Canadian Concern about Virulent American Nationalism from Terrorism

Walter, thank you for taking time to share your perspectives.   Sadly, we have the 9/11 catastrophe that continues to haunt folks here.  Twice as many Americans died on 9/11 than at Pearl Harbor in 1941.  So, it is reasonable to know who is here.  Canada has done a good job, to date, except for the recent killing at the tomb of the unknowns in Ottawa, and the FLQ crisis of 1971, in keeping track of potential terrorism.  My view is, they are over here, because we are over there.  I grew up in a family with classic American Isolationist roots.  We will do business with you, but we want no foreign entanglements as George Washington advised in his now-forgotten Farewell Address.  Our oil wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, plus the Zionist lobby here, have embroiled us in the affairs of others, when there is oil in Alberta. 

What we are seeing is a return to "tribalism" and end of the Enlightenment's hope for a cosmopolitan world.  I just finished reading Robert Kagan's book The Return of History and the End of Dreams, published in 2009,  in which Kagan, who works for the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, argues this point.  I think it is safe to say that recent events in Europe align with Kagan's prediction, futuristic forecasting.  Of course, the mass media engages in drama to sell advertising, and this, in turn, leads to demagoguery, as you observe.  I want to be fair, but fear, fear of terrorism, can, and, sadly, is undermining fair, because terrorism is real and creates real fear, its goal.  There, those are my thoughts.  Hopefully the USA will return to its Isolationist roots and stop sowing the seeds of our own destruction.  Take care, and thank you for your honest sharing, again.  Paul   

Canada - National Election - October 2015 - Canadian Viewpoint

Hi Paul,

If the "new conservatives" inspired by Rove and American wedge issue politics are out of power, we the people will win. If whoever forms the new government can start to address the country as a whole rather than special interest groups, we will be on a better course.

Maybe Canadians have become more engaged through the transparent lies they have been fed in this campaign, but I fear that as usual the majority of Canadian follow American 'snews' more than Canadian and as a result know more about Trump and are victims of American fear-mongering and militaristic attitudes.

My vote was easy since there is a strong local candidate whom I know well and respect both in terms of ability and character.

Our political system does need an overhaul. The PMO has evolved into a centralized seat of power that has no real checks if there is a majority in the House. Traditions of Parliament are ignored- omnibus bills like in the USA, the PM acting like a president rather than allowing the G.-G to perform the functions of a head of state. The Senate has become a reward system for party hacks rather than a chamber of 'sober' second thought, the kind of thinking we need desperately.

We, like the rest of western civilization (Gandhi's quip applies: western civilization, a good idea, if had ever been tried) have lost our way and become stupid since we now actually behave as though 'its only about the economy, stupid."

If you add in the atavistic tendencies of the religious right we have a recipe for global disaster.

Globally there are tectonic shifts  occurring that we cannot control- the rise and decline of nations, depletion of resources...........and few political leaders understand them and fewer can communicate them given our 10 second attention spans.

I'm hoping that our election has scrabbled the pieces enough so that we can start creating a new message for our society. What that will be and how it will work its way into action, I can only guess. I'm hoping we look at ourselves honestly and redress some of the real harm we have done in our past and build on the human and natural wealth we have already built.

Cheers,

walter

Why Canada Must Be Free From American Trends

Sharon, thank you for putting safety at the top of your "laundry list" for this case study.  Here in Wisconsin, right here in Dane County where I live, we had the entire De Forest, Wisconsin school system shut down because two students were planning a pipe bomb and gun attack.  One of the kids overheard them planning; the police were able to trace the bomb threat phone calls to their cell phones.  It is disgusting that we have come to this in America.  I would "throw the book" at them in adult court, e.g. terrorist charges, to make them a warning example for others who think it is cute to do this.  Dr. Rux

A Canadian Views American Demoracy Through Eyes of H.L. Mencken

Here are some quotations I saved that might give a chuckle or simply a sense of futility.

H.L. Mencken:

Democracy: the worship of jackals by jackasses.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

The men the American public admires most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

Good Luck,

w

Terrorist Atttack in Ottawa on October 22, 2014

Needless to say, as a loyal friend of Canada, the terrible events in Ottawa today have upset me deeply.  Canada is one of the greatest countries in the history of the world.  I know from first-hand experience.  It angers me that vermin would desecrate the sacred dead of Canada, kill its soldiers, and attack its Parliament.  

In 2011, Jane and I visited the tombs of the unknowns and Parliament.  As we walked observed the tombs of the unknowns a caravan of cars with Pakistani flags on them circled the tombs of the unknowns blowing their horns!   I could no believe I was watching, hearing such disrespect to the country that gave them safety, freedom, wealth!  I submit that coddling such behavior is one of the reasons why the terrible event in Ottawa occurred today.  I hope that anybody who engages in such disrespect and acts of violence are handed over to the Royal Canadian Legion, whose members will know what to do with such vermin.  I love Canada; I hope, pray such terrible acts stop.  Paul

P.S.  My wife Jane is on a two-week tour in Europe right now; she will return on October 30, 2014  I am sure she is very upset with this turn of events.  Please take care of Canada.  We love it!  (We spent two weeks in Ontario in August of 2014.)   We love Canadians!  Paul & Jane Rux

Erosion of Teacher Dignity in Canada

Alan, here are a few quick thoughts.  The blather about leadership assumes professional autonomy in the classroom.  More and more teachers are widgets in an imposed top-down system.  This is especially true for online paper graders like me.  The course is canned; you simply grade the results.
It is similar to the old major professor who had a lot of TA's (teaching assistants).  The TA's graded the paper.  The professor "canned" the content. 

Moreover, the emergence of "Big Data" in which headquarters uses databases to measure your "competence" is going to further degrade teachers.  A friend of mine was head of science at York University, Toronto.  York has 66,000 students; his science department had 10,000.  The System was turning to the TA model, adjunct paper graders, and he saw the erosion of professional autonomy, dignity, "leadership." 

FYI  - I am tired of the American obsession with Leadership, leadership, leadership, leadership.  This is the mantra of fascism, of course.  I favor each person managing himself, herself, also called Chaotics, self-organizing systems.  Anyway, I know I am hopelessly outdated.  So I need to accept "as is," Taoist phrase there, how things are.  Let the systems destroy themselves. 

My friiend in Toronto fought the System.  The result was a fatal stroke last December, which killed him at age 67,  The year before I begged him to retire at age 67 from trying to assert traditional guild craftsmanship against the challenge of the Big Data machines emerging out there.  He could have retired at, yes, $110,000/year.  He is dead now for he believed in a hopeless cause.  I do not intend to make the same mistake.  We plan to visit his widow within the next two weeks.  Paul

Raise Your Family in Canada, Not USA

The bad news is the tragic school killing in suburban Portland, Oregon, the online base for the Concordia University System.  The shooting underscores, good and hard, our discussion about priorities in education today.  Sadly, in the USA, it must be school, campus, student, teacher physical safety.  As I have shared, Dale Breitlow, a Ph.D. classmate of mine at the University of Wisconsin – Madison was murdered by a student at his high school in suburban Milwaukee.  For your professor, the issue of school safety is not some academic debate.  It is very real because of Dale’s murder.   The good news is students like you are preparing yourselves to be educational leaders who are alert to this need.  Keep up your good work.  Only two weeks remain in our course.  It is “pedal to the metal” time now!