Getting what you want and being happy

Cerebus: Most Holy will bless your child and teach you a valuable lesson about life at the same time

Cerebus: Bless you

SHRIEK

Cerebus: The valuable lesson is that you can get what you want and still not be very happy....

I certainly believe that I have a rather dark sense of humour. But in addition to finding this particularly funny (and from a great series of Graphic Novels) I found myself thinking about this in the wake of some of the bigger news items of the day recently.

Here in Canada, we have had an extraordinary election. For the first time since Confederation, the Liberal Party has failed to either become the government, or the official opposition. The New Democratic Party, for the first time in its history has won enough seats to take that position, and the Conservative Party, for the first time in its current incarnation has won a majority. Why do these events make me turn to this memory of a twenty year old comic book? Partly because that's just the way I think, and partly because I think the lesson Cerebus is teaching is appropriate to our current situation:

The NDP wanted to win, and has wanted to move out of its traditional role as the third party alternative in Canadian politics that it has held almost since its inception. It got its wish, but the cost of its victory is the election of a Conservative majority, which will likely guarantee that none of the priorities the NDP holds dear will ever come close to being enacted over the next four years. (thus getting what they want, but ultimately being unhappy)

While I've always found myself leaning towards the party, and often vote that way depending on who is running in my riding, my trouble with them is that they have never seemed to me to be serious about governing -- they are quite content to cajole, provoke, oppose and propose alternative ideas, but never with any hope of actually governing. In our system, the party in opposition isn't supposed to be happy with coming in second -- it's supposed to be the government in waiting, and offer citizens a reasonable alternative to the party in power. I'm interested in seeing how the NDP reacts to its new role.

The Conservatives wanted a majority. They got it, but I think their unhappiness is going to come from the fact that there are now more voices internally who are going to expect to be heard and considered -- not something the party has been very good at recently, or has shown any real track record at fostering. They need look no further than the Liberals to see what kind of strife can ensue from this development, and the catastrophic results that often occur.

I've never voted Conservative because I've never found them able to resolve their inherent contradiction: they want a small government, so they cut taxes (to deprive the government of revenue for spending); they then spend more then they take in, because it costs money to deliver the services people want, and a government needs to deliver those things if it wants to stay in power. They then wonder why a deficit has occurred but are unable ideologically to consider a diverse way of coping with it.

In other news, but related to my point: in the US, people are celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden. I understand the sentiment, but have found myself unable to share it. His death doesn't roll back the clock. His death doesn't do away with extremism. His death, while well-deserved (and well executed by any measure), does not resolve the pain of the lives who were affected by him. His death may have been a just act, but I cannot rejoice in it. I can't be happy that he was killed. Satisfied, but not happy.

My hope is that (as my hero, Jon Stewart says) his face will no longer be the one people think of when they think 'Muslim'; instead, I trust it will be the faces of the brave people who are writing, protesting, fighting and dying for freedom in their countries -- so that they can enjoy a day when, like me, they wake up to a peaceful transitition of power brought about by an engaged citizenry.

And then they can ponder, like me, how you can get what you want and still not be very happy...