During a California wildfire rescue workers ran out of crates to place rescued animals, forcing them to put a fawn and a bobcat kitten in an office together. When they got back they found that fawn and the bobcat cuddling and the pair became inseparable. Yes, compassion,
Continue readingTag: political theory
Parchment in the Fire: Debt and Democracy
While this was written by Cicero in 44 BCE, after the assassination of Caesar and a year before Antony had Cicero murdered, the sentiment can be heard in today republicans–particularly those associated with the Tea Party. Any attempt at redistribution, according to Cicero, threatens the very foundation of the republic,
Continue readingIlluminated By Street Lamps: Liberty: Revealing J.S. Mill As A Visionary And J.J Rousseau As A Totalitarian
By Joe Fantauzzi @jjfantauzzi At the core of many modern democracies is the concept of freedom. Variations of the word “free” appear 27 times in the text of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.[1] “Liberty” appears in the preamble of the Constitution of the United States.[2] But the nature of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – Toby Sanger asks who really bears the risk when governments agree to hand over billions to the private sector through P3 arrangements: While Canada may be one of the leaders in the market for P3s, we’re far from a leader when it
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: A Q&A on Syria and the “Responsibility to Protect”
What is “Responsibility to Protect”? “Responsibility to Protect,” or R2P, is a doctrine that grew out of a 2001 report by the Canadian-established International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS). Unanimously endorsed as a general principle by the UN General Assembly four years later, R2P carries a hefty moral
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that to end your weekend. – Dave Coles introduces readers to the Cons’ latest attack on labour – with a backbencher’s private member’s bill again serving as an excuse to introduce unprecedent restrictions on union organization. – Michael Harris suspects that the Cons’ attempt to delay any public
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Top Priorities of the 21st Century
If I were asked what I felt were the top priorities facing human beings today, in the 21st century, I would have to say there are four that top the list, in my mind. 1. Halt the global corporate coup. Defeat the corporate war on democracy, which is now escalating
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: A Socialist’s Lament
Let’s be clear about one thing: the New Democratic Party of Canada was never a socialist party. For all the hands wrung and tears shed over its newly amended constitution, the NDP, since its formation in 1961, has always been a social democratic party like any other, and social democracy
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: A Socialist’s Lament
Let’s be clear about one thing: the New Democratic Party of Canada was never a socialist party. For all the hands wrung and tears shed over its newly amended constitution, the NDP, since its formation in 1961, has always been a social democratic party like any other, and social democracy
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Reflections on democracy
There is a global war on democracy underway, and if it is not addressed, our future will be bleak. But let us start with the ground work of democracy, and follow from there. Simple majority rule is accurately described as the tyranny of the majority; hence the need for constitutional
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Defining a Liberal identity in a narrowing political spectrum
The reality of the narrowing political spectrum in Canada is a huge problem for the Federal Liberals as they go about choosing their next leader. I discussed some of the factors behind this declining political space in my previous post, but in this post I turn my attention specifically to
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: A 30,000 foot view of the Canadian political landscape
In this post I investigate the 30,000 foot view of the Canadian political landscape, and consider various factors for what I consider to be a defining political trend of the last several decades: the declining political space between parties. Room for three parties:Wind back the clock to the 70s and
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: False Flags and Vapour Trails: Reflections on Conspiracy Theory
Yesterday, I attended a talk here in Vancouver by author and activist Yves Engler, promoting his latest book The Ugly Canadian: Stephen Harper’s Foreign Policy. While the talk was very informative, most of the entertainment came during the question-and-answer session … Continue reading →
Continue readingbastard.logic: Has Centralization of Power to the PMO Put Canadian Democracy on Life Support?
Don Lenihan has a must-read column up today, on how centralization of power to the Prime Minister’s office over the past several decades has atrophied the connection Canadians — especially youth — had with our government, and what he believes this could mean for Canada’s system of democracy: In the early 1970s,
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The N-Party Problem
There is a famous problem in classical mechanics, a branch of physics, called the n-body problem. While interesting in its own right, the problem can be used as an analogy that is illustrative towards politics; in particular, the issue of predicting long term trends of political systems with two or
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Occupy Wall Street: The emerging global pro-democracy movement, where it stands, what it means, and where we go from here
The Occupy Wall Street movement, which has already become a global grassroots populist pro-democracy movement, if we have eyes to see, has clearly already won a broad and growing base of support. What is needed now, I believe, is to further clarify and…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Earth Overshoot Day – cause for a pause to reflect
Yesterday, September 27, the Global Footprint Network declared as Earth Overshoot Day: the day that humans have used up all renewable resources available for the year. Not good. This obviously cannot continue. Limitless growth in material consumption a…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The schizoid nature of the Western world: Overcoming the root paradox of Western civilization – and our own minds
The Western world is still trapped in a paradox and a self-contradiction of our own making: we are schizoid with regards to the body, the material world and to our physicality. On the one hand, we have, as people of the modern world, embraced our physi…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Word to the bland, blasé and banal – apathy is living death
A song came on the radio today that I have loved all my life – except this time, it was a cover, and it spoke something to me that I would like to share. It was a jazz cover of “Ode to Billy Joe.” That might be fine, and might work well, but the …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On monstrous effects
One of my personal favourite villains in political theory is the “utility monster”. In response to the utilitarian theory that we can simply sum up citizens’ preferences to determine what policies should be pursued, one of the most obvious counterargum…
Continue reading