Rick Salutin wrote a thoughtful piece in the Toronto Star about Americans who still support the NRA after the shooting in Florida which killed 17 students.
The title read "Gun Enthusiasts Would Rather Lose Their Kids Than Their Guns".
The title is, of course, overreach. Who would ever think this in a country that holds the richest, most political and economic power in the world?
I think the problem is addiction not reason. Those whose self interests are bound in the status quo cling to it like heroin.
I think the problem is addiction not reason. Those whose self interests are bound in the status quo cling to it like heroin.
Think of how a mind might sober up to realize they prefer guns to children? Other children maybe but not ours.
Most power systems are based on the problems of the other. It's other people's children who have a different religion or different colour skin that we scrutinize and judge. Ours we will excuse and defend no matter what they do.
Our children grow into adults who learn to be increasingly aggressive in business and politics.
On a different but related issue the CBC news reported that Rachel Notley won the war against BC by banning BC wines. Further scrutiny will tell you the oil companies that already rule global economic policies won and small local business lost. Rachel Notley like so many politicians can win by promoting the interests of the biggest bullies, while leaders who defend justice are attacked, ridiculed and tossed out.
CBC has been under tremendous criticism by broadcasting the stories of the underdogs - those who are threatened simply because of who they are - women, gay, Muslim, first nations. Now the hourly news broadcasts the values of big lobbies by ridiculing people for things that don't matter - such as the clothes Justin Trudeau wore in India with headlines that say his visit was a fiasco. That's a judgement call. That sounds more like Fox News than CBC. But its a testament to our eroding social values just like the charge that Americans love their guns more than their children.
Lobbies funded by big corporations say small businesses cannot afford $15 an hour minimum wage, cannot afford to provide affordable housing. What you see in these charges really is throwing humanity under the bus. Oil pipelines and bitumen will destroy the local economies of fishing, tourism and entertainment while making Kinder Morgan even more powerful than it is.
Democracy cannot survive while fake news and contempt for life pollutes the fragile society. Justice for all cannot survive when oligarchs rule like demi gods and kings. When power is centralized we all become prisoners who must suck it up or be prepared to die.
Why is my example so extreme? Because our values slip away while we are not looking. How many people have found themselves giving up their values for the sake of keeping their jobs? How many who rise to the top become psychopaths because the pain of weighing their interests against the greater good cripples them. How many gang members learn that in order to survive you must serve the alpha male no matter how cruel his demands.
The best soldiers are fine people who were trained to kill and who came home broken because their nature was destroyed. Nations that rise to the top train their people to be brutal by brutalizing the most vulnerable in their society. They look strong and fearless but their GDP rises at the cost of their people.
What is called great is really that power to intimidate, to demand absolute obedience from their citizens. Now huge wealth is created by making workers slaves, but punishing those who think and who stand up to the bosses. At all costs, even our children, we are ordered to bow down to power.
We are becoming a world in which literature, culture, health and happiness are swallowed into slogans. Nestle is run by a CEO who believes water is not a human right. Large corporate interests believe human sensibilities get in the way of their control. They secretly fund think tanks and movements to shut down civil society. Hitler's fascism was a religion of killing and nihilism. The NRA is the department of everlasting fear.
What will happen to literature, music, philosophy, family and love, if this planet becomes a fascist corporation? What will happen to humanity if there is no other example of how to be in this world?
Most power systems are based on the problems of the other. It's other people's children who have a different religion or different colour skin that we scrutinize and judge. Ours we will excuse and defend no matter what they do.
Our children grow into adults who learn to be increasingly aggressive in business and politics.
On a different but related issue the CBC news reported that Rachel Notley won the war against BC by banning BC wines. Further scrutiny will tell you the oil companies that already rule global economic policies won and small local business lost. Rachel Notley like so many politicians can win by promoting the interests of the biggest bullies, while leaders who defend justice are attacked, ridiculed and tossed out.
CBC has been under tremendous criticism by broadcasting the stories of the underdogs - those who are threatened simply because of who they are - women, gay, Muslim, first nations. Now the hourly news broadcasts the values of big lobbies by ridiculing people for things that don't matter - such as the clothes Justin Trudeau wore in India with headlines that say his visit was a fiasco. That's a judgement call. That sounds more like Fox News than CBC. But its a testament to our eroding social values just like the charge that Americans love their guns more than their children.
Lobbies funded by big corporations say small businesses cannot afford $15 an hour minimum wage, cannot afford to provide affordable housing. What you see in these charges really is throwing humanity under the bus. Oil pipelines and bitumen will destroy the local economies of fishing, tourism and entertainment while making Kinder Morgan even more powerful than it is.
Democracy cannot survive while fake news and contempt for life pollutes the fragile society. Justice for all cannot survive when oligarchs rule like demi gods and kings. When power is centralized we all become prisoners who must suck it up or be prepared to die.
Why is my example so extreme? Because our values slip away while we are not looking. How many people have found themselves giving up their values for the sake of keeping their jobs? How many who rise to the top become psychopaths because the pain of weighing their interests against the greater good cripples them. How many gang members learn that in order to survive you must serve the alpha male no matter how cruel his demands.
The best soldiers are fine people who were trained to kill and who came home broken because their nature was destroyed. Nations that rise to the top train their people to be brutal by brutalizing the most vulnerable in their society. They look strong and fearless but their GDP rises at the cost of their people.
What is called great is really that power to intimidate, to demand absolute obedience from their citizens. Now huge wealth is created by making workers slaves, but punishing those who think and who stand up to the bosses. At all costs, even our children, we are ordered to bow down to power.
We are becoming a world in which literature, culture, health and happiness are swallowed into slogans. Nestle is run by a CEO who believes water is not a human right. Large corporate interests believe human sensibilities get in the way of their control. They secretly fund think tanks and movements to shut down civil society. Hitler's fascism was a religion of killing and nihilism. The NRA is the department of everlasting fear.
What will happen to literature, music, philosophy, family and love, if this planet becomes a fascist corporation? What will happen to humanity if there is no other example of how to be in this world?
