This is why we can't have nice things people. Because we're captivated by the ease of internet bitching, with the more ambitious of us wedded to the failed tactic of meaningless afternoon protests.
My plan might be a ludicrously over-ambitious piece of nonsense, or it might be the only feasible means we had for redeeming Canada's democracy. I don't know because nobody debates it with me.
What really saddens (and bewilders) me is that there is nothing else out there being proposed. There's no overwhelming avalanche of options. People just seem to prefer to stare vacantly into the middle distance rather than actually do something.
(I had one other comment. The spammer who always types "Canada is a cess-pool of corruption. Harper is selling us out to Red China. Canada will soon be infested with South Asians and Chinese." I no longer post those comments.)
Canadian democracy is in for further abuses, given the incapacity of its citizens to defend it.
Anyhow, here is the one comment my plan received:
I think your plan is an excellent one. I also think that it is one of the scariest things I could ever do given the wonderful treatment real Canadians received at the G20 and that was only to protest the idiotic economic shit harpo refers to as his "action plan".I'd like to address this (justifiable) worry that one will get one's skull cracked for standing-up against illegitimate, arbitrary government.
It will require people to walk the walk and face the fire (I know; trite little quotes but they say it exactly the way it will have to be). Taking back a hijacked-by-fascist-terrorists democracy is and always was a very dangerous and highly laudable endeavor. Real heroes are found and made here. Finding women and men of that ilk will be the real test of this country's resolve to survive as a semi-democracy.
To be perfectly blunt, I'm not sure that I have that kind of incredible courage to face down that retribution/revenge that will be brought down on the front line protestors. I would, however, be more than willing to lend whatever financial support I am able to so as to help support and sustain their efforts.
Again, all in all, your plan is truly worthy of someone who calls himself a Canadian citizen. Now we need to hope that not everybody who reads this blog at my age or any age, for that matter, has the same reservations that I do with regards to getting off their asses and getting out there and doing something. The pamphlet passing around thing; I am definitely down with that. Cheers, Thwap
Why do we think this way?
Is it technically legal for the police to smash us? We talk as if it's a given that our governments spy on us, steal from us, and abuse us if we protest, and that this state of affairs, while not acceptable, is unalterable.
We're like people who insist upon going to a casino that is so corrupt that even when the little ball on the roulette wheel lands on your number, the dealer just picks the ball up and drops it somewhere else to rob you of your winnings. And, of course, they beat you up in alley out back if you complain.
We have inquiries and reports into these violations of our rights. We have commissions. And nothing gets done. Nothing changes.
But oh goodness gracious me! We must never become violent. Because that would lower us to their level (or some other asinine, incoherent argument).
Let me just put it out there for discussion that the people of Canada have an inviolate and inalienable right to go absolutely ape-shit when faced with blatant violations of our Charter Rights and Freedoms.
This does not mean that we should tolerate attempts to violently overthrow the system. I'm saying we should have the right to go berserk to defend our system. We can never stand up to our state police and military forces in a sustained fight. But lightning strikes of public fury are less easy to predict and therefore control. They'll happen and then they'll be gone.
And if the forces of oppression want to introduce laws to restrict our rights to assemble and to communicate with others, we should (as one) physically resist these efforts. Because I'm talking about the justified pushing-back against the abuses that have become so pervasive in the bullshit "war on terror/war on drugs/war on democracy" era. There is no justification for corrupt elites seeking to restrain the possibility of the people's righteous anger. They are only trying to make themselves completely unaccountable. We shouldn't be their chumps in this process.
6 comments:
My real fear is getting my ass kicked by a 4-1 ratio or worse as in the G20 scenario. It isn't quite as bad if it's 2-1 or 1-1.
Oh I agree. And I don't think your fears are misplaced.
It's just that all of us seem to take it as a given, and a given for which there is nothing that can be done, that we actually have no rights when we protest.
I think the random window-smashers are fools, but so are the people who complain about the outrages of the police and the elites while taking zero steps to do anything about it.
Those who think it's beyond the pale to even speak of fighting back.
Okay. I have been out showing the Rocky Mountains and some of my favourite BC places to my New Brunswick family for the last while, and, frankly, ignoring the situation.
I spent the last few years with a great group of people trying to keep the Enbridge Northern Gateway from happening. It's exhausting. There came points when I felt like I was living in an echo chamber, and I got tired of everyone else rolling their eyes when I mention it. I felt one dimensional.
On the one hand, I get it, Thwap. Its monstrous- the politcal and environmental tragedy going on is wrong, wrong, wrong. And I am more than happy to stand up and say it loud and clear. I am fine with being whatever kind of target that makes me. I don't want to be a part of the world where this level of corruption exists, I really don't. If my death would make any difference, bring it on, because if it all continues in this path, life ain't gonna be worth living anyway. On the other hand however, I do have a few people I love in my life, for whom I cannot make that decision. My parents are becoming somewhat frail. My offspring is just about to graduate university and hopes to pursue a dream overseas. Do I want to jeopardize them?
For what it's worth, the group I am involved with on the pipeline have already been doing just the kind of thing you discuss here, having talks and conversations, and trying to widen the discussion, both in terms of content and participants. But the theme that I hear in private conversations is that they want a life outside of protest and dissent.
I understand what they are saying, while thinking in my private little heart that I need to find people who don't mind protest and dissent being their lives.
I also think a real self defence strategy has to be formulated when we talk about protest. Didn't I just read this week that a protester at the G20 died injuries sustained at the hands of cops? I may be willing to risk that myself, but I don't really want you to. I want to know that there is someway I can have your back. And the kind of training that requires, to keep strangers from being mere bystanders, to defend one another, that is a whole other thing in this conversation.
Karen,
I always appreciate your comments.
I promise that i will provide a more detailed reply tomorrow, but for now, I want to say that it pains me to see the left burn themselves out fighting symptoms when what we really need to do is spend more time trying to get the power to put our enemies on the defensive.
"Workers as Citizens."
Karen articulates the cost benefit analysis that everyone has to go through, thwap.
In the end, it seems to me that anger has to be carefully focused on the right target at the right time and place. Choosing the right time and place is harder than choosing the target.
Owen,
I think the right time was definitely when the news of the election fraud broke.
If not then, when?
Part of the meaning of this particular post was that some of the fears of protesters should not even exist at all.
If this were a genuine democracy under the rule of law, citizens would not fear physical violence for going out to protest.
The fact that we do, and that we do nothing about it, is troubling.
If there was a sentiment, all across society, that the elites had better not even dare to suppress us, we would be light years ahead democratically.
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