A blog to give a voice to our concern about the continued erosion of our democratic processes not only within the House of Commons and within our electoral system but also throughout our society. Here you will find articles about the current problems within our parliamentary democracy, about actions both good and bad by our elected representatives, about possible solutions, opinions and debate about the state of democracy in Canada, and about our roles/responsibilities as democratic citizens. We invite your thoughtful and polite comments upon our posts and ask those who wish to post longer articles or share ideas on this subject to submit them for inclusion as a guest post.
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Saturday, January 25, 2020

The beginning of the end?

As my ever decreasing small cadre of regular readers will know I no longer write here on a regular basis having become so disillusioned with world wide 'democracy' that I have little positive to say. Here in Canada it has not yet reached the depth of disillusionment that appears to be overtaking the home of of our democracy, Great Britain, where after several years of mayhem they have devolved into what appears to be a authoritative governance where half the population simply do not know which way to turn to get non dictatorial governance. Here in Canada we seem to have narrowly escaped a similar outcome the only difference being that the areas of discontent and threats of 'separation' are of different sizes and locations. The ability and / or the desire to seek and embrace middle ground politically here, in GB and elsewhere across the world seems to be dwindling in what to those of us who have been around long enough know that such unyielding intransigent positions rarely lead to any positive outcomes.

The eyes of the world are currently on the similarly troubling situation just to the south of us as one half of the population tries to reign in the excesses of the other, as those led by a leader who thinks he is god supported by a group of individuals who are either too scared or too dumb to see that their very democracy is on the line. I submit that if Trumph is cleared of any wrongdoing, as I suspect he will be supported by his republican supporters who appear to be either blinded by his twitter storms or scared to speak out against him for fear that the right wing supporters may come to see the truth, it will be the beginning of the end. The end of democracy as practiced in that former British colony to the south of us and the gradual transformation of it into a dictatorship or perhaps a more accurate term might be an oligarchy. Whilst the charge against him may be a seemingly minor infraction it is the lengths to which he and his supporters have gone to to withhold any information related to the alleged misconduct that clearly tells us that something is very wrong and must remain hidden from pubic view and from the 'jury' of senators.

At the same time as he ranted about having done nothing wrong and his impeachment was completely unwarranted (and he and only he is 'perfect) he took time out from trashing the duly elected democratic leaders to tell us that climate change is a hoax and attack a young lady and others who speaks of a truth that few of us want to hear.
“In a prepared speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump took the opportunity to take a swipe at Thunberg—who was in the audience—deriding “perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse” about the environment. “They are the errors of yesterday’s fortune-tellers,” Trump claimed, “and we have them and I have them and they want to see us do badly, but we don’t let that happen,” adding that in order to “embrace the possibilities of tomorrow,” we must reject the warnings of such individuals.”

With 'Leaders' like this we are doomed, its just a matter of which comes first ….. Oligarchy, Insurrection, War or Famine. I just hope our young folks can find a way to save us all, for this old fellow cannot.....


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3 comments:

Owen Gray said...

These are, as Tom Paine wrote, "the times that try men's souls." The powers that be are counting on our giving up, Rural. We must not yield.

The Disaffected Lib said...


I fear we gave up without a fight, Rural. Neoliberalism ushered in an era in which no one was on guard for the nation and our people. The 'market' would meet all our needs and the political caste would serve as its handmaidens, reduced to the role of technocrats and administrators. It was just shitty luck that the climate change imperative landed while our leadership was deep in the arms of Morpheus.

Oh well, the history of human civilization is riddled with societies making bad choices, of transient short-term benefits at devastating future costs.

Can you imagine anything more harebrained than the obsessive quest for perpetual exponential growth in a world already so far beyond its means that we now would need a second Earth to meet our needs? A world already proving how ill-prepared it is to meet the impacts of climate change while still growing its consumption of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. That's akin to a lung cancer patient resolving to fight the disease by going from a two-pack to a three-pack a day habit.

How could we, any of us, expect democracy to thrive when we can't muster the courage to survive?

Rural said...

As you say Mound, as you say. Whilst I have little drive left to fight the good fight I see that you continue to daily bring our attention to the down hill spiral, keep it up eventually perhaps more will listen.