From Rob Faunce's "Quoi d'ever," Fall '95 From Rob Faunce's "Quoi d'ever," Fall '95The center. It's a lonely place populated by much of our country. Yet it is reviled, like a moral ghetto of the masses. I dwell in the center. I am often accused of having nothing to say when I speak, for my ideas are not revolutionary. When I attempted to write radically and ironically -- but without indicating the mass ironies in my column that week -- I was vilified by all parties, for I violated the rules of centrism, and I offended the radicals whose notions of extremism I was following. So I realize my error. It is false when I try to be radical or reactionary, for I am neither, and thus it impales my beliefs and my ability to convey those beliefs when I try to be extreme. I belong to the center. The polar extremes try to teach us to hate the center. Elie Wiesel says, "By not taking sides you are taking sides." But that statement is a shortsighted attempt to convert the steadfastly thoughtful into ideologues. The center is dangerous to the poles because it has no ideology. By merit of its existence the center inherently must be without rigidity in its thinking and hardness in its evaluations. It is only in the center that we can accept our predilection to be nearsighted and brutally incorrect. Look at the left. Our centrist dogma machine has rightfully exposed the silly hypocrisies evident when one is so blinded by ideological idealism that we lose sight of reality and societal limitation. Two words: political correctness. What went wrong? The left got its hands on it. It turned from a thoughtful attempt to reeducate the way we think about historically mistreated groups to an attempt to indoctrinate everyone, including those in the historically mistreated groups. Now look at the right. Two words: Jesse Helms. An even scarier word: Newt. Rep. Gingrich is a quick paradox of family values. His own sister ("half-" sister, he quickly reminds us) is a lesbian, yet he shuns her and flogs her "lifestyle," despite his own adherence to "family values." Mr. Gingrich revisits the mistakes of the left in his doublespeak and hypocrisies. In the same realm that lavender pansies (or whatever today's code word for faggot is) and uppity minorities can go overboard in asking for liberty and freedom (for cop killers), the far right makes the similar mistake in pushing for a nuclear family that is no longer a viable norm. To assail a fictional television character for having a child out of wedlock is a silly enough notion. For it to descend from the mouth of the sitting Vice President is fairly shocking. Dan Quayle's now infamous uttering, lamenting the lack of "family values" in this country is the harbinger by which we can show the petty, out-of-control lunacies of the radicals and reactionaries in this country. The far left immediately attacked Quayle for his stupidity and pointlessness. Feminist groups left and right began calling for Quayle to be drawn and quartered and anything else fit for print. The left assumed that Quayle had shown himself to be a buffoon to the nation. Instead that speech won Quayle points for not only speaking his mind on the moral decay facing America, but also for the grace exhibited under torrents of attack. These brownie points obviously came from the far right, and his increased viability from these folks increased his stature from idiot to savior. So, we have the blind being led by the embryo. The polar left and right need each other for without each other's rants and miscues, there would be no need for a center. Every time Cal Thomas or that damn Farrakhan start rambling about some ill that can be cured by some form of civil war, you can sit back and feel safe knowing that the center will protect you. We don't need another hero. As the far right deteriorates from a staunchly well-thought oasis to a magnet for any "decent folk" who could cast stones (Bob Packwood comes to mind), the sides have become more apparent. The center has grown. In its stead we have thoughtful Republicans like Christie Whitman and Bill Weld, who refuse to be dictated by party platform and instead offer their own thoughts on issues, no matter how controversial. Yet Christie and Bill do not make for good sound bites (the cyst notwithstanding). They are not controversial or so extremist that they must scream at Dan Rather in order to be heard. They, like me, are accused of having nothing to say. And we, the silent majority, continue to grow. We habituate in a lonely place, in a culture that reveres revolution in its text books but fears even the most timid of change. Well, they may be able to turn back evolution in Alabama, or hold on to job quotas in California, but they can't make us take their sides. We're not on your side. We're not on our side either.
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