пятница, 11 сентября 2009 г.

How is it possible to remain civil?

You have probably noticed the outrage that was caused by Rep. Joe Wilson's refferral to a statement from the latest President Obama's speech to Congress as a lie. The calls for civility and demands for apology have been coming from both sides of the aysle. Rep. Wilson quickly apologized.

Truth is that even if that particular statement of Obama was not a lie, his speech was packed with untrue statements the deliberate nature of which is clear since Obama has been repeating them speech after speech after speech despite plenty of evidence that they are untrue.

Moreover, moments before Rep. Wilson attacked Obama's speech, Obama himself referred to Sarah Palin death panels statement as "a lie, plain and simple". Whether the President may openly call his fellow citizen a liar with impunity while not tolerating such treatment of himself, is not what the politically correct establishment is concerned with.

The real question, however, is whether one should remain civil when a politician uses his/her oratorial mastery to convince people to abandon part of their freedom, to grab more and more power benefitting from the public's inability to see through his/her soaring rhetoric.

For me, it is the height of immorality for the orator to use his gift in such fashion. It is a pity that Obama must have missed some ethics lessons in his upbringing.