Gay Marriage And The End Of Civilisation

A few weeks ago, Barack Obama came out in favour of gay marriage (pardon the pun), and Mitt Romney, likely to be his challenger in the 2012 Presidential election, opposed him.

The way this whole debate has been defined is unsettling. Obama defines it to be about gay people and their rights, and in this speech he gives a touching personal account of why he believes what he believes. Romney, on the other hand, comprehends this debate in an entirely different way, and states his position on the subject without once mentioning the word gay or homosexual.

In the UK, the issue has also been presented to the public as a debate about ‘equality’ and the ‘rights’ of gay people. However, when one strips the subject down to the facts, and peels away all the political doublespeak, it becomes clearer that the whole debate has little to do with gay people, and everything to do with religion, particularly in this case - Christianity.

The Fear Of Nationalism And The Price Of Socialism

These past few years have seen huge increases in the size and scope of government.

The amount of government spending continues to rise and more rises are forecast for the future (page 86 here) yet our domestic services are under austerity; the demands of government have increased to give us masses of new rules and regulations; the state intervenes in our day to day lives on a massive scale, and many local decisions are overridden by distant authorities.

These trends have been accompanied with rising social tensions at home and in foreign relations around the world.

Living standards are coming down and people are looking for others to blame. Social and racial tensions are on the rise. Rioting took place on a massive scale in London and Athens and other several other European cities last year. The last few years have seen the appearance of anti-Islamisation marches, home grown terrorists, and twice as many people voting for fascist parties. Tensions have risen between various European nations and between the west and the east, most notably with Iran.

What forces can we attribute to our nation’s shift towards ever more government? And should we be worried?

Is the civil unrest on our streets and our lack of social cohesion a result of this political move to the left? What can we learn from history?

What changes do we need to make, as a country, in order to unite our people and preserve the peace? Could it already be too late?

Uprising

All bore witness this year to the unstoppable power of the people. From the moment that Mohamed Bouazizi set himself ablaze in Tunisia last December, after protesting against police corruption and his personal mistreatment and denial of basic rights, a wave of unrest spread around the Arab world in attempts to bring about an end to their autocratic governments. Several other martyrs imitated Bouazizi’s act of self immolation. Many demonstrations escalated into violent rioting. Protest became full scale revolution. 

The rulers in Tunisia and Egypt were overthrown and a bloody civil war brought about the downfall of the regime in Libya. Sustained protests, civil disorder and governmental reform announcements have also taken place in various forms, and to varying degrees, in Syria, Yemen, Algeria, Morocco, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan and Kuwait.

Each and every country is unique, but the actions of the people involved were, on the whole, motivated through a desire to end human rights violations, government corruption, and the concentration of wealth and power among a small aristocracy. Most feel that this can be best achieved by replacing their longstanding dictatorships or absolute monarchies with a more democratic government.

The stalwart determination of the people in the Middle East, and the way in which the movement inspired neighbouring nations to break their silence and join the revolution, sent a message to the whole world, reminding us that the thirst for individual liberty and justice is shared by all mankind, and even under the most suppressive of regimes, the people will, in the end, rise up and demand that power be rebalanced to reflect the views of the majority. This message was followed by a joint response from the western nations, expressing solidarity and empathy for the revolutionaries and a unified international consensus that the unwanted dictators should either lead a transition to a more democratic rule, or get out of the way. We in the west went through these same struggles for freedom in around the 17th and 18th centuries, and many lives were sacrificed in order to establish a government for the people, by the people. 

Of course, every nation is different, and each will establish its own freedoms in its own way at its own pace. Such a move must ultimately come from the people who are directly involved, and not through international interference. Many peoples around the planet still seek the basic freedoms that we here in the west take for granted.

We can certainly say that democracy is much more popular than it was, say 300 years ago, and that the technology and ease of communication we have today makes it also much more feasible. However, democracy is not something that once attained is guaranteed. A wise man once said that ‘every generation must wage a new war for freedom against new forces which seek through new devices to enslave mankind.’ We can but speculate as to where, when and in what form the next push for democracy will be. 

Our Glorious Leaders

Why vote? Does anyone trust these people that rule our world? They have made a bloody mess of things. The economy is in turmoil, again. But still these people cannot learn from their mistakes. It is pretty well established now that the problem is debt. As you are well aware, the world’s economies have been borrowing large amounts from each other to finance economic growth. Governments have borrowed to fund public spending on new state industry, infrastructure, administration, research and grand events. Banks have borrowed vast amounts from each other to finance their investments and lend on to other companies and entrepreneurs. Although this has contributed to much growth in the short term, quite visibly, it is not sustainable.