Those of you familiar
with my writing, in particular, those who read chapter seven of my
book, (below) Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self, (now
available as a free download,) know something of both my love of
using intentionality to explain reality and my love of hating
conservatism, in particular, the political variety, to explain the
virtuous life.
My thoughts and feelings
are not shared by Stephen Harper and Canadian neo-cons. This comes to
no surprise for me or my readers. Some of you may have noticed that I
tend only to write about this specific topic when an announcement of
this ilk is made, or I otherwise get pissed off about how this
country, (this world,) is run.
My latest complaint is
centered around the Conservative government's decision to “celebrate
the anniversary of the War of 1812.”
(I thought I'd let that
sentence stand alone in your mind for a second. You know, so the
ridiculousness could set it. “Celebrate the War of 1812.”)
Yikes. Well, before we
start discussing the intentionality of the idea, or discover it's
purpose by delineating the prior intention from the intention in
action, let's take a look at what is being said by our government.
These include but are not limited to statements like: “Celebrate
the history of the war of 1812. Visit the sights, relearn the
history, take in a museum, check out the re-enactments.” (Yes,
they're paying, sorry we're paying, for
re-enactments.) We're also paying for the restoration of historical
sites, a national monument, coins and stamps.
Here
are some relevant links:
This, I guess, should
not surprise us. Conservatives are, well conservative. They like
things just the way they are. That is to say, War is good business,
War works. By way of being conservative, they have traditionally been
supportive of the motives and methods of war. They like war, they
think it should continue. Furthermore, by way of being Canadian, they
are always playing catchup with Americans, the Kings of war. They
have all but admitted that this is the kind of patriotism they wish
to endorse. This is to be a nationalism based on our ability to
enforce our ideologies.
So, again we should not
be surprised that we are to toot our own horn about the one time that
“Canadians” (in quotes because Canada wasn't a nation in 1812,)
were able to kick some American ass. Now, if you know me at all, you
know I think this is bordering on absurd and is, at the least,
unnaturally stupid. Perhaps we should also celebrate the destruction of
our Native peoples? Maybe build a monument to the wasteful poisoning
of the world's largest fresh water supply? How about we design a coin
and stamp commemorating our most famous mass murderer, Clifford
Olsen? I wouldn't mind paying a few of my tax dollars for a statue in
Ottawa of an eagle raping a beaver. But then again, being
who he is, Stephen Harper wouldn't think of this as a problem. He
condones it, approves of it, works toward it, hard.
Having made my rather
subjective tirade clear, let's now take a look at what Mr. Harper and
his neo-cons are actually intending by their actions. As usual, we
will have to reduce their intentions to the base, the lowest common
denominator. Yet, in this case, I think this is aptly done by the folks presenting the
intention. This is what I find so shocking, if we are celebrating
war, we are celebrating war. If we are specific in our celebrations,
as in, “celebrate this or that war, with this or that people,”
then we have narrowed it down enough. We're supposed to be thinking
about war with America. Why?
It pretty obvious isn't
it? Conservatives are conservatives because they don't want change.
What's the opposite of war? Peace. So the real question is, why don't
we celebrate peace? There's no money in peace. Simple answer for a
stupid idea.
Conservatism is unnatural. Stephen Harper and those who support the ideas of
conservatism are blocking progress. Natural systems, even those we
design and allow to grow prudently, are flexible, dynamic systems
that can, at the very least, change. Conservatives don't want change.
They think everything is fine. They are very close to finding out the
masses disagree. Everything is not fine.
I grow weary of the
rampant ineptitude of modernity. Stop the humans before it's too
late.
Further reading: (I've been complaining about conservatism for awhile...)
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