[Dave Ruston]

Well I have to agree with you that the words uttered by this Steacy character are the words of another useful idiot. I'm also not convinced that the Canadian Human Rights Commission really cares about human rights. To me, if some concept of REAL freedom materializes, I don't care where it comes from, be it America, China, or Mars! Besides, if we don't have free speech we don't have freedom! Like Stalin said," Ideas are more dangerous than weapons. So if we don't allow the people to have weapons, why would we let them have ideas?" To reject pillars of freedom, regardless of their origin, is the epitome of stupidity.

[RickW]

Individualist Individualist:

Well, in the minds of some, our shared belief in free speech makes us un-Canadian. As Dean Steacy of the Canadian Human Rights Commission put it, "Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I don't give it any value... It's not my job to give value to an American concept."

So you have given an acknowledgement that this country was founded on the concept of the wise father directing the fortunes and welfare of his offspring - something we (the collective we) cling to in this day and age. That there are some, such as Dave Ruston, who would buck this notion, may be labelled an "awakening". But it in no way signifies a paradigm. In point of fact, the US has become functionally tired of being the "rugged individual" even though it retains the fiction. In a world of entirely too many people, there is little room for the aforesaid "rugged individual".

[Individualist]

RickW RickW:

So you have given an acknowledgement that this country was founded on the concept of the wise father directing the fortunes and welfare of his offspring - something we (the collective we) cling to in this day and age. That there are some, such as Dave Ruston, who would buck this notion, may be labelled an "awakening". But it in no way signifies a paradigm. In point of fact, the US has become functionally tired of being the "rugged individual" even though it retains the fiction. In a world of entirely too many people, there is little room for the aforesaid "rugged individual".

Well, I admit that the governing philosophy underlying the Laurentian Consensus was based around authoritarian collectivism, paternalism and deference to elites. But there were always sizable numbers of Canadians, clustered mainly outside of Central Canada and outside of the larger cities, who felt differently about the role of the state versus that of the individual. The individual need not be rugged. He need merely reject the cage, not matter how gilded its bars.

Dave has reminded me that there are still Canadians on the left side of the spectrum who have libertarian traits. Interesting enough, one finds those more frequently on the far left in Canada than the centre-left, the occupants of which have placed all their faith in the state and in "activist" social/economic policies enacted by such. The centre-left is still stuck in the Trudeau-Lewis paradigm. For such people, the individual is merely a problem to be solved, or suppressed to the point where it is no longer noticeable.

[RickW]

The individual cannot exist without acknowledging he is but one of the whole - the "collective" if you will. John Donne said it well.

[Individualist]

RickW RickW:

The individual cannot exist without acknowledging he is but one of the whole - the "collective" if you will.

My problem with your above statement is the "but". Each of us is much more than just the sum of our group affiliations. Each of us is more than just a unit of society. Each of us is part of a larger whole, but at the same time also a whole in and of ourselves.

You seem to have trouble seeing the trees for the forest. It must bug you that we have a charter within our constitution devoted to individual rights and establishing limits on the extent to which the "collective" can dictate individual behaviour and thought, to which the Dean Steacy's of the world form an unfortunate counter-current. Your idealized "wise father" may be a "benevolent" tyrant, but is a tyrant nonetheless.

The irony, of course, is that no "collective" can survive without those bold individuals who resist groupthink, challenge "received wisdom" and refuse to speak the shibboleths of the group.

RickW RickW:

John Donne said it well.

We may not be islands, but some of us aspire to be peninsulas.

[gaulois]

I gather Vive will live on ... for now

[DrCaleb]

gaulois gaulois:

I gather Vive will live on ... for now

Zombie Vive . . . but it will continue as long as Trevor gives it server space.

[RickW]

Individualist Individualist:

We may not be islands, but some of us aspire to be peninsulas.

Like never sailing out of sight of land.....?