Laugh at the US, but we still have some loons here too

ONE of the many fun aspects to following the US presidential election is the varied loo-lah groups who have to be pandered to by the respective candidates.

No matter what their private opinions, both have to tip-toe around issues like gun control, they have to make sure to mention God as frequently as possible, they have to not laugh in the face of ‘educators’ who want to teach creationism to ten-year olds. They have to wear their Serious Faces when they engage in debates about what the New Testament says about the budget deficit or that Europe is a socialist hellhole or that America really has the divine right to tell the rest of the planet what to do.

From this side of the Atlantic, such silliness would be purely comical were it not for the fact that such opinions are held by large swathes of the American population. It’s fun to sneer at the dumb hicks, of course, but it also points up how history doesn’t travel in a straight line. The European Enlightenment may have laid the course for the foundation of the modern nation-state, but there’s just as many people around the world for whom it never happened. Ancient and modern ideas rub up against each other all the time: and because of the idea of free speech, everything has to be treated with parity of esteem.