As you may have noticed this blog has gone from being primarily (about 95%) about arts and culture to a mix of arts and culture and politics. Personally I like that mix. I've always been fairly political. The reality is that when Stephen Harper began his War on the Arts, he made arts and culture a political issue and it inevitably followed that an arts and culture blog would take notice. The problem with Stephen Harper though is far more than arts and culture issues. He is, as far as I can tell bad for Canada on almost every issue.Canada is at a crossroads. Down one path is Stephen Harper's Canada, the 51st state. Harper's plan is to ape almost everything the Bush Administration in the US has done in terms of taxes, the environment, deregulation and the military: Despite the fact that the Bush Administration has been so tremendously unsuccessful on every front that they have brought the US to the edge of ruin.
Down the other path is a more progressive agenda for a strong, independent Canada which focus' on environmental and economic sustainability, jobs that pay a living wage, improved health care, a stronger education system, and end to extreme poverty and a strong, thriving, diverse arts and culture sector among other things.
Down either of these paths are challenges and unknowns. During the first half of the 20th Century Canadians faced their challenges: two world wars and the great depression. It seems though that in those the goals were clearer, the end game more known. Now this generation must choose it's challenges, and the goals are much less clear.
Stephen Harper (along with George Bush and John McCain) would like that challenge to be the War on Terror. It is ambiguous because it is a war on a tactic. It is not clear what the end game is. So far this has lead them to Afghanistan and Iraq and may soon spread to Iran and beyond. It is potentially a war that could go on forever and trail through the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
Personally I do not see this path as worth following. I think the way to win the 'War on Terror' is through policing, strong international cooperation, third world development assistance, peacekeeping and diplomacy - not simply attacking countries whose ideologies do not agree with our own and who are perceived as a threat.
Taking the Harper path, choosing this challenge over the other is, if nothing else, to abandon any hope of improving the environment, curbing extreme poverty or strengthening Canada internally. It would also mean abandoning Canada's international reputation as peacekeeper and honest broker.
So, choosing wholeheartedly the other path I will work to bring down Stephen Harper, his government and the ideology that fuels them. I am working with any number of people to do this but I do not know what any of their plans are after the election is over. As for me I will continue to pound away at the Conservatives. The goal, for me, is not simply to bring down the Tories but to push them to 3rd party status, not even the official opposition. I believe that the Liberals, the NDP, the Greens and even the Bloc (for as long as Quebec chooses to keep them around) bring something to the debate: Some insight into how to make a Canada that we want to live in and that we want to leave to our children and grandchildren. The Conservatives bring nothing to that debate - only a desire to lead Canada down a path that, as demonstrated by the U.S., leads off a cliff (although it does profit the very wealthy, in the short term anyway).
In conclusion I am not abandoning Arts and Culture, that will still be a primary focus of this site, I am only broadening the focus to include other areas of importance to arts and culture and the society that can, has and will support them.
As an update:
The Facebook Group: Canadians United Against Stephen Harper currently has 7,884 Members, which is up 3,262 since last friday.
The event Vote Against Stephen Harper on October 14 now has 12,837 'confirmed guests' up 6,281 since last friday with almost 23,000 invitations outstanding.
The Page Mean People Suck - which will be a permanent anti-Harper distributor of information has 197 'supporters'
and the new group Canadians Against War in Iran currently has 73 members.
There are also information pages on this site about Stephen Harper Generally and the Tory record on the environment, the economy and issues of trust soon I will add more pages and then they will all be tied together.
1 comment:
The War on Terrorism is a Lie
The war on terrorism is a lie because terrorism is not an enemy, it is a strategy.
Terrorism is a strategy employed by weaker states and non-state actors when fighting an asymmetric war against a more powerful opponent.
No state or non-state actor enters a conventional war against an enemy it has no chance of defeating conventionally.
Since the U.S. has declared that it will maintain military superiority without challenge, it has done everything in its power to do just that. The US defense budget for 2008 is some $700 billion. There is no single state or non-state actor on this planet that can defeat the United States in a conventional war.
Therefore, any single state or non-state actor that finds itself at war with the United States will be forced to fight an asymmetric war. That is, it will be forced to employ terrorism.
Therefore the war on terrorism is a war against anyone at war with the United States. Therefore the war on terrorism is a lie. It is not a war on terrorism at all, but a war to promote and defend US imperialism.
Post a Comment