Friday, September 07, 2007

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1. “My example was not of me.” - Merrie

   Merrie, I didn’t actually assume it was. It was just a joke about third party narratives disguising the narrator’s actual role in the story and a play on Mary/Merrie.

   Anyway, to use your own analogy of a married couple, would reconciliation be possible after an affair if the husband refused to apologise, blamed the wife’s poor housekeeping for causing the affair, and then burnt the house down in a fit of temper? Methinks that you know already how weak that ‘spin’ is. And while I am not a Christian, isn’t repentance a condition of forgiveness? Whatever about Christianity, it is most definitely an inviolable law of human nature.

   It’s very easy to ‘move on’ when nothing is holding you back; and for the majority of the north’s citizens, that is the fortunate circumstance. However, a significant minority of people have suffered greatly as a result of the actions of those who now manage the state. For thousands of people, no doubt, each day is a struggle, an oscillation between some terrible event in the past and the vacant present. They are the people whose needs should be at the centre of society’s ‘forward’ agenda, rather than stunted into a ditch and told to shut up while those who inflicted such misery on them ‘move on’ with their fabulous new political careers, lest those who voted for them should be reminded of what their great leaders are responsible for. I think I really need to point out why such an act will not be forgotten or forgiven by future generations, but will come to be a source of great shame for them. Many of them were denied basic justice by their own state, despite crying out for it. I don’t that think a Truth Commission is an outrageous request.

   There practical many considerations here, too, for example: compounding divisions between the two social groups that existed prior to the violence (and which weren’t actually resolved by the GFA), you now have new divisions as a result of that violence that are even more intractable than the pre-existing divisions - they dominate the debate here at Slugger. They are powerfully polarising and they deepen with the passing of time, not lessen. So, I’m afraid, dear Merrie, that you will ignore them at your collective peril, foolishly thinking they’ll just ‘go away’ by that expedient.

   Incidentally, it’s never a smart move to wish to remain in ignorance of your political leaders’ history. That serves no one other than those politicians with something to hide. In the south, we go to the other extreme and hound our politicians excessively about the minute detail of their lives – as poor Bertie knows all too well. It’s just another example of how different northern nationalists have become from their southern counterparts, alas. It’s also not smart to elect sociopaths - but that’s a different debate. ;)

   Posted by  on Sep 09, 2007 @ 05:05 AM

2. At the risk of rejuvenating the playing of the man that has characterised much of this discussion so far..

   páid and Dub

   Cheers.  It’s good to know that some people get it.

   Dub, to an extent only - see Bacon’s histories - and “Admittedly, he has only cited his own Blog entries thus far, only conferring parity of esteem to them.” Not so, I do link to other Slugger posts in our archive, or history.  But if I’ve been focussing on a particular issue for some time the majority of links provided will naturally be to posts I’ve previously done - they are the ones I’m most familiar with.. and others may not be paying as close attention as yourself.

   merrie

   You shouldn’t believe every mis-characterisation of us sceptics that you read - neither by the Deputy First Minister, nor by parci.

   The original post is noting what the current situation is and suggests what should happen next to improve that situation - It’s not about alternative realities.

   Posted by  on Sep 10, 2007 @ 10:18 PM
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