Muster your Arguments.

Chile Girl is the debater in this house.  She likes nothing better than to sink her teeth into a good argument.  Any tendencies I had that way are long gone. Far too often the need to win the argument over~rides kindness, gentleness & mercy.  The ability to present an argument [or refute an argument] dispassionately, clearly & detachedly seems to be a lost ability ~ & nowhere is this clearer than in our Parliament.

Two things:

• The MOTH likes listening to the televised broadcast of our parliament sittings.
• As part of our English course in the upper grades both my girls did a study on what makes a good debate & how to debate well.

Listening to our parliament sit drives me to distraction.  There are rules to debating & the order of government is along the lines of if you want to do something, change something, create something that has to go through parliament you present your argument to parliament.  Both houses look at the proposition & present their arguments as to why this is a good idea or a lousy idea. What you are not supposed to do is name call; insult; be condescending; use bad language; attack people personally.  Parliament needs to go back to school & relearn the basics. Seriously.  I can't stand it.

What drives me into a complete frenzy is the mad lot who can't stick to the point & drag an argument all over the place.  This may be a great deflection from their ignorance & inability to defend their position but it it does nothing to clarify a situation & bring about the best resolution. It is all about winning ~ & only winning.  At any cost.  It has nothing to do with what is actually best for our country. It is about power; keeping power; staying in power; denying power to your opponent.  Too sad making. This is not government.

So we haven't quite descended to the level of an all out brawl [as happened in one of the Asian parliaments not  so long ago] but the sledging is not debate.  Name calling is not debate.

It appalls me that these are the people who are meant to be governing our country. The whole lot should be sacked.  At the very least, as a friend of mine suggested, no polly should be allowed to make policy on poverty unless they have first lived for a year on the amount of money a welfare recipient recieves [& only that amount of money!].  That'll larn 'em!