Is there anything wrong with ex-PMs fading away and leading normal lives after their political reign? I see no reason for this to be a problem...when the rest of us lose our jobs, we don’t get special privileges. When someone applies for the job of prime minister, they know what it entails, and it’s not leading a celebrity lifestyle for the rest of their lives. Throughout their reign, a prime minister's main concern is imaging -the exercise of creating a public self. Apparently, as soon as their reign is over, this facework imaging drops, and their whining and complaining true selves kick in. The fact that, like ex-American presidents, the prime ministers don’t get smothered in security and attention is a good thing. Our tax dollars can go to more useful things than protecting “their fragile egos.”To watch a short video of President Bill Clinton being treated like a celebrity, click here:
The decrease in percentage of married people and significant "less than half of adults are married" mark is certainly an indication of changing times, something that Barbara Kay does not seem to remotely grasp. She states that we are “drying up as a society based on these statistics.” We fortunately do not live in a Stepford Wife society where a woman’s only place is in the home, but in a society that has come to value higher education and learning for both men and women. Yet, when asked how young women are supposed to support themselves “if they give up their career to have a baby so young,” Kay responds, “their husbands should be supporting them.” She goes on to state that “true happiness is taking responsibility... [and] starting your own family...that is something that young people...don’t seem to grasp.” Who is she to say what true happiness is? Though raising a family might be it for some people, what about education, careers, the single life? She is completely ignorant in saying “By not wanting to have more children, by concentrating on the privileges and pleasure of one’s own adult life and choices, one isn’t really thinking about the future at all, only the present.” This has in reality become the exact opposite in today’s world, where overpopulation and dwindling resources are primary problems. A recent article from the Globe and Mail (April 21, 2007) stressed the importance of this point, and was printed with the attention grabbing headline “Don’t Have Children, Save the World.” Kay is clearly a “selective listener” to topics such as these, choosing to live in an old fashioned world and blocking out the new standards our society has come to ideal.