Democracy? Not so much. For the most part, Canadians hold their democracy in contempt and have no desire to fight to improve it. It's a-okay for most Canadians (or at least an indifferent matter) if the government of the day lies to them about the costs of the multi-billion dollar policies and outright refuses to show the people's representatives the facts about their true costs.
So, you can throw fiscal responsibility out the window as well.
Canadians might pretend to care about fiscal responsibility and transparency and what-not, for partisan reasons, but they don't really care about these things.
You can see this in the mass media, where 90-something percent of our newpapers endorsed stephen harper after his blatant display of contempt for Parliament, all except for the Liberal rag the Toronto Star, where hacks like Martin Regg Cohen defend Ontario Liberal Dalton McGuinty's wasting of three-quarters of a billion dollars of Ontario taxpayers' money, deleting the emails where this criminal waste of our money was decided, and refusing to provide the evidence for their criminal waste when the legislature demanded it.
Given the fact that Canadians (politicians and citizens) have so much contempt for their own democracy, it's actually quite sickening to listen when the more stupid among them claim that we're trying to protect it or export it to places like Haiti, Afghanistan or Libya.
Human rights? Officially, we don't care. For all intents and purposes we don't care. Most Canadians were and are fairly indifferent to the issue of torture and arrest without evidence or trial. Again, the more stupid among us actually celebrated the idea that our prisoners in Afghanistan were turned over to torturers. It was repeatedly told to these fuck-heads that we arrested innocent people, at random, and that the Afghan torture services began to complain that they were torturing people who knew nothing about anything.
What do we care about? What do our leaders care about? Our Liberals care about the financial sector and our Conservatives care about the financial sector and the oil sector. Below all of that, the foundations of their value system is corporate profit. And our capitalists care about profit above all else. And they profit from citizens who consume. As individuals, we're trained to be consumers. To be stupid, docile consumers. That's our highest value and that's what we're about as a people.
So, you can throw fiscal responsibility out the window as well.
Canadians might pretend to care about fiscal responsibility and transparency and what-not, for partisan reasons, but they don't really care about these things.
You can see this in the mass media, where 90-something percent of our newpapers endorsed stephen harper after his blatant display of contempt for Parliament, all except for the Liberal rag the Toronto Star, where hacks like Martin Regg Cohen defend Ontario Liberal Dalton McGuinty's wasting of three-quarters of a billion dollars of Ontario taxpayers' money, deleting the emails where this criminal waste of our money was decided, and refusing to provide the evidence for their criminal waste when the legislature demanded it.
Given the fact that Canadians (politicians and citizens) have so much contempt for their own democracy, it's actually quite sickening to listen when the more stupid among them claim that we're trying to protect it or export it to places like Haiti, Afghanistan or Libya.
Human rights? Officially, we don't care. For all intents and purposes we don't care. Most Canadians were and are fairly indifferent to the issue of torture and arrest without evidence or trial. Again, the more stupid among us actually celebrated the idea that our prisoners in Afghanistan were turned over to torturers. It was repeatedly told to these fuck-heads that we arrested innocent people, at random, and that the Afghan torture services began to complain that they were torturing people who knew nothing about anything.
What do we care about? What do our leaders care about? Our Liberals care about the financial sector and our Conservatives care about the financial sector and the oil sector. Below all of that, the foundations of their value system is corporate profit. And our capitalists care about profit above all else. And they profit from citizens who consume. As individuals, we're trained to be consumers. To be stupid, docile consumers. That's our highest value and that's what we're about as a people.
4 comments:
hi thwap...Very good post. Everything you say is true. I know exactly how you feel because I am impatient too. And the only thing I would add is the word GREED. For without that so many people wouldn't go for all that bad shit you wrote about.
But remember brother history really is like a river. You never step into the same river twice. And it is heading in a certain direction, which will of necessity be better than today.
And your problem and mine? It sometimes flows really slowly, and it's on its own time, not ours.
However we can help it along, and it will get to the sea because NOTHING can hold it back. So don't despair, keep saying it like it is, and enjoy your summer...
Simon,
I actually have to disagree. i have no idea where "history" is going. At the moment, humanity seems to be going in the wrong direction.
We have the ability to build a better world but we're deliberately allowing corporate scum to dominate us. We're lazily allowing the capitalists to destroy the planet.
We'll allow ourselves to be plunged into a dark age of poverty and ecological crisis. And the majority of us will shrug our shoulders and say "Whattaya gonna do?"
History is not entirely in our control, thwap. But our government is -- or, at least, it should be.
Owen,
That's just the point. We don't control our governments. They control us. And all we do is bitch and whine.
Then we elect someone new who acts just the same way and we have no memory.
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