POLITICAL MYTHS ARE REALLY LIES

* Please note: - This posting builds on two books introduced in a previous posting:“THE BOTTOM LINE” by Diana Gibson & Colleen Fuller and “DON’T THINK OF AN ELEPHANT” by George Lakoff.

IF Mark Twain had written “The Bottom Line” he would have named it “LIES, LIES, AND DAMN LIES.”

A bold faced lie becomes a political myth when it is repeated over and over again by the most oratorically persuasive political figurehead and fed by the media to the public as if it were the truth.

“The Bottom Line” exposes the lie of “unsustainability” (MYTH 5 p.54) with evidence that our Premier and his sales staff are attempting to keep hidden.

Hiring former Mulroney crony Mazankowski and bringing in AON consulting to assess health care in Alberta is no more credible than bringing in a demolition company to tell you whether to repair or demolish a building you want to buy as cheaply as possible.

Why, then, is our Premier’s most vocal minister doggedly pressing on toward “Third Way” legislation?

There are two widely known Alberta happenings that clearly illuminate George Lakoff’s (“Don’t think of an elephant”) insight into the kind of authoritarian, morally self righteous and punitive political power that conservatism is exercising more and more in our so-called democratic world.

One happening has the man, who represents everything conservatism means in this province, pushing a plunger into the cylinder that triggers off explosives totally destroying a public hospital.

The other has the same man, with the varnish off, late at night in a men’s shelter shouting angrily at down-and-out fellow humans, for whom he has no empathy or understanding, and walking off in disgust throwing money at them.

Lakoff’s discovery is that, in practice most people do not gather information, consider the issues and vote rationally for a political leader.

In actuality they vote for the man or woman who most successfully portrays himself as the strongest, most morally righteous, and most resentful-of-resistance head of the family he dominates.

This powerful, controlling political figurehead and those who support him make a virtue out of forcing legislation through despite the fact that they have no intention of listening to those most likely to be affected by their actions.

We, with progressive values, must not falter in the process of making our demand to be heard as pressing as possiblein in the cause of responsible and sensible health care.

Why? Because to state it plainly:

USING POLITICAL POWER TO DESTROY PUBLIC PROPERTY IS A BETRAYAL OF PUBLIC TRUST

WIELDING GOVERNMENT POWER IN A WAY THAT CAUSES INJURY RATHER THAN PROMOTING HEALING IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE.

Heath Care in Alberta is public property, it does not belong to a premier fronting for corporate powers calling themselves private enterprisers.

Blair McPherson