Never Surrender
I pray the more pessimistic among us, who have warned us, such as Orwell and Huxley and many others, are wrong. We must, in any event, do everything in our…
authoritarianism
Is Alberta “slipping into authoritarianism”?
Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), sees a disturbing trend in the province. He suggests that, under the rule of Jason Kenney and his UCP,…
Know Your Enemy
Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will be victorious. – Sun Tzu * Never underestimate what a few individuals will do in pursuit of wealth, privilege, or power.…
Personal Sovereignty, Body Sovereignty – The Foundation Of A Free Society
All our laws rest on constitutional law. All constitutional law rests on habeus corpus, and “the Great Writ”, the Magna Carta. The central axiom and ultimate foundation of all rule…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Iglika Ivanova examines who has lost jobs to COVID-19, and who needs public support to be able to return to the workforce.…
Covid-19 In Perspective: An Open Letter
The following letter I wrote and sent out in response to a virtual town hall meeting this evening with our local MP and a local environmental group. I am sharing…
What Is Fascism?
Disturbingly, many people don’t know what fascism is. Many more think they know, but do not. Here is a brief definition. It is critical that we understand this, and right…
Marcus Aurelius & The Delusions Of Authoritarianism
Marcus Aurelius is an interesting character, and in some respects I imagine he is deserving of the adulation that has been heaped upon him. (He showed the best and the…
Church & State, Business & State: Restoring Freedom & Democracy, Before They Are Completely Devoured By Medical Martial Law, Or By Any Other Means
In the near future, we could very easily see the kind of totalitarian society with a theocratic face that Margaret Atwood warned us about in, A Hand Maid’s Tale…
Race, Class, Empire & Authoritarianism
The new empire we live under is a global neofeudal corporate imperialism, which is now morphing into fascism, to be precise. It is systemically racist, self-deluded, and culturally arrogant in…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Martin Birt writes that we can never again ignore the importance and value of the people performing essential work. And Jennifer Keesmat argues…
Covid-1984: The Worst Of Both Worlds
With covid-1984, which is a virus that is statistically as dangerous as the common flu, we have taken extreme, draconian, authoritarian measures. In short, we have dangerously and vastly over-reacted,…
Distance Yourself From Evil, Not People
The Boycott Big Tech Movement Begins Here First rule: Question everything, and think for yourself. Second rule: Don’t support your slavers. (Gandhi, MLK and Thoreau would understand. It’s time for…
Lessons In Liberty, Democracy, and Eternal Vigilance
Here are some important lessons in liberty, democracy and civil rights: From the eloquence of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Too bad our politicians, pundits and intellectuals typically lack such uncommon common…
The end of Bernie, the beginning of the Revolution
I was and am a supporter or Bernie Sanders, like Ron Paul before him, because he truly represents the interests of constitutional democracy, and the rule of the people, by…
Video Calls: Communication In A Hyper-Connected & Deeply Dissociated Society
Thoughtful commentators to the Smithsonian and BBC recently “recommended limiting video calls to only those that are necessary. Petriglieri adds that positioning the video screen to your side may make…
Work and Workaholism: Puritanism, and A Day Off
This morning when I got up, feeling exhausted again from the on-going 30-year stint of sleeplessness and insomnia, I thought, I should take a day off – considering I pretty…
The Real Resistance: Lessons From History
It does not require a majority to defeat tyranny and defend liberty, but only a small and dedicated minority – as we saw in the American and French Revolutions,…
Glenn Gould On Orwell
Yo, listen up, blokes! (He says, in order to mash and mangle and generally have fun with various voices, inflections, accents and colloquilisms, as Gould was fond of doing himself,…
“Conspiracy Theory”
Remember what Chomsky said, summing it up perfectly: “The term “conspiracy theory” is used to poo-poo institutional analysis.” Exactly. And what does that mean? It means the phrase was coined…