Sweet sixteen
Yesterday, Joseph Muscat once more presented as innovative something that’s been done already. The Nationalist Party then rushed out and said that Muscat has nothing to show off about.
You would imagine that both political parties are trying their best to divorce themselves from reality. Are 16-year-olds in politics a big issue? No. They’re not an issue at all. There are more important things to be getting on with – like the abortion debate that Paul Vincenti and Tony Mifsud have inadvertently ignited with their scary campaign. We never had people speaking out in public about the need to question Malta’s abortion laws, but guess what – they’ve provoked others into doing so. For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction, and these two men have gone way too far. They’ve ended up doing the opposite of what they planned to do, and have actually sparked up pro-abortion sentiment. It’s all happening on line, which has become the place to pick up on the zeitgeist.
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I am absolutely against giving 16 year olds the vote, be it in the local or general elections. I believe that allowing them to vote at 16 would eventually lead to also allowing them to drive. We all know how careless and trigger happy 18 year olds are at driving. We don’t want more fatalities on our roads period.
I agree, the readers’ comments in yesterday’s Times against the proposed constitutional amendment rather surprised me. We (or at least I) sometimes forget that many people just want to get on with their lives and have little regard for fundamentalist thinking – be it religious or otherwise.
Interesting point about the zeitgeist, Daphne. But do a handful (literally) of pissed off people posting comments under The Times amount to a general zeitgeist? It’s a relief, of course, to see that a few individuals are showing their irritation but I believe that the general zeitgeist can’t be guaged via the written word in Malta. Xarabank, tragically, remains the best place to do that.
[Daphne – Not at all. Zeitgeist, in English usage, means the spirit of the times, not the unchanging world view of an underclass trapped by ignorance. The zeitgeist implies change.]
Well…if internet comments can be taken to be a more or less accurate reflection of what the population think, then practically 100 per cent of Maltese are in favour of abortion, but at the same time practically all are racist fascists. So I think one must really be careful before accepting that comments posted on the internet really reflect society’s thinking.
As to the underclass thing, well, do we take it to mean that the opinion of those who would not like abortion to be legal in Malta have less legitimate opinions than those who are in favour of abortion?
[Daphne – Albert, there are ways of assessing which way public opinion is swinging, and you don’t always need a survey to do it. Sometimes, these other ways can pick out pockets of change that a blanket survey will miss. I can’t really go into them here (no time, space or inclination) but one way is to listen to the conversations that take place in different socio-economic groups. Also, when assessing the comments on The Times on line, it’s crucial to differentiate between different types. There are key indicators which you should look for that give you an idea of the level of education of the person making the comment. When you have comments coming in from people who can spell, construct a sentence and lay out an argument, and when these are against Gift of Life’s proposal, you should rate them. When you have comments coming in from people who are barely literate and who are reasoning from prejudice rather than…..reason, you should rate them differently. You have to consider that this is a country which is comfortable with displays of xenophobia and racism, so it is that much easier to make racist comments. On the other hand, it has so far been awkward to comment in favour of abortion or against people like Gift of Life, so the fact that educated people are now making these comments is in itself significant and highly indicative of a swing in the zeitgeist.]
Don’t the MLP have the Brigata , equivalent of the Fascist Balila ? Catch them young!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTwUeHNMg5Y