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Approaching contentious topics in conversation is always a touchy proposition considering my stance on most issues.  The War in Afghanistan, Prison Policy, Educational Policy and Patriarchy are all minefields that are necessarily carefully navigated through as disagreeing too much with the dominant point of view only leads to consternation and frustration on both sides of the conversation.

Sadly, we end up talking about ‘other’ topics and any sort of give or take is eliminated because of the calcified nature of conservatism in Alberta.  Take for instance the Oilsands, a blight in Northern Alberta that is poisoning the environment and the people who live near them.  The counter argument, jobs and the economy of course.  We are making money and that takes precedence over all.  Once the Athabasca river is thoroughly contaminated and the people living near it have moved away or died, things will be fine I imagine.

Similarly in Afghanistan, I’m sure once we kill enough of  the Taliban peace and prosperity will firmly take hold and we can make a gracious exit and commend ourselves on a job well done.  The alternate picture, perpetual war against a embittered, radicalized population does not to have much traction, although it is a narrative much closer to the reality of the situation in Afghanistan at present.  I imagine though that we’ll eventually end up blaming the Afghan people for being too backward, too corrupt and too sectarian for our benevolent efforts (bombing the crap out of everything) and disengage while calling it mendaciously, a victory for our side.  Consider the magic woven in Vietnam where America came out of the war eventually demanding reparations from the Vietnamese for their actions…  Imperial hubris is wonderful.

Hubris aside, the mentality of some conservatives can be somewhat trying, especially with regards to crime and prisons.  The verdict is in, and the evidence points to one clear concept.  Punishing people does not ‘fix’ them. More punishment is not the solution.  Here is where I get accused of being “soft” on crime.  Quite bluntly, dealing with the precursors to crime and criminality – poverty, discrimination, and inequality- is a much more efficient and effective way to deal with crime in a society.  I assert with certainty we will still need prisons because necessarily, there exists in any population a percentage of people who simply do not fit in and need to be segregated from the general population.  The focus though needs to be on the precursors and getting people the skills they need to become a member of  society that does not need to commit crime.

Educational policy dovetails into the discussion of the justice system as it has been noted that in punishment heavy modes of operation, educational policy can act as a feeder system for the criminal justice system.  Again, the idea that we can punish (people) children into becoming what we want is deleteriously wrong notion that needs to be dispelled from the schools.  The fear of punishment works for many, but not all children.  For those who do not have the skills to behave correctly punishing them more only pushes them further away from our goal of nurturing and educating people to become contributing members of our society.

Like the unreality of the punishment point of view the view that Feminism is over and women have achieved equality in our society is a persistent meme that needs to be corrected.  The Patriarchy is not dead, our culture is a rape culture and women are still second class citizens at their very best.  Is the work of eradicating the massive inequality built into our culture even close to being done, heck no.  Not acknowledging that the work needs to be done retards progress significantly, as again, the case must be made, defended and writ large so the proper context can be established and the idea that feminism is not “over” can be vanquished (again).

The theme of this post has been pretty much “waaaa! it sucks having to constatantly contradict the dominant cultural and historical narrative, look how much work it is!!!!”.  I realize that, but I write to educate those who wonder why when they talk about certain topics with their progressive friends they all of a sudden get that tired 1000 kilometer stare.