Be Conscious: Federal Fear and Conservative Kettling

"You should know better than to ask a question like that.  Because [it would be] based on what?  To what degree of danger?  What degree of fear?  What degree of challenge?  What degree of potential security?  What degree of human impact could that have?  There's a whole variety and it's not a simple black and white, [clear-] cut issue.

I agree with Kramp; it's just odd to hear those words coming out of the mouth of a Member in Stephen Harper's Conservative caucus.

They've been peddling black-and-white fear mongering since before they were in government and have continued to do so through a majority mandate.

Fear illegal (but actually not) socialist and separatist coalitions.  Fear eco-terrorists.  Fear Liberals, fear the UN, fear the people who stand with pedophiles, so on and so forth.

Therein lies the problem of playing aggressive, opposition politics.  Once you step on someone's throat, you've upped the ante.  If you don't keep your foot their in perpetuity, they're likely to step on yours back as soon as they're able.

We know this to be true - there's precedent for it.  

You have to put the black man down, plant your foot on his neck, and keep him that way forever, lest he spring up and slit your throat.

Or another example of what it's like to try and completely fire-wall off or eliminate those who you don't like - Concentration Camps like Buchenwald.

When you start closing doors - of dialogue, of opportunity, of adaptability - you are essentially kettling yourself into a corner.  The only way out is to reverse course.  

If you or even your antecedent have stepped on too many people to get into that corner, though, heaven help you - there may just be no way out.

The starting point is key.  If you view the world in terms of white hat and black hat simplicity, you're setting yourself up to become the villain.  Instead (and here's a notion many in the Conservatives caucus should be familiar with) recognize that there is a spectrum of bad behaviour that we all rest upon.

We are all capable of inhuman deeds, when we cease to function like human beings.  What separates us from other creatures if not the ability to humanize?

So, picture yourself backed into that corner with the eyes of the mob upon you; people who you've wronged, directly and indirectly, and even people who've wronged you.  This mob lies between you and where it is you hope to go.

What do you do?

Stop seeing the mob as a faceless, inscrutable entity.  Instead, see it for what it is - a system of which you're a part.  

When you stop focusing on closing doors and denying answers, you start gaining access and posing questions.

Only then does the answer become clear.