Boris, Alison and Moi

 A little while ago, in the comments section of one of her posts, Alison at Creekside was asked why she isn't blogging so much anymore. She replied that there didn't seem to be much point to blogging in the face of official sanction for an illegitimate government.(I don't remember which post this conversation occurred in.)

Yesterday, Boris at the "Galloping Beaver" announced his own change of focus:

I've had much less energy for blogging over the past while, my posts have gotten shorter and from my view, aren't the same class as some of my earlier stuff. I've shifted quite a bit in my thinking over the years. I look around Canadian politics and society, and see the mainstream in a different light than maybe I did a back in 2006 or 2008. Then, I had some naive hope that our institutions and public were strong enough. But thrice times Harper, and well folks, the rot is set. Our political institutions are a gangrenous limb and won't recover even if we manage to send the current group of hagfish back to the depths from whence they came.
If you ask me, I'll say bluntly that on the whole we are a country that has grown too self-satisfied, too rich, and too idle. Too many generations of ease have passed, and the liberal and social ideals that drove the Grits and Dippers  have hollowed out into mere platitudes. All are caught up in that same mindless Ottawa Shore TV series, its own fantastical deviation from realities of the world we're in. I suppose I should stop being surprised at the complete lack of balls eminating from the elected government as well as the civil service. There's barely a peep despite the loss of the long form, muzzling of scientists, and other vandalisations. Docile and complacent, thinking it all end someday, few act - like when they're out of jobs. As I've said before on this blog, they way to beat the Harper crowd is come down hard and fast. They win because they play on our docility and our niceness. Hell, they even rigged the last election and didn't even need to use the army and secret policy to do it or repress the aftermath.

And, I said, a while ago that I was taking an indefinite break from online "activism." In that, my choice of words was poor. I didn't mean that I would stop blogging. I just meant that I wouldn't be typing lengthy screeds criticizing stephen harper and finishing with "THIS HAS TO CHANGE!" as if my blogging, or anybody's blogging, was going to accomplish that. If I ever do start doing that in a big way, I didn't want my readership to drop-off altogether, so I was going to post video links, random reflections and what-not.

I said elsewhere that it looks like blogging and discussion boards are fading into oblivion.Babble at Rabble.ca allegedly has not much going on. EnMasse is in the doldrums. Crust and Dandelions I don't even know about any more. And somebody posted about how the activity on the "Blogging Tories" was down as well, so it's a trend shared by both semi-normal people and right-wing shitheads.

But seriously people, ... if nobody in your neighbourhood is proposing a meat-space response to harper, ... look in the mirror. What are you waiting for? It's obvious that the Supreme Court is willing to compromise itself for our fuckhead self-called "prime minister." It's obvious that Elections Canada has no intention of doing its fucking job. The Council of Canadians is the only group of people actually challenging the results of the stolen election. And the wheels of justice grind slowly, and in the case of the Supreme Court, the wheels come loose and fly off.

Think people! What would bring accountability to Canada? If an afternoon rally or an online forum for bitching and complaining and petitioning isn't going to do what you want, ask yourselves "what will?"

If all of our political parties are debased and corrupted by the same insular, business-as-usual pissing contests, don't resign from real-world politics! This democracy, as frustrating as it is, is all we've got.

I agree with Boris in that as a group, Canadians are rich and complacent. Some of us in dire straits (LIKE MEEEEE!!!!) still have a heated home and access to diversions. Others of us though, are mired in the rat-race. Overworked and unable to think through our situations. Desperate to keep our heads down and keep working. And, finally, I've said this many, many times before: If the full-time political-junkies and protesting types haven't figured out a way to change things, why should we expect some regular, apolitical types to jump up and do something??

I've managed to speak about these things to a couple of groups. I'll be doing more here in Toronto and Hamilton. Look at yourselves. Think through how you might get something REAL going. And go out there and try.