Really?
Lately I have been putting off blogging. Mainly due to the fact that my household has been invaded by a winter tradition known as influenza.
There are two things that I like to do when I am sick, play World of Warcraft, and sleep - unfortunately, since being a father and working a 6 day a week job makes the latter limited, I have been filling my time battling the Hour of Twilight. (OK, the nerdiness ends here.)
However, there has been another reason I haven't been blogging. I've tried several times, but each time I end up sounding like a big jerk for what I want to say. I've now decided that I don't care if I sound like a big jerk, because I need to get this out there....
If you have been following Canadian politics lately, you have no doubt been following the stories regarding an Orwellian change to the legal system and an interference in Canadian democracy.
Well, here goes... Are you ready for it?
I told you so.
It might actually surprise you that I consider myself conservatively minded on several political issues. To be honest, the whole left and right language of previous generations does nothing but bother me, as if we should as free citizens be forced into a narrow blueprint of thinking. As if one side of the political spectrum can actually be correct and the opposite false. The world simply does not work that way. The problem are the extremists. Have you ever noticed that the further you move generally away from the center of political theories the closer you come to tyranny? The answer has (usually) been to allow democracy to occur, to let the people think and shape the will of a nation for peace, prosperity, and freedom. Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase: "The medium is the message", which has pretty broad connotations. Democracy works so well because it's existence, in and of itself, correctly assumes that society should be working together. It does not mean that we will all have the same conclusions, because we are all extremely diverse in our thinking. I will tip my conservative hat, and suggest that most social sciences which attempt to categorize human behaviour will ultimately be proven useless because human beings participate in a free universe. We are not simply the products of cause and effect that can be scientifically observed and then manipulated. Life isn't always a story of Rich vs. Poor, Men vs. Women, etc. It's taken me a decade to realize this. We are a collective group of individuals, try and lump is into one big pile and we all lose. I believe that is why democracy works so well, because it is constantly changing, evolving to reflect a common movement. It is inherently good as a system. It is the light bulb that allows us to work together in the dark.
No one ideology should dominate a nation. If it does, a nation should be terrified. Unfortunately, when the conning switch from democracy to tyranny happens, terror usually follows a brief moment of indifference.
Tyranny doesn't just happen overnight. It has to have conditions for it to flourish. The most poignant example is post World War 1 Germany. Germany was economically devastated, a system was in place which allowed a single vision to flourish, a population blinded by fear took the bait, and millions of people suffered horrendous tragedies.
No, I don't believe Stephen Harper is Adolph Hitler! But the modus operandi of this Prime Minister has been somewhat frightening.
You see, just as democracy leads society to mutual cooperation, our winner takes all political system leads to individual ideological posturing. There is no incentive to working together - winning is everything.
How many times did you hear this current government use fear to push through the radical agenda? (Yes, mandatory minimum sentencing, mega prisons, and sweeping police powers are radical). This isn't Germany, but the process is still happening (albeit on a much less horrendous scale). Sometimes it takes the most extreme of evils for us to notice the slow process that created them in the first place.
Are the robocalls shocking? Absolutely not. Is the Orwellian crime bill out of the blue? Of course not.
A few people in this country knew this was going to happen. I know that I am probably coming across as pretty arrogant right now, but when I flipped out after Harper was crowned by a minority of people as the leader of our nation, I knew exactly what was coming.
There have been people in this country working tirelessly for democratic reform, and they are usually met by a population more concerned with the lives of reality TV stars than the people running this country.
If this year has taught us anything, it's that this system needs to change. Any political party if given this much power will most likely be caught guilty of similar moves against democracy.
So let's be smarter in the future and see people for who they really are before giving them the chance to represent our nation.
There are two things that I like to do when I am sick, play World of Warcraft, and sleep - unfortunately, since being a father and working a 6 day a week job makes the latter limited, I have been filling my time battling the Hour of Twilight. (OK, the nerdiness ends here.)
However, there has been another reason I haven't been blogging. I've tried several times, but each time I end up sounding like a big jerk for what I want to say. I've now decided that I don't care if I sound like a big jerk, because I need to get this out there....
If you have been following Canadian politics lately, you have no doubt been following the stories regarding an Orwellian change to the legal system and an interference in Canadian democracy.
Well, here goes... Are you ready for it?
I told you so.
It might actually surprise you that I consider myself conservatively minded on several political issues. To be honest, the whole left and right language of previous generations does nothing but bother me, as if we should as free citizens be forced into a narrow blueprint of thinking. As if one side of the political spectrum can actually be correct and the opposite false. The world simply does not work that way. The problem are the extremists. Have you ever noticed that the further you move generally away from the center of political theories the closer you come to tyranny? The answer has (usually) been to allow democracy to occur, to let the people think and shape the will of a nation for peace, prosperity, and freedom. Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase: "The medium is the message", which has pretty broad connotations. Democracy works so well because it's existence, in and of itself, correctly assumes that society should be working together. It does not mean that we will all have the same conclusions, because we are all extremely diverse in our thinking. I will tip my conservative hat, and suggest that most social sciences which attempt to categorize human behaviour will ultimately be proven useless because human beings participate in a free universe. We are not simply the products of cause and effect that can be scientifically observed and then manipulated. Life isn't always a story of Rich vs. Poor, Men vs. Women, etc. It's taken me a decade to realize this. We are a collective group of individuals, try and lump is into one big pile and we all lose. I believe that is why democracy works so well, because it is constantly changing, evolving to reflect a common movement. It is inherently good as a system. It is the light bulb that allows us to work together in the dark.
No one ideology should dominate a nation. If it does, a nation should be terrified. Unfortunately, when the conning switch from democracy to tyranny happens, terror usually follows a brief moment of indifference.
Tyranny doesn't just happen overnight. It has to have conditions for it to flourish. The most poignant example is post World War 1 Germany. Germany was economically devastated, a system was in place which allowed a single vision to flourish, a population blinded by fear took the bait, and millions of people suffered horrendous tragedies.
No, I don't believe Stephen Harper is Adolph Hitler! But the modus operandi of this Prime Minister has been somewhat frightening.
You see, just as democracy leads society to mutual cooperation, our winner takes all political system leads to individual ideological posturing. There is no incentive to working together - winning is everything.
How many times did you hear this current government use fear to push through the radical agenda? (Yes, mandatory minimum sentencing, mega prisons, and sweeping police powers are radical). This isn't Germany, but the process is still happening (albeit on a much less horrendous scale). Sometimes it takes the most extreme of evils for us to notice the slow process that created them in the first place.
Are the robocalls shocking? Absolutely not. Is the Orwellian crime bill out of the blue? Of course not.
A few people in this country knew this was going to happen. I know that I am probably coming across as pretty arrogant right now, but when I flipped out after Harper was crowned by a minority of people as the leader of our nation, I knew exactly what was coming.
There have been people in this country working tirelessly for democratic reform, and they are usually met by a population more concerned with the lives of reality TV stars than the people running this country.
If this year has taught us anything, it's that this system needs to change. Any political party if given this much power will most likely be caught guilty of similar moves against democracy.
So let's be smarter in the future and see people for who they really are before giving them the chance to represent our nation.
Comments
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