rosenblath.ca

I have always sought to be a critical thinker, a rationalist, and a free thinker. I look at both sides of every argument. Often I don’t pick sides publicly and I never force my opinions on others. I make my own choice based on scientific data when it applies and rational argument. This is just how I was brought up both by my parents and the school system as it was when I grew up. You analyze without emotion and look at both sides of an argument and you don’t really have to declare a winner, you let the debate, the evidence and the questions it raises resonate with people. If you have ever been in a debate club you will know you often take either side of the argument at random and debate. This gives you a broader perspective; from this perspective, here’s what I came up with for an analysis of the freedom 2022 convoy.

Pros

• Freedom of speech.
• Voice of a minority being heard. (Truckers and those opposed to vaccine mandates)
• Voices lack of confidence in current government of Canada leadership.

Cons

• Poorly organized.
• Misplaced protest . (Should have started at the provincial level and gone national if the message wasn’t heard)
• Morphed into an Anti Justin Trudeau Protest
• Showed ignorance to established peaceful protest methods
• Showed ignorance to those that agree with vaccine mandates and the needs of the many
• Showed an overall ignorance in the writing of demands
• Disrupted the lives and livelihood of others that are not involved
• Disrupted an organization that only seeks to ease suffering (Shepherds of good hope)
• Allowed the spread of a message of hate and allowed other elements of white supremacy to show their ignorance.
• Showed disrespect to nationally established monuments and ideals that all Canadians hold to be self evident.

I’ve tried to be as fair as I believe possible here and I completely get the point of rebellion. I have often voiced my disdain for the current liberal government and Justin Trudeau many times as well as illiberalist movements and I definitely didn’t vote liberal in the last election. I lean a little left of centre typically, but truthfully my political beliefs don’t fall on the current political spectrum of any one party but incorporates parts of each.

I wouldn’t classify this as a movement or a protest though, I would say it was more of a rebellion or perhaps an insurrection. It certainly wasn’t something that was put forth with peace and good will toward humankind.

I have many friends who are vaccinated and unvaccinated and some vaccinated by mandate only so they could keep their jobs. So far they are all still healthy and surviving and able to pay their bills as far as I know. Some are struggling more than others. They all made their own choices too, because when given a set of rules, you always have the choice. When you make a choice you are responsible for the outcome, no one else. You are the one in control of your own life (Stephen Covey)

I had one friend that worked for the company I work for that chose not to vaccinate. Our company policies regarding covid are in place to protect all that work for our company and state you must be at least double vaccinated. My friends employment was terminated with a very generous severance pay. He wasn’t punished, just given a choice. After he made that choice, the company made sure he would have time to find another job and not suffer any loss of income during his search. I’m sure I may take a lot of criticism from many people I know regarding this analysis, I may even lose some FB friends I really enjoy talking with. That’s their choice, and also the choice I’m making by writing this. …and I am ok taking that responsibility for my choice.

I don’t feel it’s my place to judge personally. That doesn’t mean I can’t have my own opinion. Do things always go the way I want them to?…nope. Do I live with that and enjoy life anyway?…yep.

Be excellent to one another!
Wil

I propose that the only way to mold our society into one that truly serves the people and provides freedom and justice for all is to change how we raise our children and provide them the right training that relates to their talents as discovered at an early age. If children have have qualities to be leaders, then they need to be taught to be benevolent and that serving the population is their highest goal and the most worthy. These children need to be taught philosophy as their main subject along with science and math etc.
The most important part is that when an individual becomes a leader they are not allowed to own property or attain wealth but they are provided for by the people they serve. I believe this would create a codependent relationship that would satisfy both the leader and the people. The people are free and can pursue their earthly desires and better themselves and the leader must serve the people well since their existence depends upon the people.
We would be selected and shaped based on our observed skills into into roles that best serve our talents. If you are an artist you do art, a scientist, you do science, etc. You do what you are best at and like doing.
Keep in mind this is just a theory so I haven’t covered all possibilities or flaws that may be present in this proposed system. I think the leaders need to have the position of what we now would call benevolent dictators, but not have the absolute power that corrupts.

I’ve read platos republic (all books) and this is the position I have come to, as a result of looking at the various types of society. I believe none of the modern forms of government we have seen work. Neither aristocracy, communism, nor democracy have worked well and the major failing in these is that to much power can cause even a just man to be unjust and an unjust man will be unjust by default, so we need to change our basic understanding and try to instill benevolence in all people and move toward a benevolent society. This kind of change won’t happen overnight an may take hundreds if not thousands of years.

Our current democratic systems in North America and other parts if the world have become plutocracies in the guise of democracy. They aren’t working and we are headed for a fall from my observations of how political parties have started to swing far left and far right that used to be more moderate. If we don’t temper these divides through mutual respect and a love for each other that transcends our difference we are doomed to extinction.

One other system that comes to mind is tyrannical. We’ve had those too in the world. History records the likes of Calligula (Rome) , Ivan IV (Russia), Gengis Kahn (Mongolia), Leopold (Belgium) or perhaps Vlad III ( Romania) aka Vlad the Impaler.

The best example I can discuss would be fictional and in Frank Herbert’s: God Emperor of Dune. There is a lot of wisdom and truth in Herbert’s writings about polical systems

“Scratch a conservative and you find someone who prefers the past over any future. Scratch a liberal and find a closet aristocrat. It’s true! Liberal governments always develop into aristocracies. The bureaucracies betray the true intent of people who form such governments. Right from the first, the little people who formed the governments which promised to equalize the social burdens found themselves suddenly in the hands of bureaucratic aristocracies. Of course, all bureaucracies follow this pattern, but what a hypocrisy to find this even under a communized banner. Ahhh, well, if patterns teach me anything it’s that patterns are repeated. My oppressions, by and large, are no worse than any of the others and, at least, I teach a new lesson. ” – Leto II from God Emporer of Dune by Frank Herbert

Even with all this I think that the significance of Leto’s Golden Peace is that the human race may be in fact fundamentally irredeemable- incapable of saving itself. It requires the intervention of a higher power and in this novel a human transforms himself into the representation of that higher power, not with love, but with Tyrany.
Leto II sets out and sees to completion a 3000 year reign that ensures that people will never again trust the reign of any government and will not blindly follow, but question government and authority.

I truly hope that we are redeemable but alas I know I will be long gone before we see the Golden age of humanity come to fruition. A time when the light in humanity , that spark of the divine so few find reaches all and we exemplify the best in ourselves and respect each other on a global scale.

Tonight I did some light reading and read a white paper published in 1969 and written by Pierre Elliot Trudeau and his Minister of “Indian Affairs” (Jean Chretien..remember “le petit gars de Shawinigan”?)

The White Paper proposed to abolish all legal documents that had previously existed, including (but not limited to) the Indian Act, and all existing treaties within Canada. It proposed to assimilate First Nations as an ethnic group equal to other Canadian citizens and ethnic groups which abound in great numbers. Canada is just as much a giant melting pot as the US.

The White Paper was met with widespread criticism and activism, causing the proposal to be officially withdrawn in 1970.

As I read this ill-fated paper I was thinking to myself how drastically Liberalism has changed in one generation even within the same bloodline. Say 40 years?

I’m not writing this to criticize or put down any one party or group, I’m just making an observation and if you read this and take it some other way or don’t like it, or oh my! get offended! …well too bad I guess. I don’t care one way or the other. I’m just thinking out loud as the saying goes.

Nowadays each cause or group’s common beliefs have to be enforced by the government and everyone made to fall in line in order for the members of that group to feel self worth. I guess what I’m seeing or perceiving is a massive swing to the left from CLASSICAL Liberalism to Modern Social Liberalism.

SOCIAL liberalism at its core is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses a regulated market economy and the expansion of civil and political rights. Under social liberalism, the common good is viewed as harmonious with the freedom of the individual.

Social liberal policies have been widely adopted in much of the world. Social liberal ideas and parties tend to be considered centrist or centre-left. (Feels way more left to me personally as of late)

A social liberal government is expected to address economic and social issues such as poverty, welfare, infrastructure, health care, education and the climate using government intervention whilst also emphasizing the rights and autonomy of the individual.

All this sounds great doesn’t it? Then why does it seem to have fascist undertones to me? It wreaks of subtle undertones of government control perhaps? To be clear, I’m really not sure. I can’t quite put my finger on it. There’s just something about too much government control (even if supposedly for the common good ) that doesn’t sit well with me. Maybe it’s just an instinct? Anyway just my own observations and thoughts in written form. Make of them what you will or wish.

This quote from Frank Herbert who wrote the Dune Sci-fi books rings of truth.

Finally in Print in a National Paper. This is the exact same argument many of us outspoken people of all political leanings been making, but for some reason when we say it, we are automatically racist because we have a different viewpoint. To all the young il-liberals that think your way is the only way and that if we disagree with your approach we are racist, I say “grow the hell up” and truly listen to what other people have to say for a change with an open mind instead of shouting and holding your breath like petulant children. It’s time for Gen-x-ers to make a stand. We may be eh-holes (the Canadian type) and maybe we don’t say sorry as much as the average canuck, and maybe our sense of humour can be twisted beyond belief and not politically correct ( but hey, so is Dave Chappelle’s dammit and he got rich off it), but make no mistake, we care more than you will ever understand about your freedom and the future we all leave behind. We were told by our grandparents what oppression was like. We were shown what it’s like when your loved ones die at the hands of facist regimes and have to leave their families for years in the name of freedom. We wept for the 6 million Jews that died in WWII (no thats not a web site addy…focus now). We wept for the Japanese Canadians held in concentration camps, (some of whom we know personally and have heard their stories), and the starving Cambodian children that Sally field brought to us on infomercials (some of us donated money every month even though we couldn’t really afford it to the causes like that and other causes like amnesty international. But we never talk about it because we don’t do it for ourselves we do it for others) and we watched our friends, relatives, and favourite musicians die in the aids epidemic. We have some inkling of what suffering is and we don’t like it either. Rant over. Keep scrolling…

Time passes and the present is an ever hanging landscape of good intentions by well meaning misguided radicals. There is only now and justice in the moment never thinking of how it will weave a fog over our minds so we can once again be controlled, divided, and caged. Harmless we are now, mostly.  In the before time we had freedom of choice, speech, thought and diversity, but now we are merely cogs in the machine forever grinding out the patterns that shape what society has become.  We know not of where we came from or who came before us. The Prophet erased all that so that we wouldn’t be distracted by critical thought, conscience,  or worse still, a return to the old ways of individuality and free thinking.  Our function is to make profit for The Prophet who tells us what we will do in a future that will never exist. 

Why is it that some people think because you are not of their skin tone 50% of the time. (Personally I get pretty brown in the summer.) you can’t possibly understand the effects of racism. It shows the naivety of the people that are the loudest in this respect. some young Il- liberalists may be surprised to learn that people born before 2000 have actually lived in diverse cultures and have had life long relationships with people from all over the world in many cultures. BIPOC and LGBTQ2R+ people and the intersection thereof aren’t the only people that are discriminated against. Poor people, homeless , people (of all ethnicity), Jews, Italians, Latinos, Asian, Eastern European…Pick one and you will find prejudice from outside and from within. The reason is because prejudice is a human condition. It relates more to open-mindedness than it does race, religion or creed. It is representative of someone’s moral fiber, not their skin tone. Often it is a survival instinct in small communities that fear the unknown, so they go on the offensive (not unlike small groups of well intentioned individuals that classify large groups of people into one stereotype) Stop trying to make everyone else believe what you believe and respect other cultures. Societal evolution doesn’t happen overnight, it takes millennia. Give yourselves maybe 15-20 years and if your ideals and viewpoints haven’t evolved, then you missed the whole point of the journey.

For more thoughts on open-mindedness, refer this essay I published in 2009. http://rosenblath.ca/wordpress/2009/05/peace-through-open-mindedness