each one of us is going to be held in his gaze of infinite love and truth, and our response or our reaction to that holy gaze will be our first, next, and perhaps our final step into eternity.
Love transcends politics.
By the same token, I do not want to omit one very salient fact here: The left supports the poor and vulnerable and these are the people whom God loves preferentially. So, rather than fantasize about right wing conservatives who might really be good and kindhearted people despite their offensive politics, perhaps it behooves those of us who call ourselves progressive to live a little more consistently, and to harmonize what we believe with the way we live. To make our lives, our values, beliefs, our aspirations and hopes, our innermost desires and thoughts, and our outward actions into one beautiful and seamless garment.
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