[thechat] Who is we? (was: 103 Pak prisoners return from US - PakTribune)

Sabrina Dent, Apperception sabrina.dent at appercept.co.uk
Sat Mar 15 08:50:27 CST 2003


> From: "Hugh Blair"
> Troll - but I'm not in a mood to take it today.

Fine, fair play, no problems there.

> LOL - like they had a choice. They broke the law, we sent them
> back - in handcuffs. Sure doesn't sound like "prefer..." to me.

Right, here's *my* beef. It's a general one, not specific to you, Hugh, or
even this topic.

Who is "we" here? Because I'm a US citizen and I sure as hell didn't send
them back. And unless you're with NIS, you didn't send them home either.
"We" in this case is our (un)elected government. This would be the same
government about to drop bombs on Iraq, so I'm pretty farking unhappy with
being rounded up into this "we".

In no nation does "the government" represent the will of "the people"
because there will always be dissent among the people of any nation on any
topic. In some nations, the government occasionally represents the will of a
majority of it's voters, but that's a rare thing.

So, let's stop talking about "the French" and "the Brits" and the like and
be specific in our use of language. For example, generally, "the French" as
they are being spoken about these days is re. the UN Security Council and
France's government. Let's make that distinction, so that we can maybe get
some complete numbskulls to stop this ridiculous backlash of hatred against
"the French."

(What, like they hate *every single* French passport holder and resident?
Including, say, Catherine Deneuve?)

I've not had enough coffee and I've got three contractors in three time
zones in three windows, so I don't know if this makes sense, but I wanted to
say it anyway.

--Sabrina
--------------------
Prurient: http://www.satinslippers.com  (NSFW!)
Prudent: http://www.darlingbri.co.uk



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