The Problem With Paradigms

I hadn’t planned to comment upon Obama’s speech at Notre Dame.  I had figured he wouldn’t touch abortion with a 10′ pole and was proved wrong, but other than that, there wasn’t a whole lot that was interesting.  For whatever reason people seem surprised that he didn’t say he was conforming his views on life to Evangelium Vitae and then managed to be outraged because he didn’t.  His concession that conscience rights of health care worker were important didn’t seem to make a difference and was deemed wholly insufficient by those that had no intention of being contented.

The more interesting thing is the scorn and derision that continues to be heaped upon the student body of Notre Dame.  There were a number of people that were convinced that Obama’s presence was an affront to pro-life principles.  A number of people including large swathes of the student body did not share this view.  For this, they were considered the enemy, even if they actually were pro-life.  After several weeks of protesters on campus seeking photo-ops for their fund raising efforts and claiming that allowing Obama speak was to support abortion, it is little wonder that the pro-life interrupter was greeted like the Code Pink protesters at the Republican convention.  A funny thing happens when people keep insisting that you are the enemy: before long you start to think that people think you are the enemy.