Tweet
So, from what I understand, Brigitte DePape (sp?) is a parliamentary page in Canada who held up a sign which said "Stop Harper" during the throne speech. I'm given to understand the Throne Speech is not unlike America's yearly State of the Union.
I've watched some videos with her, and what struck me more than anything else was her comparison of what she did to the "Arab Spring", the spate of protests in the middle each which lead to regimes changing in several countries, and the current Libyan Civil War. This bothers me, because while I don't claim to be an expert on Canada's politics, I think that there was just an election. As far as I can tell, the election was fair, without fraud, and at the very least can be said to actually have been held.
All this revolutionary talk, first in the US with the Tea Party, then Australia's Rise Up Party, and now her, bothers me. People who aren't in the majority are acting like they're being brutally oppressed. It feels like we're getting... Hubristic, I suppose. Even if Harper is as bad as I hear it said he is, he's still not a brutal dictator. Americans, Canadians, and Australians all have an outlet to express themselves. If we don't like our government, we can change it. The Canadians and the Australians especially, because they can have elections virtually at any time. Especially Canada, which just finished an election. But even Americans, who in some cases may have to wait all of four years before changing their government, have expression. We don't need to take to the streets and talk about revolution. Our system is working fine.
I was hoping we'd get some perspective out of this whole Arab Spring deal. We'd get people to look at what happened in the Middle East and say "Wow. At least Obama/Harper/Gillard isn't THAT bad." But its had an opposite effect. What we're getting instead is "We're revolutionaries, just like them!" We've seen it in America. Then in Australia. Now in Canada. A revolution of hubris.
So I find DePape's comparison insulting. Insulting to the revolutionaries who have been beaten, imprisoned, and killed in the name of democracy. The right to vote, to choose their own leaders, something which, as far as I know, Canada just did. There's no need for an uprising, because we are better than that. Not better than revolting against the government. I can only pray we would have the courage to do that if we were truly being oppressed, truly dealing with power-mad dictators. But we are better than the dictators. We have free, open democracies. We can debate about who's 'more free' if we want, but we're all really free. We don't need a revolution to change things, because we know we have the right to choose. I hope we would have the strength if we needed to.
I just wish we had the wisdom to know we don't.
I've watched some videos with her, and what struck me more than anything else was her comparison of what she did to the "Arab Spring", the spate of protests in the middle each which lead to regimes changing in several countries, and the current Libyan Civil War. This bothers me, because while I don't claim to be an expert on Canada's politics, I think that there was just an election. As far as I can tell, the election was fair, without fraud, and at the very least can be said to actually have been held.
All this revolutionary talk, first in the US with the Tea Party, then Australia's Rise Up Party, and now her, bothers me. People who aren't in the majority are acting like they're being brutally oppressed. It feels like we're getting... Hubristic, I suppose. Even if Harper is as bad as I hear it said he is, he's still not a brutal dictator. Americans, Canadians, and Australians all have an outlet to express themselves. If we don't like our government, we can change it. The Canadians and the Australians especially, because they can have elections virtually at any time. Especially Canada, which just finished an election. But even Americans, who in some cases may have to wait all of four years before changing their government, have expression. We don't need to take to the streets and talk about revolution. Our system is working fine.
I was hoping we'd get some perspective out of this whole Arab Spring deal. We'd get people to look at what happened in the Middle East and say "Wow. At least Obama/Harper/Gillard isn't THAT bad." But its had an opposite effect. What we're getting instead is "We're revolutionaries, just like them!" We've seen it in America. Then in Australia. Now in Canada. A revolution of hubris.
So I find DePape's comparison insulting. Insulting to the revolutionaries who have been beaten, imprisoned, and killed in the name of democracy. The right to vote, to choose their own leaders, something which, as far as I know, Canada just did. There's no need for an uprising, because we are better than that. Not better than revolting against the government. I can only pray we would have the courage to do that if we were truly being oppressed, truly dealing with power-mad dictators. But we are better than the dictators. We have free, open democracies. We can debate about who's 'more free' if we want, but we're all really free. We don't need a revolution to change things, because we know we have the right to choose. I hope we would have the strength if we needed to.
I just wish we had the wisdom to know we don't.
Comment