Critical Perspectives and Reflections

Starting with Discontents Ideology is one of the more misunderstood terms we have commonly heard enunciated and/or thrown around in common daily discourse. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember. It has been, and is, described by many as a “straight jacket’ on our thinking, or some set of beliefs that work so that people misunderstand the world, as in, “Well, that’s just his/her ideology talking”, or “s/he is so ideological”. This is a charge that I hear particularly about those of us who use a left wing, socially progressive framework in attempting to make sense of the world.1 We also see the same charge levelled at those who consider themselves conservatives or liberals. The assumption is that the person has been tricked or browbeaten into believing some irrational or harmful notion, by elites or charismatic leaders or by reading some unfortunate literature that was found lying around. Of course, this can be true. It happens. A Definition My colleague Mirna Carranza and I h...

While not in great numbers, there are Canadians going to Ukraine to fight Russians. I certainly understand folks with Ukrainian heritage wishing to go, and to a lesser extent, veterans of military age wishing to join the fight. But beyond concerns about what will happen if they get captured…, simply put, the Russians will shoot them on the spot, bet on it…my thoughts on totally untrained civilians wishing to go to war are certainly a horse of a different colour. I’m here to tell you war isn’t a game. War is miserable, vile and shows mankind at our worst. War is best left to professional warriors or folks with skin in the game who have no choice. Ukraine is openly recruiting foreign nationals with experience, rightly so, in the profession of arms. While totally untrained folks, with high ideals or a sense of adventure wish to join, the Embassy of Ukraine is doing the wise and responsible thing; turning these well-meaning civilians away, with a thanks but no thanks. Indeed ex-military pe...

This nation just went through a Hillbilly Insurrection and yes, folks paid attention. We got to see with our own eyes what this “Freedumb” Fighter, deliberate anti vaxxer cult really is. Basically, an episode of Beavis and Butthead only the white supremacist version, with trucks and a hot tub. Have we not expended enough energy on this cult of fools?! Yes, I know we have to deal with their temper tantrums. Lord knows the Chinese makers of their flags thought it was the 4th of July in Canada. For all the flag waving over the past three weeks, as a nation, I am ashamed to say… We have yet again all but forgotten about the first Canadians, the First Nations. Perhaps going forward we need to spare some of that pent up energy in righting the wrongs of all Canadian governments, including the current versions. Off hand can anyone tell me the number of First Nations children’s graves that have been located thus far? Even a guess, say within 20? No? At what point can we start thinking seriously...

THOUGHT ONE: THE YEARNING FOR NEUTRALITY Every so often I run into someone, see a letter to the editor in a newspaper, or a post on Facebook suggesting that the person thinks it is important to stay neutral in terms of the various convoy/blockade actions. They may not trust the media, at least unreservedly; or they may see “faults on both sides” (How many sides are without fault in any political issue?); they may be concerned that they will only “add fuel to the feelings of anger and polarization in society”; finally, others want to stay neutral because they don’t believe in talking about politics. Frankly, while I can have some minor sympathy with the concern about the media, but not a whole lot in this case, the others seem naïve and self-serving at best, cowardly at worst. And the idea of avoiding political discussion, even when it is contentious, seems to me to be a raw dereliction of civic duty. Fortunately, I am in good company. Many thoughtful, social-political philosophers have...

So, the so-called “freedom convoy” descended on the nation’s capital on the weekend. Though not as many as Fox, so-called, News would like to pretend, there were many, many, participants of the truck convoy assault on Ottawa, protesting vaccine mandates and generally swanking around like a gang of bikers invading a small town (See the film, The Wild One). Some, though a minority, were even truckers. Here is a list of the major actions for which they will be duly remembered. The production of one of the most undemocratic and dumbest manifestoes ever written, the misnamed, “Memorandum of Understanding” in which they demanded that our unelected Governor General and the unelected Senate join forces, “fire” the duly elected government and roll back all mandates that the authors didn’t like. In practical terms they: * Defiled the Terry Fox statue. * Defiled the National War Memorial. * Flew Confederate flags. * Displayed Nazi swastikas. * Intimidated and hurled insults at fellow Canadians. ...

  I suspect I am not alone in remembering that I was taught in high school English class that Shakespeare’s great tragedy, Hamlet, was about a man who simply could not make up his mind to take action and get vengeance for the murder of his father. The lesson that Shakespeare was laying down for us, we were told, was that Hamlet dithered, was indecisive, and that his failure to act decisively led to his own downfall and the death of others. But that was, and is, a superficial reading of the play. I had the opportunity while at university in Houston, of studying under, and knowing, a very perceptive English professor and my mentor, who helped his students understand the real tragedy. It is one that has never left me and a teaching that I urge all of us to think about. What we learned in that English class was that the real tragedy of Hamlet was more social and political than personal. It was not simply that he was indecisive but that, more importantly, he refused to acknowledge and u...

  There is a quiet campaign circulating, on social and traditional media, pleading the case for delaying the advertising of Christmas events until after November 11th. This day has long been set aside for the observance of Remembrance for the price many men and women have paid over the years, as members of Canada’s armed services, who have either died, or been injured, whether physically, mentally or emotionally, from their involvement in one or the other of our military engagements. I’m not a big fan of the military (I came back to Canada to avoid the USA Draft in the 1960s) nor am I always happy with the way in which Observance Days have been shaped and presented. At the same time however, I understand the logic and need for a day to focus on the men and women who have suffered from their time in the services. They deserve some serious thought and consideration. Having the juggernaut, that is the Christmas season, intrude on that one special day seems needlessly thoughtless and h...

I have come to believe more firmly over the years that a history of family wealth and privilege results in the production of people, mostly men, who are a pretty unfit lot to have their hands on the levers of power. Anne Applebaum (2020) has outlined the rank corruption and incompetence of a number of leaders from the monied classes that, she believes, are part of the gradual destruction of democracy in various parts of Europe1. From Boris Johnson in Great Britain to Victor Orban in Hungary she paints a dismal picture of their self-absorbed personalities and their ripping and tearing at the fabric of democratic life in their respective countries. She mentions the poster boy for anti-democratic leaders, D.J. Trump of course, but her focus is much wider. I would like to briefly discuss examples much closer to home, of how the rich and privileged seem unfit to govern a democracy. Here in Canada, there was a rather funny and very truthful cartoon making the rounds which represents the cont...

It’s not surprising that not many people know that October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. While a lot of people have heard about dyslexia not very many have much understanding of it and may in fact possess some misunderstanding. This little piece is based on a brief comment that I posted on Facebook. It was to recognize those of us who wrestle with the condition of dyslexia, but even more, for those who don’t and are unaware of the problems it causes and the ways people deal with them. Dyslexia is usually referred to as a learning disorder. It is more complex than that and if we stop at that it can be misleading. Scientific research shows that children and adults, who have dyslexia, process information differently from non-dyslexics. It involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Called a reading disability, it can involve writing and doing math as well. Very simply put, dyslexia effects areas of the ...

"The police are the public and the public are the police." – Robert Peel While reports of improper actions are not as front and centre, at the moment, the failure of society to take seriously the problem of the dysfunctional sense of privilege and impunity that is so apparent in policing is still a real problem. As well, there is an unfortunate deference to the institution (with the exception of the calls to “Defund Police”) that has existed in our society which hampers our ability to critically examine and act to get a hold of the problem. The deference seems to be centered on a mythology that has grown and that must be confronted and countered. Last year (September of 2020) on CBC Radio's Sunday Edition the then host, Michael Enright, made a few cogent comments about the myths surrounding policing in Canada. Dangerous Work He noted that one of the myths is that police have a particularly dangerous work environment and stated that in reality it is not a dangerous occupat...