Stupidity
I don't share the desire of many Canadian conservatives to move to the United States. I personally don't even look to the United States as much of a model to aspire to. (I used to, but not anymore) To begin with, even when it comes to issues of big government, the "nanny state", personal freedom, and so on, the United States isn't all that different than Canada. Just look at the recent American debate on Social Security. George W. Bush made incredibly reasonable noises about cutting retirement benefits in order to insure the long-term solvency of what is, by any objective measure, an immoral ponzi scheme, and his poll numbers dropped 10 points.
On another front, the Supreme Court (which was mostly appointed by Republican Presidents) recently ruled against basic property rights. Anyways, I'm getting a bit off-topic. The point of this post was to highlight the feature of American society that DOES draw in many Canadian conservatives, and that is a high-level of patriotism and nationalism.
I've oddly grown a bit suspicious of high-levels of patriotism and nationalism over the past few months, and I've come to realize that one of the things I like best about Canada is its sort of anti-nationalism and I would essentially love Canada if that anti-nationalism did not cause the mediocrity and dependency that it breeds. The reason I've grown suspicious is because of the incredibly stupid things that people feel and do because of nationalistic fervor. Irrational emotional stupidity clouds every shred of logic sometimes, which is exactly what happened yesterday when the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment to ban... flag-burning. They're trying to push through a constitutional amendment to limit free speech and quell dissent. They're trying to censor forms of expression that they don't agree with. I can't comprehend a single logical argument in favour of the ban. Why not ban the burning of other "symbols" of America too, like the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, etc.?
It's just really, really, really stupid.
On another front, the Supreme Court (which was mostly appointed by Republican Presidents) recently ruled against basic property rights. Anyways, I'm getting a bit off-topic. The point of this post was to highlight the feature of American society that DOES draw in many Canadian conservatives, and that is a high-level of patriotism and nationalism.
I've oddly grown a bit suspicious of high-levels of patriotism and nationalism over the past few months, and I've come to realize that one of the things I like best about Canada is its sort of anti-nationalism and I would essentially love Canada if that anti-nationalism did not cause the mediocrity and dependency that it breeds. The reason I've grown suspicious is because of the incredibly stupid things that people feel and do because of nationalistic fervor. Irrational emotional stupidity clouds every shred of logic sometimes, which is exactly what happened yesterday when the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment to ban... flag-burning. They're trying to push through a constitutional amendment to limit free speech and quell dissent. They're trying to censor forms of expression that they don't agree with. I can't comprehend a single logical argument in favour of the ban. Why not ban the burning of other "symbols" of America too, like the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, etc.?
It's just really, really, really stupid.
posted by Japnaam Singh at
1:21 PM
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