There is an old tale that if you put a live frog in a pot of water, and put it on the stove, he will quite happily enjoy the warmth, and by the time he realizes the water is getting too warm he is too weakened to jump out, and gets cooked. Keep that in mind as you read on.
The feudal society we are descended from consisted of nobility and serfs. This division was maintained in a couple of ways, one being serfs couldn’t own anything. Nobility owned all the means of production, basically the land, and even what industry there was. Flour can be made from wheat manually using a hand-sized milling stone; when wind or water-powered flour mills became common, it was illegal and severely punished for a commoner/serf to even own a hand-powered millstone! Can’t have working folk compete with the capitalist nobility!
Perhaps more importantly, only the nobility was allowed to ‘bear arms’ – nobility commonly wore a dagger or even a sword on their belt, and part of their upbringing was training to use them. To be sure nobility prevailed in any dispute; serfs were not allowed to have any kind of weapons.
The pioneers and pattern for our society was the Puritans in New England – they declared that every man was a free and equal citizen, each owning his own land (they were mostly small farmers) and whatever property he earned; each responsible for the success or failure of his family. Each had an equal right to be heard and to vote in their very democratic local government. Their society was based on Christian principles, people lived in multi-generational families, which were mutually supportive, and in communities which again were mutually supportive. They were expected to bear arms, to do their part to defend their community against interlopers or Mother Nature. Some would be more successful than others, but there would not be super rich or super poor, the community was a great leveler.
This society was our western society up till say 50 years ago; the most successful in history, resulting in prosperity for all who embraced it. Engendering all the technological progress of these past 200 years.
Now it is under attack. All these principles have been eroded away especially in recent decades. Personal responsibility has been being taken over by government regulation all the way back to Prohibition. Christian ethics such as families with a father and a mother are being ridiculed in our schools, and laughed at by recent generations. Communities working together, rich helping poor and so on are discouraged by government interference.
It has been said there are two sides to humanity. One, we like to be looked after, someone else takes responsibility and we just enjoy. The other, we need to be useful, to contribute to our community, and to be responsible for our own future and that of our family. That of course is the split between left and right, and a society with a proper balance might be the best way to go; we are looked after as kids, as adults we do our part to make a mark, make a contribution we can take pride in, and in old age we are looked after again. The frog was quite comfortable.
But sadly we have strayed off that balance, and place far more emphasis on being looked after than contributing our share – we teach ‘self-esteem’ and not ‘responsibility’; we will ‘look after’ the unemployed rather than encourage free enterprise which creates jobs; we have the spectacle of government folks assuming they are much smarter than you and they will regulate you in every aspect of your life – the frog is heating up.
And so it goes. We in Canada lost our right to property in our Constitution in the 80’s, and with that our personal freedom and equal citizenship. Water just a bit warmer, we didn’t notice. We lost our democracy when our parties were allowed to ban any dissenting opinion from any of their members – our MP’s became mere puppets, unable to represent the views of those who elected them. Water getting hot, still didn’t notice. Pushed by a biased press, our political parties lost their mojo, instead of standing for something; they merely make petty criticisms of each other.
Worst of all we lost our democratic foundation when we decided that our Prime Minister would appoint the Governor-General (Or fire her!). Let me explain that item – our democracy was built on Royalty – our King or Queen was empowered and expected to enforce the constitutional rights of the people by in effect firing a government they judged to be out of line. Example, if the government lost a serious vote in the house, it was required to dissolve itself and call an election. This happened for example when Joe Clark was Prime Minister. But there have been several similar situations since our Governor General became the prime minister’s lackey, and of course no election was called. Water very hot, the frog still didn’t notice, we are being looked after.
So in traditional, Magna Carta Canada, if a Prime Minister was to declare an election unnecessary and he would just carry on as a dictator, the Governor-General (King) was obliged to intervene, and the military would respond as an agent of the King. But now, who or what is to stop him?
I am worried. I would suggest that when our PM declares we have a national emergency which only he can handle, so no election should be called, or that an election is flawed and he will have to carry on as dictator, that would be the point at which the frog, our traditional Canadian way of life, dies in the boiling water of our diseased society. Shades of Venezuela.
So, what can you do about it? I don’t know. Another metaphor from a farm boy, say the chickens are peacefully wandering around in their pen when a fat grasshopper jumps in. Hallelujah, lunch! The chickens all chase that grasshopper as he hops around until he jumps out of the pen, sorry, no lunch!
Our political parties are behaving a lot like those chickens, hard to decide which to bet on, maybe should bet on the quiet old hen who has been munching the delicious worms the mainstream chickens didn’t notice as they focus on the grasshopper! Or at least get out of short-term debt and keep the pantry full!