Today’s column by John Ivison presents the conventional view of the media classes. Entitled Tories Eye Changing Gay Union Stance, it discusses the Manichaean options before the federal Conservatives regarding gay marriage.
If the delegates in Vancouver vote to keep the clauses in question, it will confirm the prejudices about the party being the home of white, middle-aged bigots, beholden to no law but that of the Almighty.
But if the same-sex position is overturned, it will send the message that a new more tolerant and inclusive brand of conservatism is serious about challenging for power at the next election.
Manichaean refers to the doctrine of the Persian prophet Mani (216-276 AD), who held that there is a cosmic struggle between the forces of light and darkness.
An adherent of Manichaeism is called, especially in older sources,[9] a Manichee, or more recently Manichaean. By extension, the term “manichean” is widely applied (often used as a derogatory term) as an adjective to a philosophy of moral dualism, according to which a moral course of action involves a clear (or simplistic) choice between good and evil, or as a noun to people who hold such a view.
I was briefly married to a leftist, with the emphasis on ‘briefly’. The chief point of conversation was to signal virtue by how you named things. “Gay” meant you were enlightened and progressive, “fag” meant you were a reactionary bigot. No change whatever was required in one’s attitudes, which remained camouflaged behind progressive speech. Put on the iron mask of leftism and we can all talk through our masks: that is the first duty of the socialist citizen.
So in that spirit John Ivison is basically telling conservatives that leftists will judge conservatives to be electable if they hold attitudes approved of by leftists.
For my part I gave up the struggle against gay marriage long time ago, in that I see little harm, and if it does harm it constitutes issue #2491 in my list of things that a truly sensible regime might wish to reconsider and reform. But once you see this type of brow-beating by the media, you see it nearly everywhere.
Oh! the tyranny of having to fill column inches three times a week! What nonsense we are made to print!