THE PURISTS

THE PURISTS

Arlan Specter, the senator from Pennsylvania, recently left the Republican Party and joined the Democratic caucus in the Senate. He was assured by President Obama and others that they will do their best to ensure he will be unopposed in Pennsylvania as the Democratic nominee in the Senate election that is due in a few months.

In explaining his departure from the Republican Party, he said that his old party has become captive to right-wing ideologues, who demand strict adherence to their narrow agenda. His colleague from Maine, Senator Olympia Snowe, supported this contention in an op-ed article in The New York Times. She argued that the Reagan "big tent " philosophy, where people with widely differing views are welcome, is no longer accepted in her party.

In last year’s presidential election, the Republican nominee, John McCain, wanted Joe Lieberman, the independent senator from Connecticut, as his running mate. Lieberman was campaigning for him, but his liberal views on some social issues made him completely unacceptable to the conservative base of the GOP, so, he was ruled out and McCain, seemingly in a fit of pique, chose Sara Palin, who was and is a darling of the Right, but who was clearly out of her depth in dealing with the big issues in the presidential campaign.

The Taliban and Al’Qaeda share strong fundamentalist beliefs about what constitutes a truly Islamic government. For instance, they insist that women must be completely subservient to men. Any woman who dares to breach their harsh, outmoded rules, is severely punished. There is only one way to behave, and that is laid down by the male elders, who are following their traditional interpretation of the Koran.

The history of Irish Republicanism provides an excellent example of people attempting to follow dogmatic tenets. In the Irish Civil War, the Republicans, led by De Valera, rejected the democratic Dail vote, accepting the treaty, because, they said that it breached their core beliefs. In particular, the Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown was seen as completely unacceptable. However, before ten years had elapsed, most of the Civil War Republicans agreed to take the despised oath.

A minority held out on this issue of principle and engaged in a futile mini-war in both sides of the Border against the new State and British-controlled Northern Ireland. Following their core Republican beliefs, they refused to recognize the legitimacy of the governments in Dublin or Westminster.

The Unionist leaders in Northern Ireland had their own hardened belief system. Central to their political creed was the conviction that no nationalist could be trusted, and, so, Catholics were consigned to second-class citizenship. Any Unionist leader who showed a willingness to change, even slightly, this neantherdal mindframe was quickly dismissed, in favour of a thorough not-an-inch hardliner.

Since the Good Friday Agreement, the IRA has ended its military campaign, and the Republican leadership has embraced an internal solution, involving their participation in a government in Stormont. Predictably, there are now two small militant groups, the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA, who accuse their former colleagues of treachery because they have settled for less than the Republican ideal of a united Ireland.

I was a member of the Irish Labour Party for ten years from the mid-seventies. There was a strong internal group, who called themselves The Militant Tendency, which argued that the Party should pursue a clear left-wing agenda and stay away from coalition governments with, what they considered, right-wing parties.

They presented a strong but rather tendentious case for offering only pure socialist policies to the Irish electorate. The mainstream members of the Party, including nearly all the elected representatives, preferred to work for gradual improvements in crucial areas like education and healthcare.

In a recent letter my poet-friend in Venezuela, John Sweeney, pointed out that he is very suspicious of dogmatists in any area of life who see themselves as "owners of the truth." In a democracy, it is important that all perspectives on the various issues be respected. Ideological purity is not a real option. Compromise is not a dirty word, but an important skill that must be valued.

I shrink from the absolutists who say that they have the complete revealed truth about God, that their church or tribe alone has all the answers. In their world, there is no shade of gray. They have the answers to all social, political and religious questions. All the other tribes or churches are wrong. End of story! By comparison, I am convinced that in asssessing human behaviour, gray is the dominant colour, that Edmond Burke got it right when he wrote: Every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act is founded on compromise and barter.



THE PURISTS

Arlan Specter, the senator from Pennsylvania, recently left the Republican Party and joined the Democratic caucus in the Senate. He was assured by President Obama and others that they will ensure he will be unopposed in Pennsylvania as the Democratic nominee in the Senate election that is due in a few months.

In explaining his departure from the Republican Party, he said that his old party has become captive to right-wing ideologues, who demand strict adherence to their narrow agenda. His colleague from Maine, Senator Olympia Snowe, supported this contention in an op-ed article in The New York Times. She argued that the Reagan "big tent " philosophy, where people with widely differing views are welcome, is no longer accepted in her party.

In last year’s presidential election, the Republican nominee, John McCain, wanted Joe Lieberman, the independent senator from Connecticut, as his running mate. Lieberman was campaigning for him, but his liberal views on some social issues made him completely unacceptable to the conservative base of the GOP, so, he was ruled out and McCain, seemingly in a fit of pique, chose Sara Palin, who was and is a darling of the Right, but who was clearly out of her depth in dealing with the big issues in the presidential campaign.

The Taliban and Al’Qaeda share strong fundamentalist beliefs about what constitutes a truly Islamic government. For instance, they insist that women must be completely subservient to men. Any woman who dares to breach their harsh, outmoded rules, is severely punished. There is only one way to behave, and that is laid down by the male elders, who are following their traditional interpretation of the Koran.

The history of Irish Republicanism provides an excellent example of people attempting to follow dogmatic tenets. In the Irish Civil War, the Republicans, led by De Valera, rejected the democratic Dail vote, accepting the treaty, because, they said that it breached their core beliefs. In particular, the Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown was seen as completely unacceptable. However, before ten years had elapsed, most of the Civil War Republicans agreed to take the despised oath.

A minority held out on this issue of principle and engaged in a futile mini-war in both sides of the Border against the new State and British-controlled Northern Ireland. Following their core Republican beliefs, they refused to recognize the legitimacy of the governments in Dublin or Westminster.

The Unionist leaders in Northern Ireland had their own hardened belief system. Central to their political creed was the conviction that no nationalist could be trusted, and, so, Catholics were consigned to second-class citizenship. Any Unionist leader who showed a willingness to change, even slightly, this neantherdal mindframe was quickly dismissed, in favour of a thorough not-an-inch hardliner.

Since the Good Friday Agreement, the IRA has ended its military campaign, and the Republican leadership has embraced an internal solution, involving their participation in a government in Stormont. Predictably, there are now two small militant groups, the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA, who accuse their former colleagues of treachery because they have settled for less than the Republican ideal of a united Ireland.

I was a member of the Irish Labour Party for ten years from the mid-seventies. There was a strong internal group, who called themselves The Militant Tendency, which argued that the Party should pursue a clear left-wing agenda and stay away from coalition governments with, what they considered, right-wing parties.

They presented a strong but rather tendentious case for offering only pure socialist policies to the Irish electorate. The mainstream members of the Party, including nearly all the elected representatives, preferred to work for gradual improvements in crucial areas like education and healthcare.

In a recent letter my poet-friend in Venezuela, John Sweeney, pointed out that he is very suspicious of dogmatists in any area of life who see themselves as "owners of the truth." In a democracy, it is important that all perspectives on the various issues be respected. Ideological purity is not a real option. Compromise is not a dirty word, but an important skill that must be valued.

I shrink from the absolutists who say that they have the truth about God, that their church or tribe alone has all the answers. In their world, there is no shade of gray. They have the answers to all social, political and religious questions. All the other tribes or churches are wrong. End of story! By comparison, I am convinced that Edmond Burke got it right when he wrote: Every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act is founded on compromise and barter.



THE PURISTS

Arlan Specter, the senator from Pennsylvania, recently left the Republican Party and joined the Democratic caucus in the Senate. He was assured by President Obama and others that they will ensure he will be unopposed in Pennsylvania as the Democratic nominee in the Senate election that is due in a few months.

In explaining his departure from the Republican Party, he said that his old party has become captive to right-wing ideologues, who demand strict adherence to their narrow agenda. His colleague from Maine, Senator Olympia Snowe, supported this contention in an op-ed article in The New York Times. She argued that the Reagan "big tent " philosophy, where people with widely differing views are welcome, is no longer accepted in her party.

In last year’s presidential election, the Republican nominee, John McCain, wanted Joe Lieberman, the independent senator from Connecticut, as his running mate. Lieberman was campaigning for him, but his liberal views on some social issues made him completely unacceptable to the conservative base of the GOP, so, he was ruled out and McCain, seemingly in a fit of pique, chose Sara Palin, who was and is a darling of the Right, but who was clearly out of her depth in dealing with the big issues in the presidential campaign.

The Taliban and Al’Qaeda share strong fundamentalist beliefs about what constitutes a truly Islamic government. For instance, they insist that women must be completely subservient to men. Any woman who dares to breach their harsh, outmoded rules, is severely punished. There is only one way to behave, and that is laid down by the male elders, who are following their traditional interpretation of the Koran.

The history of Irish Republicanism provides an excellent example of people attempting to follow dogmatic tenets. In the Irish Civil War, the Republicans, led by De Valera, rejected the democratic Dail vote, accepting the treaty, because, they said that it breached their core beliefs. In particular, the Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown was seen as completely unacceptable. However, before ten years had elapsed, most of the Civil War Republicans agreed to take the despised oath.

A minority held out on this issue of principle and engaged in a futile mini-war in both sides of the Border against the new State and British-controlled Northern Ireland. Following their core Republican beliefs, they refused to recognize the legitimacy of the governments in Dublin or Westminster.

The Unionist leaders in Northern Ireland had their own hardened belief system. Central to their political creed was the conviction that no nationalist could be trusted, and, so, Catholics were consigned to second-class citizenship. Any Unionist leader who showed a willingness to change, even slightly, this neantherdal mindframe was quickly dismissed, in favour of a thorough not-an-inch hardliner.

Since the Good Friday Agreement, the IRA has ended its military campaign, and the Republican leadership has embraced an internal solution, involving their participation in a government in Stormont. Predictably, there are now two small militant groups, the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA, who accuse their former colleagues of treachery because they have settled for less than the Republican ideal of a united Ireland.

I was a member of the Irish Labour Party for ten years from the mid-seventies. There was a strong internal group, who called themselves The Militant Tendency, which argued that the Party should pursue a clear left-wing agenda and stay away from coalition governments with, what they considered, right-wing parties.

They presented a strong but rather tendentious case for offering only pure socialist policies to the Irish electorate. The mainstream members of the Party, including nearly all the elected representatives, preferred to work for gradual improvements in crucial areas like education and healthcare.

In a recent letter my poet-friend in Venezuela, John Sweeney, pointed out that he is very suspicious of dogmatists in any area of life who see themselves as "owners of the truth." In a democracy, it is important that all perspectives on the various issues be respected. Ideological purity is not a real option. Compromise is not a dirty word, but an important skill that must be valued.

I shrink from the absolutists who say that they have the truth about God, that their church or tribe alone has all the answers. In their world, there is no shade of gray. They have the answers to all social, political and religious questions. All the other tribes or churches are wrong. End of story! By comparison, I am convinced that Edmond Burke got it right when he wrote: Every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act is founded on compromise and barter.