And following up from that...

[fpb]

...I wish the Americans among you to be freed from both moronic extremes - stupid conservatives are as bad as the moral imbeciles they oppose - and the rest of us a civilized, peaceful and useful New Year. The right moral path may not always be clear, but it never passes through ignorance, self-admiration and contempt for your neighbours.

Happy 2006, everyone!

Comments

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year :)

[absurdwords.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year!

[super-pan.livejournal.com]

Hear hear! (Raises glass of some non alcoholic bubbly)
And the same to you!

[bufo-viridis.livejournal.com]

The right moral path may not always be clear, but it never passes through ignorance, self-admiration and contempt for your neighbours.

Hear, hear!

[avus.livejournal.com]

The right moral path may not always be clear, but it never passes through ignorance, self-admiration and contempt for your neigbours.

Quite true -- the longer I live, the more true this seems. And of course we share a strong belief that one of our most sacred duties -- and I use both words deliberately -- is working our hardest to discern that "right moral path".

You have given some guidelines when we stray. A few things that might indicate we're on the right track. It's a quote that I think I shared w/ dear and wise (I agree w/ you) bufo_viridis, and it's from one of the Old Testament prophets -- I've forgotten which one -- and I fear I remember it only in the King James Version: "What does the Lord require of thee? But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

Good thoughts.

Another guideline -- much harder for me to learn & hang onto, though I've not stopped trying; I can at least get a little better at it in the decades I hope I have left -- is to remember that no one side, liberal or conservative, or whatever opposites one can choose -- has All The Answers. Often in trying to genuinely hear the Other Side, whomever that might be, and not as a conflict, but as the start of a dialogue, a discussion, I find I'm most likely to be on the path that's "righter", morally.

Not, as I said, that I'm always able to pull it off.

All the best in the New Year,

avus

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I think the prophet in question is Micah. And given that my Church has a dogma called Infallibility, I am almost tempted to start a discussion about having or not having answers... but nevermind. Happy New Year!

[avus.livejournal.com]

And thank you for your kind wishes for my country & my countryfolk. I hope we can gradually find a fruitful coming together that appears to have escaped us again.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Cosidering that Italian politics, in the last twenty years, have been deliberately poisoned by the elixir of hatred brewed and fed to the masses by the party now in government, I think I can say I know something about the uselessness of hatred in politics.

[avus.livejournal.com]

Actually, not only the uselessness of hatred in politics, but so often in other things.

And hatred, most unfortunately, is far more debilitating than just useless. There's little else that can cause so much harm. At least from what I've seen on this side of The Pond.

Except, perhaps, misplaced good intentions, and the worst of these, sometimes, are built on hate. That I've seen, over here, too.

Ah, well. May the politics of both our countries improve. And may all of us work, in our own small ways as we can, to be an instrument of that improving. The Brits have a wonderful phrase, "to do our bit."

And a bit of love wouldn't hurt.

[patchworkmind.livejournal.com]

... to be freed from both moronic extremes...

Heck, at this point I'd just go bananas for a little honesty. Extremes are fine as long as their proponents are honest about it, but I do appreciate your wishes. Thanks.

And I wish you well on this year, too. May it be worth writing about.