Well Pensive, it's good to hear from someone who doesn't identify with a "left" or "right". I think I can agree with you on that. Personally, I don't look at an issue and decide how I feel based on what Naomi Klien or Glen Beck have to say, but on what I believe are accurate facts and my own experiences.

Oh, and that poll you provided was taken soon after the Copenhagen Climate summit, where Canada got a lot of bad press, so that could account for the results..another thing I like to do is try to find context.

And the bigger picture would be the extent to which NGO's vs the media, vs corporate interests have an influence on public policy. Of the 3, NGO's have the least.

But indeeed, as you say, let's forget about left and right and try to think about the promotion of a world where people respect each other, try to live in peace, have the ability to freely express themselves, and don't do too much harm to their environment and think about what it would take to get there.

Awareness is a good thing to spread, but there are indeed different perspectives on many things as this conversation shows in a microcosmic way, so dialogue is a good start. That's where extremism, in my opinion, can be an inhibition. Extremist positions tend to shut down rather than stimulate dialogue, so moving to a centre-ground seems to me to be a logical approach.