Some people have a strange definition of “far greater“:
OTTAWA — A third of Canadians want the abortion debate reopened – but a far greater number want politicians to leave the explosive issue alone and are satisfied with the status quo, according to a poll released Friday.
Forty-six per cent of those surveyed said the federal government should “leave things as they are”, while 34 per cent said the abortion issue should be reopened and 17 per cent said they didn’t care one way or the other. Three per cent declined to answer.
Actually, what bugs me in this story is the 17 percent of people who say they don’t care. I can see wanting to keep things as they are, and I can see wanting to change the status quo. But not caring one way or the other?
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That is bizarre. It makes me wonder if that 17 percent really ‘don’t care’, or if they think the legislation itself is pointless. Meaning, they think it won’t have any real affect in terms of numbers.
But it does remind me of the Angus Reid poll from January, which showed that only 20 percent of Canadians even knew the current status-quo (source: http://www.visioncritical.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/2010.01.15_Abortion_CAN.pdf)
So 46 percent saying to ‘leave things as they are’, even with the most educated of groups, still means 26 percent have no idea what they’re talking about. Maybe the surveyors should go over the laws first, and then ask the question. We might get different results?
I think that 17 per cent are people who know it’s over and don’t pay any attention to the so-called debate anyway.
Jennifer, I’m sure ignorance is key in this. We might add the 46 to the 17 and call it the apathy factor.
I’m reminded of CS Lewis, Screwtape Letters: “Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them yet faster asleep. Other ages, of which the present is one, are unbalanced and prone to faction, and it is our business to inflame them. Any small coterie, bound together by some interest which other men dislike or ignore, tends to develop inside itself a hothouse mutal admiration, and towards the outer world, a great deal of pride and hatred which is entertained without shame because the ‘Cause’ is its sponsor and it is thought to be impersonal. Even when the little group exists originally for the Enemy’s own purposes, this remains true…”
Originally I started typing this out for Screwtape’s thoughts on apathy. But there’s wisdom and warning there for the pro-life movement in the last line, too.