Tuesday, October 8, 2013

ain't nobody gonna save Canuck democracy!

Murray Dobbin gives us a terrifying overview of the 31-year "trade" deal with China, in an essay entitled "Who Will Save Canadian Democracy?" I'll skip ahead to the answer:
Who will save us from this repugnant, anti-democratic initiative? Probably no one. The only player to come to the plate has been the tiny Hupacasath First Nation of BC which challenged FIPA in federal court. Unfortunately the judge not only found for the government, he assessed costs to the band of over $100,000.  They are appealing (donate here – deadline Sept 30)   the case. But ultimately it is the provinces which hold the real power to save democracy.

What are they waiting for?
Here's the thing; Murray Dobbin was one of the people I contacted about my initiative to build a nation-wide protest movement to force the harper government to resign. He told me he was too busy to read it.

So, let's review: Dobbin looks over the imperiled state of democracy in Canada and sees no likely candidates for its saviour. He gets a message from a stranger asking if he'd like to have a look at a way to challenge harper and, while there's nothing else he's aware of happening at the moment, tells the stranger that he's too busy.

It's pathological. "Workers as Citizens" is the most realistic and all-encompassing strategy there is for the democratic destruction of corporate power, and left-wing academics simply stared at me when I presented it to them. Left-wing activists respond with non-sequitors about how co-ops are groovy. Working within the formal political process makes people into deluded chumps. It's much better to chant at a rally for an afternoon or write criticisms of capitalism in left-wing media.

It's why we fail people. And something makes me think the problem is structural. It's not going to happen, NOT because people's brains are incapable of grasping it. It's because something in the zietgeist isn't happening and there's a switch turned-off somewhere.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hear harpo wants to build a scale model of the Forbidden City in and then rename Calgary "New Beijing". Kind of catchy, huh? Ottawa will be designated as a "Democracy Heritage Zone" where future Canadians can bring their children to view how things used to be done in politics with even better actors than we have now pretending they give a shit about our country.
Groovy, huh? Ay?

thwap said...

I think harper would be terrified of the "Democracy Heritage Zone." He'd rather kill it and bury it forever rather than give future generations any dangerous ideas.