Top Of The List!
NEW: Change - we know the problem - what the fuck are we going to DO about it is the question...??
(still) NEW!!Ammo - selection of very good commentary from other writers on important stuff; - FAAAAARRRRR BETTER THAN TV!!!
Canadians for Canada Coalition (CCC) - United Left, if you will - but bottom of the line - Get Rid of Corporate Government in Canada - 2004 Federal Election may be your last chance - act NOW PLEASE!!
The Debt Conspiracy Theory Fact - do you believe people who email you from Africa wanting to give you 10 million bucks? No? Well WHY DO YOU BELIEVE THE NATIONAL DEBT IS LEGITIMATE?!?!? (Sorry - I get excited about this...)
911 - as important as the debt scam - ask yourself why you are so afraid to admit the truth here, even when it's been kicking you in the face almost since it happened? When the world you live in is operating under a lie this big and obvious and monstrous, you have no security whatsoever.
Unbrand Your Life
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Pogo knew....
stop this....
and this....
Thomas D'Aquino
Hand of Mordor
in Canada
stop this...
save this...
random quotes
George Orwell 1984
who dat scary man mama??!!
Lead
I have often been struck by the huge discrepancy behind some of the central myths of western society (mainly American and Canadian as those I am most familiar with, but I think applying as much to Britain and Australia, and probably others) about its governments (think perhaps of the Lone Ranger, or Jimmy Stewart as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, or Harrison Ford in Airforce 1 - always the good guy) and the reality (for instance the sneaky lying crook Nixon, the military corruption of the Reagan-Bush era, the continual lies of the current brainless Bush cabal, or things like the police brutality we see when the Elite are faced with any kind of popular citizen protest (think anything from Kent State to Seattle etc and etc) as opposed to the firm but kind hand of mythology (in the movies, the wise and good leader always meets with the misguided at best evil at worst protestors, and through some Solomon-like gesture proves that HE is really good and seeing with the farseeing eye to the future and the good of all his flock, and THEY are operating from small, selfish aims - completely contrary to reality!). Popular books and movies invariably (well, perhaps a 1% exception rate) portray the American government (and the Canadian government when anyone ever bothers to write about us) as essentially populated by really good, intelligent, well-intentioned people, one-dimensional, very shallow comic-book type characters, most of that shallowness filled only with integrity (Jimmy Stewart!), doing their gosh-darned best job to make the country and world prosperous and free and safe for democracy for just everyone (George Bush is proving, surprisingly, an able actor for this role - but unfortunately (for him) his actions and rather obvious lack of any intellectual capacity at all overwhelm any credibility his often well-crafted scripts try to impart) - whereas the reality is so very much different. But so many people, apparently even most, at least in America, believe the myth rather than the reality - Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan is what the American people (and the Pispot editorialists as well, it would seem) see - the sad caricature called GW Bush is, unfortunately, what we got. This is not only puzzling in the extreme, it is the greatest challenge we face today, as we try to bring our planet and country back from the brink of disaster we are on.
Believing in Santa Claus is pretty nice, for kids - what a nice world we live in! - but it's pretty dangerous for older people - there really are villains out there - the problem is, they are not the Indians or the Klingons or the Iraquis or the Vietnamese or Saddam or Osama or any other of the fictional characters of novels and movies - as Pogo (well, sure, Walt Kelly) so insightfully phrased it so many years ago - "We have met the enemy, and he is US." (and we really gotta wonder if "US" wasn't an intentional pun, as in U.S.). (It's not, actually, that great for kids either, in the long run - the kids who believe in Santa are conditioned already to believe in fairy tales about their world, and thus become very much more susceptible as older people (I am intentionally avoiding the word "adult" here) to another set of fairy tales - based on things like the popular fiction books the reading bunch read, and the tv shows the majority watch every day. The whole idea of "kidship" is a fairly new phenomena, and it has led to a world where we have "little kids" and "big kids" - all believing the lies and myths of their "elders" - according to most of what I have read about this, in ages past, what we had instead was big people and smaller people, who were just small versions of the big people, and on their way to being big people ASAP. The point being, I think "people", both big and small, had a considerably better grip on reality and their society than the "kids", both big and small, of today.)
Such thoughts surface regularly - a couple of days ago, for instance, sparked by this story Orwell that ends well - Bill Gates and the sunny side of Nineteen Eighty-Four ((RM archive copy)), in which Bill Gates is reported as saying that technology can only do good in the world.... "...Orwell's vision didn't come true, and I don't believe it will," he said. "This technology can make our country more secure and prevent the nightmare vision of George Orwell at the same time."
Mr. Bill can think what he wants, of course, but he really should know better than this Santa-statement - our current technology has become very powerful, and will enable the dystopic 1984 vision, not prevent it. Technology, of course, is neither good nor bad - but individual human beings now, are another story altogether - and when you get a bad bunch of dudes running things, and then increase their power multi-fold with technology - why then, societies like 1984 become possible. 1984 was enabled by sophisticated surveillance techniques - the omni-present "eyes" that followed Winston and everyone else throughout their entire lives - but Orwell, as farseeing as his vision was, had no idea of what the future would bring with the advent of computer-empowered omni-vision surveillance, cross-matching millions of records from multiple sources in the blink of an eye. Gates' statement is a "kids" statement - what a lovely world we live in, we comic-book-tv good guys, and my new invention will make it ever so much better! Those gosh-darn comic-book villains we have manufactured for your viewing pleasure won't have a gosh-darn chance against our powerful new computers, boy!
I mean fuck, I quit reading and believing in Tom Swift when I was about 12 (and I was a backwards sort of kid, when it came to understanding how the world really worked, I will readily admit)
The thing is - it is childish in the extreme to assume that where a technology exists, it will not be used - what we have to be aware of, and think of, is WHO is using that technology, and what are their aims, their goals? And not their 'official' aims and goals, but their real ones - we all know by now that people in power aren't particularly concerned about telling the truth - as they always have and always will, they tell what lies they must to convince citizens to let them carry on with what they want to do - Machiavelli was perhaps the first to write seriously about this in "The Prince" (I don't know if this is only serendipity or not - there seems to be some sort of movement on by the rightwingers to tell people not to be so upset at politicians lying - they always do it!! - there's nothing we can do about it!! - move on!! - like this one - So politicians lie: They always have RM archive copy - but I just don't think that's acceptable, myself - how in the fuck can you have a decent country and society and community, and raise your children to be decent people believing in decent things, if the major "look-up-to" figures in society lie about important things, and other important people say - "Hey! No problem!!"??? - I mean, are your kids going to listen to you telling them not to lie, or are they going to do what they see the bigshots doing - lying and getting away with it? - it's not the kind of place I really want to live in anyway - but of course, I do not seem to live in the same world as those who watch several hours of tv every day). You just HAVE to be able to trust in some things at least to live a peaceful and secure life (oh-ho!! - I can hear the "realists" saying!! - but we can NOT live a peaceful and secure life when we live in a world with all the terrorists there are!! - but we can and could, you son of a bitch, if people like you weren't supporting the terrorists by the very act of creating the kind of climate of lies and mistrust and violence in which they flourish - you son of a bitch I will say it again!!!) - yet if anyone can lie at anytime about anything - then there can be no trust! We see it throughout history, everywhere we want to look - powerful individuals with their armies, for instance, who want to increase their wealth and power by raiding other countries and stealing and killing and enslaving usually (not always - the Vikings, for instance, appear to have just let their blood lust have free rein) justify their activities in various ways, from "bringing GOD to the "heathens" to "liberating an oppressed people" (rarely if ever, we should not forget, have the heathens ever asked for a new god or the 'liberatees' asked for help).
But back to surveillance and Bill G - as it happens, there were a couple of other stories recently on this same subject (there's actually quite a few if you're alert to what to look for, if you spend time, that is, in sections other than the comics and sports and tv guide listings) - here Surveillance system on US agenda for instance RM archive copy, or Pentagon surveillance system hopes to identify people by the way they walk RM archive copy - talking about how the Pentagon is planning surveillance systems that can track vehicles and people anywhere they go, 24 hours a day. Orwell knew it was coming. They say, of course, that no one should worry - they are expensive systems and will only be deployed in combat zones or other special circumstances. Their copy writers must have some good laughs over this shit, really.
I can hear some people saying (I have had the - ummmm - discussion shall we call it?) - a number of times in the past - "But Rude!! - what's the problem? Our government is good and honest, and only does good things to protect us, and will only use these tools - as it uses guns and courts and jails - to stop bad people! And if you obey the law - why, you have nothing to worry about!"
- and, in theory, I have to agree with that, I really do. The problem, as I think I started out saying somewhere before, is the rather large gulf in our society between theory and fact - and the fact that the people who run our country are NOT all good people (very damn few of them anymore, really, it seems, sorry), with nothing but good thoughts for the rest of us - they are an increasingly corrupt bunch who are running society for the good of the elite, and many of the laws they are passing, if not most, are passed to increase their power, and make it more and more difficult for anyone to stop them. Sure that sounds like paranoid ravings - but even paranoids have real enemies - and I think it was some crazy film maker who said something like "Anyone who isn't scared shitless right about now is just not aware of the facts..." - a sentiment I quite agree with.
And when we have a political class in Canada who have become more and more blatantly nothing more than the servers of wealth (capitalists or elitists, same difference) - then it gets a bit wonderlandish to say that the laws they are passing are for OUR good. It also gets a bit prevaracative, if I may - as we have often noted, most Canadians don't want, have not for many years, for instance, soft drugs like marijuana to be illegal - so when we are filling the jails with such people - on whose behalf are we doing it? Canadians were never asked if they wanted a seatbelt law, or no-smoking laws - most indeed opposed them when they were proposed - so why are these laws in place? Why were they proposed in the first place, if most people did not want them - who were the "representatives" representing when they did so?!?! Only about 32% of Canadians of voting age voted in favor of Mulroney's Free Trade Agreement - but we have it anyway. Nobody ever voted for a government that was going to create a debt crisis and hand over 25-40% of every tax dollar collected to banks and "investors" - but that's what the government does. So - it kind of boggles me (yea, that happens a lot to those of us whose brains are in some kind of reality space but otherwise find their bodies living in some Wonder-gaga-bigkidsfairytale-land such as modern society) that people can make arguments such as the one above, about how our governments are always acting in "our" best interests. It just ain't so.
(BUT - again, let me make it clear - I am not a "minimum-government" Libertarian sort, or no-government Anarchist sort (I think Anarchism - no government - is where we should ultimately be heading, but we need a society where a majority of people are mature and sane first, and we ain't no fucking where near that yet) - I do believe in a fairly large government to look after all the people we have - but that government must truly be OF the people, and BY the people, and FOR the people - but at the moment it is of, by and for the corps - and that is what the problem is, and what we must overcome, if we are ever to make this country the great society it could and should have been - and still could be, maybe - depending on any number of factors - does George start WW 3 with nukes, for instance? - if so, that will have some impact on our future, no doubt... or does RM get elected PM, and in a moment of pure honesty tell George or whoever to go fuck themselves, thus inciting an American "liberation" of Canada?!?!?!? - again, could have a serious impact on our future....)
An acquaintance recently returned from a trip to the great ol' US, where he had not been for a couple of years - this is part of his experience:
"The very first thing that was noticeable upon stepping off the plane was how much fear had replaced freedom. After a rather smooth immigration procedure, we were at the baggage carousels. There were authorities rounding up the people as they might herd cattle. There was such confusion. Lines were formed in two different areas, and then funneled to one exit. The passengers were becoming agitated, and the airport workers seemed to have no idea why the exercise was at all necessary. They "were following orders" I heard one of them say.. And the one who gave the orders was nowhere around.
"In the airport, there was no longer a postal service. And the one mailbox had been closed shut.
Throughout our wanderings in the United States, we saw more and more evidence of how Fear has gripped the country. Going into an airport meant lengthy waits while baggage was checked and re-checked. And passengers were subject to lengthy searches, having to remove shoes and belts and jewelry and any tiny piece of metal that may trip the detection devices.
"Such inspections did not stop at the airports. Every attraction had its security. There were long lines at Disneyland, for example, made longer than before, while each visitor's handbag was checked. At the Statue of Liberty, what looked like a long wait to get onto a boat, was actually a long wait to go through a harrowing inspection process. The Statue Of Liberty! As we approached the gate, we could hear and see increased commotion as, again, visitors were herded toward the machines, and told to take out anything metal, take off belts, shoes, watches, etc., and do it quickly. The sight and the sounds of people standing in long slow lines, then suddenly being rushed to submit themselves to an inspection, while the guards yelled to give instructions and orders made it seem more like a prison than a national attraction. Visitors could not even go inside the statue to climb to the crown.
"There were similar scenes at just about every place we went; buildings, theaters, even parking lots...."
There has been increasing talk about some kind of Citizen Card in Canada, the last few years, or even implanting some kind of bio-chip in everyone that can keep tabs on your exact location through satellites and computers - pretty sci-fi-ey - but if somebody doesn't stop these people, that's what they're going to do. All of these things are related to the security and privacy of the individual in any state - and another story has been making its way through the news the last few weeks that is pretty directly related to this, the firing of Canadian Privacy Commissioner Radwanski for some kind of financial excesses - and here is a POV on that story that I do not believe was mentioned in any of the major media - Conspiracy Too Monstrous To Conceive, by By Henry Makow Ph.D., June 08, 2003 (RM archive copy) - I have read some of his stuff before, and agree with it, and have read other of his stuff and don't really agree - but he does appear to be a person who is interested in truth rather than lies, and if we don't necessarily see eye to eye on some things, that's not a big problem - I expect he (as I) would be open to discussion concerning any differences of opinion we may have and, be open to changing our views if someone can present compelling reasons (of the intellectual variety, not the 2x4 or baseball bat variety, which are the weapons of choice of our current government (really - tell a cop to fuck off the next time he stops you and tells you to put a seat belt on, and if you get home with no physical damage I will pay your friggin seatbelt fine! - or just think about how they deal with people who were demonstrating legally in places like Vancouver, Quebec, or Queen's Park, among many others) to do so. Anyway, back to Makow - he makes a compelling case that Radwanski, whom I expect you are familiar with (I can't imagine anyone reading these ramblings who was not aware of the major sorts of things going on in Canada!) was pretty much railroaded from his position because he was doing his job (watching out for the privacy rights of Canadians) FAR better than he was supposed to, complaining loud and long about the Canadian government attempts to copy the US so-called terrorism laws, enabling greatly increased surveillance of Canadians. And that is something I do not have any trouble believing. I hope you're all practicing your Nazi salutes and Seig Heil!!!!s with the appropriate enthusiasm, Canada Day and Independence Day in the US notwithstanding (Hitler was really big on national holidays and other celebrations too - GREAT fucking way to rally the citizens and promote brainlessness and get all the sheep to help keep their fellow sheeps in line, which is the kind of people you need for the Nazi armies - true pride in something does not need to scream and shout about it and trample anyone with any questions).
I have found myself in some strange situations over the years in my quest for freedom and truth and good government (and, to be honest, avoiding 9-5/5/50/dowhatyourefuckingtold job situations). This is one such time - an editorial from a 2003 Citizen-Southam paper I agree with (faughh!! he's just had too many beers tonight!!! - nonono - really!) - have a boo - Anti-smoking lobby steams over report RM archive copy - commenting on, as you might gather from the title, the anti-smoking nazis and a recent report published in the British Medical Journal that all that talk we've been hearing about the horrible dangers to everyone from "second-hand smoke" is really, well, just smoke in the wind, so to speak. Common sense would tell anyone who still had any that the whole second-hand smoke stuff was BS from the word go - but then PCers have never been deterred by common sense - they KNOW how people SHOULD live (just exactly like they do), and by fuck they are prepared to take steps to make it happen. And they do NOT care to be contradicted - watch the righteous anger! (typical of any kind of con-man - all smiles and camaraderie as long as you're buying their shit and getting the check book out - but call them on something, and look out! - one memory I will always have is being called a baby-killer because I did not want to wear a seatbelt! - the small brain can be a scary thing). Oh well - perhaps not as strange as it might appear at first glance - I have often had a sort of idea that perhaps some of the "Libertarian" shall we say style right-wingers and I have had some things in common - things involving freedom, mainly - but we get onto different paths because a lot of these people have been brought up in kind of privileged lives, and still believe the societal myths we started out talking about - and, of course, if you do believe those myths, then your entire world-view will be very different - this is the world where democracy really does work, and most of your politicians (and all of the important ones) are Jimmy Stewart types, and the Smithian "invisible hand of the market" actually does what he describes, because all businesspeople and bankers and so on are operating honestly - just like you learned in school - and in some sheltered enclaves, have never learned that the real world is somewhat different. In such a world - why, Free Trade might even be a good idea!!! (and you fuckers put your guns away now!!)
That one, though, was actually less of a surprise than when I took one of my periodical checks of the Fraser Institute, following their report that I talked about last week concerning "tax-free day" (I sent them a letter asking why they didn't do a similar report on tax-free day for corporations (essentially the same reason we need a "save the whales" movement but not a "save the assholes" movement - fuck did I just offend someone else?), but they haven't bothered answering - the reasons are clear enough, anyway, as I believe I mentioned) - but here I saw a headline demanding "Parliamentary Reform!!" - New Book “Fixing Canadian Democracy” Proposes Democratic Reforms to Revive our Public Institutions - actually, I must have been tired or something when I first came across it, the guards down for just a moment or something - RM archive copy - or perhaps a myth-crossover effect as above. But it quickly became clear that what WE think here are some of the absolutely necessary reforms to get something approaching true democracy established here in Canada, and what the Fraser people have their wet dreams about, are not exactly the same thing - as with so many things I think I may have mentioned before, we use the same words, but attach different meanings to them (and I am NOT going to fucking apologize for that! - in any dictionary I ever check, MY meanings are the commonly accepted ones - Democracy, for instance, to me, means something like a majority of the people decide how the country is going to be run - while the Frasers and other neocons figure that FPTP systems where Lyin Brian can, with the help of huge advertising campaigns and campaign funding from his rich buds and masters, manage to grab all of 32% of the vote, and with that 32% a majority of the seats in the government, and with that "huge majority" do what the rich people want for the next few years, is "democracy" - whew, reality disconnect alert!!!) Anyway, not to keep you in suspense about the Fraser "Democracy" book - what they want is actually smaller governments that have less power to obstruct the activities of the wealthy, it would appear - which one might have known without reading this press release. There is not a fucking WORD about proportional representation for some reason, even though the article talks about how backward Canada is in comparison to other countries (which it is, and the primary reason is because of this lack of PR - one gets the impression the Fraser is just name calling again here, like a petulant child of some sort who can't have just abso-fucking-lutely EVERYTHING I WANT!!!!), nor is there a word about campaign finance reform for some reason - we might just take a WILD guess here, and suggest the Fraser doesn't really have any problem with the idea that rich people should be able to buy as many votes as they can, and those with no money - well, fuck em.)
Serendipity File (I-TOL'-YA-SO stream) - Well, no sooner do I do a small aside (hahaha) on poverty and food banks, than this story No local food bank? 'We will just eat less' - Flemingdon Park site slated to shut Red Cross can't afford to continue appears in the Star (June 29) - you might also check out Campaign 2000 - End Child Poverty in Canada for a bit more info. Really, this is important - far more important than ANY show you might EVER watch on tv.
- Good things to read we've run across the last few days (things, that is, that look at the problem of Elite-corporate control of our society one way or another, but preferably with suggestions about what we can do about it - I really don't have a lot of other interests these days - not unlike, I suppose, the people on the Titanic were not thinking about a whole lot else except if there was some way they could save themselves or someone they loved.... it doesn't consume me totally, life goes on, I have a reasonably interesting job and life that allows me the time to do this, and watch and play a bit of golf (this is me using the tv for my ends, a few hours a MONTH not DAY!!, not the other way around!! - it is, like guns or cars or computers, a tool - as long as we control them personally for our ends, and do not allow them to be used by others to control us for their ends - well, that's great right? having access to the opinions and work of others through the net is great - building rockets and spaceships to explore the universe is great - using those rockets and spaceships to put missiles into space so you can control the world, however, is one of those things we really ought to be watching against a little more closely than most people seem to be doing....) - but it seems a reasonable to way to spend the time I have on the planet, the planet which I am very fond of, actually, having spent a fair portion of my life exploring various parts of the natural world (that would be the part without humans - amazing beauty, unbelievably fascinating things everywhere, but so little appreciated in this barbaric society, which encourages its citizens to eat twinkies in front of their tv responding to laugh tracks for as many hours as possible, and head for the malls when outside of the house - unbelievable. Just fucking unbelievable...)
- WALKING NORTH ON A SOUTHBOUND TRAIN - by David W. Orr, from RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH NEWS #767
- The Things We Do Not Want to Know by a guy called Wade Frazier (RM copy here)) - Frazier has a very good way with words - unfortunately, the link given to his website is not working here - if anyone knows a usable address, please inform us....
- THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION: WHY AMERICANS WILL BELIEVE ALMOST ANYTHING by Tim O'Shea (RM copy here)) - a doctor with an eye on the bigger picture - well written, a lot of other interesting stuff on his site....
Last issue: on Canada Day!! RM pageviews went up about 1,000%!! - I figure it's a sign that somebody likes what we're trying to do (no I ain't telling you if that was from 1 to 10, or 10 to 100, or 100 to 1,000 or 10,000 to 100, 000 or what - only the Shadow knows for sure!! - but we do thank ye, my muse(s?)
- and - comments from readers:
"What are you on about?" (columnist from Pispot)
"The site is a kick in the arse!" (happier reader who could get the drift)
Hell the BBQ ain't done, and neither is the beer.....
- we might touch briefly on other myths - the "invisible hand of the market" for instance, or the related assumption that business is conducted honestly (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH sorry) - really - SANTA LIVES!!! - but where do we get this kind of myth? MBA school, I suppose, or civics classes or social study or whatever it is called nowadays, to whatever extent it actually is taught - they teach myths in these schools, little better than trying to teach the Santa story as being true - the whole premise of what is taught in school is honest dealings between societal equals, is it not? that kind of squeaky-clean society that emerges from the books they are given, starting with Dick and Jane and Spot - and I doubt there has EVER been a time in history when that type of situation prevailed overall. Overall - I add that qualifier intentionally - I do think that the smaller the business and the smaller the locale in which it operates the greater the tendency to honesty will be, for various reasons - but the larger the business, the further removed from 'the local', the greater the tendency to dishonesty will be - as we have seen so recently in the US with Enron and WorldCom and many, many others. But they don't seem to teach that in MBA school (not that I've been to one, so I could be right wrong about this - maybe they do teach their students to be dishonest - but not to tell anyone! - I do know that when a certain premier of a certain rather corrupt province in Canada became dean of the Dalhousie Law School a number of years ago, pretty much his first act was to cancel the ethics course - better not get off on corruption in that province right now!). A similar comparison might be made for government - the smaller, the honester, if I might take some liberties with the language - the bigger, the more corrupt. (and what is the biggest government in the world today? we know!! - the US!!! - and what is undeniably, unarguably, the most corrupt?!?!?! RIGHT!!! the US again!!) - ipso provenos!! (sorry! my Latin seems to be somewhere else at the moment! (but I did watch one of the Harry Potter movies a night or two ago.....)
- the other big myth (outside of the great sky being, and I am NOT getting into that tonight) is the myth of Democracy of course - the idea that "the people" actually get to choose the people who govern them, and those (elected) people pass laws and regulations and what not on behalf of those people who elected them - following in general the wishes of those electors since they do, after all, "represent" them. This is, of course, what we are told incessantly as we are brought up, and like good little humans wanting to please our providers, we absorb stuff like that pretty unquestioningly, and in turn pass it on to our own children, and round and round and round we go. It has to be this way - no intelligent, thinking person could examine what goes on in our society and use the word Democracy to describe the government.
How true is it all, really?
I have some doubts (hahaha). I think perhaps 50 years ago, or 100 years ago, our so-called democracy was in much better shape, that is, it had some right to use the word - but during the last 30 years or so, in a silent coup, it has been transformed into something quite different.
Something like 30% of the voting age population of Canada voted for Brian Mulroney in 1988, yet due to amazingly outdated election laws (the ones the Fraser doesn't seem concerned about), he received a solid majority in the House of Commons, and for the next 5 years was effectively dictator of Canada, giving us, among other things, the Free Trade Agreement that most people did not want, and likewise the GST - and also, in his spare time, giving new meaning to the word "sleaze" as it applied to politics in Canada - it wasn't, unfortunately, only the PC Party he destroyed during his 9 years as PM, but he did huge damage to the way in which Canadians in general regard politics - a destroyed reputation which Chretien promised to restore, but has instead only made worse. At no place that I have ever seen does anyone try to explain how changes that seriously affect the direction of the entire country imposed with the approval of 32% of the voters of a country qualifies as a "democratic" decision. For good reason, I suppose. It would be as easy to justify believing in Santa, or something. Our media never bother with questions like this - but then, the media are owned by people who virtually without exception supported the FTA and GST, so don't really want to get people thinking about questioning the system that enabled that (as obviously, a "democratic" society where either rule of the MAJORITY or consensus-decision making applied would never have allowed these things.)
More recently we see the Libs handing out $$$$$100 BILLION in tax breaks, mostly to wealthier Canadians, while crying poverty and allowing the health care and education systems to degenerate terribly under their watch - while poll after poll after poll shows that Canadians do NOT support big tax cuts to the wealthy, but DO want their education and health systems, and other components of the social safety net, protected and improved. Again, nobody is explaining how ELECTED politicians making all of these major decisions directly opposed to popular opinion and desires translates into anything that would fit a definition of "democracy" - and again, I would submit, for good reason - it can't be done. And any attempt to do so would simply open the can of worms, and lead to some serious discontent on the part of the people of the country who are being so ill-used - which, of course, those who are benefitting from these things, being the same people who have the power to raise issues in the media, don't want to do so.
Democracy? I don't think so, unless we come up with some kind of new definition - something maybe a bit more true - "Democracy: the system put in place by the oligarchy to fool the people into thinking they have some say in the way they are governed, enabled by control of the media by the same oligarchy, and of the school system, so that citizens are taught from a very young age that this system is as good as it gets. And they keep thinking this while their lives get poorer and less secure, and the oligarchy continues to bleed them for more and more labor for less and less pay. (also see Orwell, G and Newspeak')" And now, as the Frasers promote in their book, even these scraps of democracy are proving inconvenient for the Elite, so they want the ability of the people to influence the direction of the country curtailed even more.
(All together now - to the tune of "Look what they done to my song ma..." - Look what they done to my Canada, Ma.....)
But regardless of the particulars, the point is the whole fantasyland scenario we are fed as children, and is then maintained for "adults" in the media, which is completely at odds with the way things really work in society. How many times has your elected representative held a community meeting of some sort to see what the people wanted him/her to do about some new issue that had come up - anything from following the US in one of its little bombing campaigns around the world to de-criminalizing soft drugs to passing seatbelt laws - and when was the last time you got some little flyer in the mail TELLING you this was what "your" government was going to do, and why that was a fabulous idea whether you liked it or not....????
That it is a conspiracy that goes very deep can be deduced from many things, for instance the Court System, which supposedly exists to maintain the fantasyland laws, but in reality only takes action against the small players, while it is the big players doing all of the serious damage - the mythology, in other words, will be enforced on the small, average citizens - so you damn well better believe it jack! - it ties in with the lack of accountability as well - how many have heard of judges let off of various crimes, from drunk driving to pedophilia, or cops or priests as well, two other branches of the mythology-mongers?
- this just in - inspired by this Centcom, ground commanders differ on cause of blast - and with other fairly recent stories emanating from that great fiction palace to the south of us like Castor beans proving Iraq had WMD, or the two empty trailors the Brits had sold them, or how everyone in the US should buy lots of plastic and duct tape to save themselves from those horrible terrorists - it's just so bizarre, it should be funny, it should be satire and humor on Saturday Night Live - but it's real!!!! shit from the fucking United States government!!! - anyway -
NEWS FLASH (RM PRESS!!): US officials added that there is a possibility space aliens (who are actually good guys, as everyone knows really, and not bad guys) may have planted the explosives, as the space aliens would surely be supportive of the US presence in Iraq or wherever the fuck, who everyone also knows wants only to do good things for everyone around the world, so the space aliens would want to support them. Officials also noted that this may tend to give credibility to the stories of space aliens which they have for so long tied into wacko conspiracy theory, but want everyone to know that all OTHER conspiracy theories, such as the CIA involvement in anything bad or whether or not Ronald Reagan ever DIDN'T have Alzheimer's, are still only nasty conspiracies, although they reserve the right to change their story if and when it suits them, without telling anyone, as one of their democratic freedoms (they also note that this is a special freedom of certain government employees and does not extend to average people - you change your story Jack and watch out! (if you're a Democrat or leftie-commie-pinko - our guys can do as they fucking like - freedom of the press applying to them who has it, right?)
I don't know - it didn't seem a lot stranger than believing politicians behave like Harrison Ford or Jimmy Stewart in the movies and do good things for us or are actually representing their constituents, or Prime Ministers who have dictatorial powers for 5 years after getting 25% of the support of the people and can do anything they want even if they promised to do the exact opposite during the "election campaign", or stuff like that. I suppose I just don't watch enough tv. Say - do you suppose Santa would get me a lobotomy this year so I could be happy like the other kids.....???
Write if ya want.
What direct action did you take today to do something to get rid of corporate government in Canada on this Canada Day Weekend? Do you feel that it was enough, given the situation? Will you feel content telling that to your grandchildren, should they survive, and the country, and the planet?
So much left to say, so little time to say it in - probably only a year or so to the next federal election - do you want to try to save Canada in that frantic four weeks when big Paul drops the writ and EVERY friggin advantage is his - or would you like to start now, when we have some sort of outside chance? Canada for Canadians Coalition - get involved.