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Jewish World Review June 3, 2003 / 3 Sivan, 5763
James Lileks
The Constitution as gag order
Oh, the lamentations that would pour forth from the editorial pages. Oh,
the long bleak ululations from the international community. And rightly
so; people deserve to have a voice in the shaping of their future,
particularly if that future shoves a gag in their mouths.
So why shouldn't Britons have the same right?
Tony Blair wants Parliament to vote on adoption of the European Union
Constitution. The people don't get to vote.
What do they know, anyway? Those beer-sodden proles, scrabbling in
the crisps packet with their thick dirty fingers -- you're going to trust
them to stop ogling bare-breasted tarts in the tabloid long enough to
vote on England's future?
Yes. It's their country, after all. They ought to be consulted when it's
handed away.
The EU Constitution incorporates the Charter of Fundmental Rights, a
laundry list of goodness that should stand as a warning against
convening a constitutional convention in the era of the busybody
bureaucrat.
Oh, it's full of rights; that's the problem. The more specific the set of
rights, the easier it is to deny all others, and infringe on the rights your
Eurobetters kindly deign to grant. Let's examine a few of the ideas John
Bull cannot be trusted to approve.
Article 22: "All cathedrals shall be replaced with mosques." Well, no,
that's not exactly right. It says, "The Union shall respect cultural,
religious and linguistic diversity."
How then does one "respect" the beliefs of those who don't respect the
beliefs of others? Why, the European way, of course. You make
high-flown statements of noble ideals, then ignore the entire matter.
Article 23: "Equality between men and women must be ensured in all
areas, including employment, work, and pay." ALL areas. Could they be
any more vague?
No, but they can be remarkably specific. The article continues: "The
principle of equality shall not prevent the maintenance or adoption of
measures providing for specific advantages in favour of the
under-represented sex."
So equality must be ensured, except when it's not. In that tidy little
notion rests the lifetime employment of 10,000 lawyers.
Article 24: "Children have the right to demand chocolate milk be poured
on their cereal, and to request that the cereal be made entirely of
glazed donuts and marshmallows, and to hold their breath and turn
blue. (`Blue' shall be defined as any hue between light sky-blue and a
deep Cerulean tint.)"
Well, again, not exactly. Article 24 concerns "The Rights of the Child,"
and states that kids "may express their views freely." So it's a
deprivation of their constitutional rights to tell them to knock off the
whining. The right to whine for candy bought with someone else's money
-- can you get any more European than that?
Finally, take a look at Article 34: "Citizens shall be equal before the law
irrespective of origin, social and property status, nationality or race, sex,
education, language, attitude to religion."
Sounds great, eh? Too bad that's from the Soviet Constitution of 1977,
one of the most useless and elephantine slabs of legalese ever birthed
by human beings. It was a roadmap for Utopia. But of course the men
behind the wheel had another destination in mind.
The Charter lists certain categories of rights -- and the order of these
principles is telling. Solidarity comes before Justice. Dignity comes
before Freedom. The prohibition of reproductive cloning comes a few
articles before the "right to liberty."
And why not? Once you start giving too much weight to Freedom and
Liberty at the expense of more important things, like Dignity and
Solidarity, people might start to act in a fashion that undermines the
power of the state. And we can't have that.
Literally: Article 54 prohibits doing anything that might be interpreted as
"aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms recognized
in this Charter."
To put it in Dragnet terms: European citizens, you have the right to
remain silent.
In fact, they prefer you that way.
05/23/03: Sometimes the theme of world events is chaos itself
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