I once studied to be a Catholic priest. Hard to believe I know. The year was one of the most tumultuous years in history; 1989. In that year the Berlin Wall came down, Mikael Gorbachev’s Soviet Union was staring down the barrel at democracy for the first time, Chinese students were doing their utmost to have the same things happen in China, and F.W. De Klerk was dismantling apartheid and releasing political prisoners in South Africa. All in all, it was victory for liberalism. It seemed narrow minded conservative values were becoming a thing of the past. Even in my close dealings with the Catholic Church at the time, conservatism was waning, and – heaven forbid – the Catholic Church wasn’t a bad institution to be a part of.
However what I am finding some twenty years later is a return to narrow right wing values we all thought were gone forever. We have seen evidence of this since the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States, with the right wing rising up with scaremongering tactics like accusing the President of having a ’socialist’ agenda. Even before his election, George W Bush and his henchman Dick Cheney narrowed the field of thought and discussion tremendously.
The Catholic Church, more so since the election of Pope Ratzinger in 2005, has firmly put the locks on the windows of the Church that Pope John XXIII tried to open way back in 1962. Russia has a Prime Minister who has more power than the President and who is taking Russia back to the evil days of the KGB. Even the French, known for their liberal attitudes toward their bodies, are favouring covering themselves up whilst sunbathing these days, whereas before, everything was encouraged to ‘let it all hang out’. The French now supposedly encourage modesty and decorum. Interesting.
Why is there this need for conservatism? Why do people seem to be favouring narrowness of thought to more free thinking and a range of ideas?
I believe it is because people in general like to be told what to do. We can’t be bothered thinking for ourselves. I am hopeless when it comes to choosing from a menu at an asian restaurant. The choices are so many, I get lazy and ask friends to order what’s good. Is this the case when it comes to being a free thinker or a follower? Are there so many choices and options with liberalism that we would prefer Mr. Authoritarianism to spell it out for us and tell us which way we should think?
Singapore is a harmonious little country, mainly because Singaporeans as a people, let the benevolent dictatorship that is Lee Kwan Yew’s dynasty to decide how best they should live and how they should think. Singaporeans are repressed, censorship is strong, and they have no real choices when it comes to electing who governs them. But Singaporeans are lazy and apathetic; sort of like me staring at the menu of a thousand choices. It’s all too much work to think through it all, and they would rather let someone else think for them.
The downside to all this apathy is we are quietly, yet forcefully, destroying all the hard work those who came before us have put in. They did it so those of us who followed them would be free to be who we wanted to be, not who we were told to be. It also does not help those of us (me included) who have liberal views, as we are now facing a tide very quickly turning on us. It could take decades for us to get back to those heady days of the late 60’s, or at the very least, 1989.
Enjoy your day
PS. For those who have missed my posts, I am happy to say I am back writing again after a long hiatus.
September 20, 2009
Turning back the clock?
Posted by damob under Social commentaryLeave a Comment
However what I am finding some twenty years later is a return to narrow right wing values we all thought were gone forever. We have seen evidence of this since the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States, with the right wing rising up with scaremongering tactics like accusing the President of having a ’socialist’ agenda. Even before his election, George W Bush and his henchman Dick Cheney narrowed the field of thought and discussion tremendously.
The Catholic Church, more so since the election of Pope Ratzinger in 2005, has firmly put the locks on the windows of the Church that Pope John XXIII tried to open way back in 1962. Russia has a Prime Minister who has more power than the President and who is taking Russia back to the evil days of the KGB. Even the French, known for their liberal attitudes toward their bodies, are favouring covering themselves up whilst sunbathing these days, whereas before, everything was encouraged to ‘let it all hang out’. The French now supposedly encourage modesty and decorum. Interesting.
Why is there this need for conservatism? Why do people seem to be favouring narrowness of thought to more free thinking and a range of ideas?
I believe it is because people in general like to be told what to do. We can’t be bothered thinking for ourselves. I am hopeless when it comes to choosing from a menu at an asian restaurant. The choices are so many, I get lazy and ask friends to order what’s good. Is this the case when it comes to being a free thinker or a follower? Are there so many choices and options with liberalism that we would prefer Mr. Authoritarianism to spell it out for us and tell us which way we should think?
Singapore is a harmonious little country, mainly because Singaporeans as a people, let the benevolent dictatorship that is Lee Kwan Yew’s dynasty to decide how best they should live and how they should think. Singaporeans are repressed, censorship is strong, and they have no real choices when it comes to electing who governs them. But Singaporeans are lazy and apathetic; sort of like me staring at the menu of a thousand choices. It’s all too much work to think through it all, and they would rather let someone else think for them.
The downside to all this apathy is we are quietly, yet forcefully, destroying all the hard work those who came before us have put in. They did it so those of us who followed them would be free to be who we wanted to be, not who we were told to be. It also does not help those of us (me included) who have liberal views, as we are now facing a tide very quickly turning on us. It could take decades for us to get back to those heady days of the late 60’s, or at the very least, 1989.
Enjoy your day
PS. For those who have missed my posts, I am happy to say I am back writing again after a long hiatus.