Does Rhetoric Now Reign Supreme?

rhetoric - clever language which sounds good but is not sincere or has no real meaning

I just finished watching Network, a 1976 dark comedy about television. It emphasized the point that TV news networks don't so much care about truth, but rather are just concerned about ratings. Sure it stretched reality somewhat, but there are certainly a lot of parallels with today's version of "journalism".

I'm convinced that special interest groups have picked up on this fact and realized that they can justify any cause, no matter how wrong, as long as they get a bunch of people out protesting and spewing a lot of rhetoric around.

Case in point are the Immigration Deportation Protests taking place throughout Canada this weekend. You can read more about them here. Here's a key quote: “The Harper-style immigration policies are ... intolerable,” said Sima Zerehi, a spokeswoman for No One is Illegal Toronto. “We want Prime Minister (Stephen) Harper to end these practices. We want an immediate moratorium on deportations and an immediate regularization program that meets everybody’s needs.”

In a nutshell, what these protesters are saying is that the Canadian government has no right to enforce the law, no right to enforce its borders, and no right to expel anyone who shows up in Canada, no matter how unsatisfactory they are to immigrate here. And right at their heels, supporting them 100%, were Liberal and NDP members of parliament.

I can't believe that I'm the only one who sees how incredibly wrong this protest is. Yet if I were to debate any of these protesters, I'd be called a racist in less than 30 seconds.

My father was an immigrant from Germany who came to Canada legally. I have many East Indian and Chinese friends whose parents came here legally. I have Mexican friends who I helped come here legally. In recent months, through Digital Divide, I've had the great pleasure to meet immigrants who have moved here from every continent on the planet; each of them coming here legally. I've reminded some of them on more than one occasion, when they differentiated themselves from Canadians born here, that they're just as much a Canadian as I am.

The fact is, I support immigration very much. Canada does not have the birth rate to maintain our population. With the growing percentage of elderly people, we're already facing a crisis, with many fewer tax-paying workers to support them. But my country has EVERY RIGHT to decide who gets in and who doesn't. To suggest otherwise is ludicrous. For political parties to support this illegal cause is just downright sick. And when the multicultural (read "race") card starts getting played against the government, I get very, very angry. So, I believe, will people in the vast majority of political ridings in this country too.

But will the concept of right & wrong ever enter the minds of the TV media who plays up this story? Not in the least, because it's all about ratings.