Three will do; not four, not two.
I want you to take a bit of time to dwell on this. What are the three character traits/flaws of Stephen Joseph Harper you most abhor?
Maybe you see the world differently but I have never known any politician that wasn't flawed in some way. I suppose that's a function of human nature. Those from other parties always seem more burdened with personality failures than our own. Yet even Mulroney made some good calls, several in fact. He was right on South Africa, standing his ground even against Thatcher and Reagan. He was right on the environment, especially acid rain. Some of his policies seemed wrong-headed, sure, and he was an unrepentant tout but, overall, he had the best interests of the country - as he saw them - in his heart.
I don't see any of that in the current prime minister. At this point I'm tempted to reel off some adjectives of my own to capture how I see Stephen Harper but I'll wait to read your take on the guy.
Take your time. Think it through. Go right back to the beginning of the reign of our imperial prime minister. Compare the things he has done that most irk you and, from them, identify the character traits behind them. Try to resist the inevitable urge to fall back on pejoratives for it may be within these character flaws that we'll discern Harper's true Achilles' heel and how best to exploit his vulnerabilities in 2015.
Above all else, have fun.
Above all else, have fun.
28 comments:
Arrogant.
Condescending.
Self-aggrandizing.
Small
Petty
Visionless
Cunning
Malicious
Phony
Interesting question, Mound.
Obviously, Harper is a bully.
Harper is a chronic liar. He says what he wants us to hear and he says it to hide what he doesn't want us to think about.
His most pernicious quality may be his belief that he is the smartest guy in the world. Witness his dismissal of all things scientific and of all who disagree with him. The world is as Harper says it is and that's that.
I know you asked for adjectives, Mound, but I can only think of a noun and a title: The Great Pretender. About what? Just about everything that matters to true Canadians.
To me MoS Harper is the great pretender on the no throne that he obviously thinks he is on has he taken his meds lately? The guy never had any smarts and now is running Canada into a ditch. Do you think we can save her? [Canada]
Vengeful. He has an enemy list and will attack anyone who may say anything against him or disagree with him; witness the Chief Justice attack.
Arrogant. My guess is he was bullied and now that he thinks he is on top wants to bully his bullies. Instead of understanding and rapprochement, he feels enabled to fight back (and thus lower himself to despicable).
Secretive. 'nuf said in so many ways.
Gotta think an ingredient list to mix up a dangerous sociopath.
Certainly in my lifetime I have never felt we had a prime minister who was genuinely malevolent until Harper came along. The man does not seek to serve the country, to leave it a better place than he found it. He has no respect for Parliament, its institutions and conventions, or, for that matter, democracy itself. He has a single-minded craving for power that overwhelms everything else including everything decent and right. That he is sinister is obvious from his constant resort to secrecy, unaccountability and deception.
FAT
The scary part is that Harper has as much support as he does. Dictators always have support from a portion of the masses. The nastier Harper gets the better some people like him.
Malignant
Narcissist
Sociopath.
Kim calls him a narcissist. I suppose I'm repeating her judgement if I suggest self absorbed. There's simply no one else in his world.
Here is what comes to mind fairy quickly
Secretive
Untrustworthy
Co-opted
And look Owen you got the magical time on this thread 3:33 ah all blessings to you and all posters that are positive and especially our host the "The Disaffected Lib" thank you so much for this venue Lorne!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.. its complicated .. I've discussed it with exemplary experts in mood disorders.. a recurring theme they mention is omnipotence, as well as sociopathy. Think Cadman affair as an early example & the absolute depravity involved.. and the vicious hysterical defense when called on it. Harper thrives on litigation, that's his sword and cross.
Within the bubble of those two comorbid disorders emerge individual traits.. a certain aloof geekiness, then inverted conceits, followed by deceits.. and the blink of an eye rationalization that to look after his own loftyness, others need to be told what to do.. and lashed when they don't
So malevolence, being secretive, bland, serial lying and duplicity become patterned.. toss in childish affections that never grew up - and you can add being a crude colonial monarchist to the mix.
Note the affectation of the hairpiece and how he draws attention instead to bland ill fitting suits, the boring shoes. He emblazons himself and leveraged Laureen with CANADA like some cuddly pudgy teddy bear. He is oh so harmless.. would seem. Asthma y'know..
Somewhere in the dark matrix is a shallow adopted personal evangelism.. perhaps seeing himself as an avenging or altruistic political savior of.. well uh. Israel ? Or maybe he never outgrew a cowboys and indians penchant. Certainly he sees Israel as white and Arabs as dark.. so good luck to Palestinians. Confused by Rudyard Kipling.. likely. But he'll tell you he's a christian.. prays y'know..
His weakness is himself Mound.. He needs perps weaker than him & loyal slaves who sign up, sell out.. and buy in to the power and ego trip.. and after perjuring themselves or prostituting themselves, they're caught in the web.
Look for one of these people to bail, blow him out of the water.. then will come the pile on.. as people turn on him to protect their own tainted positions, pensions or personal freedom. A Nigel or a Peter MacKay or a lawyer.. or an Eve Adams or a robowank or datawank
One of his MP's told media that Harper hid in a closet after the 10 second barrage that killed the Ottawa gunman. How's that for 'loyalty' .. or getting a future promotion from Steve or Ray Novak .. ? Eh ?
Omnipotence & Sociopathy ooze from him ..
Reading your selections and comments it dawned on me that what we need, in advance of the next election, is a Dr. Seuss book on Stephen Harper. The material is plentiful and lends itself perfectly to that sort of treatment. Stanza by stanza visiting Harper's record of excesses and abuses. It would be perfect. Would that I was the wordsmith capable of it.
Oh right Mound now you got you got me ROFL...
Can I write that book?
OK Stephen took a look @ leaving from reality and thought he was god's first right hand man. Only problem is Steve the peeve forgot to take his medicine and now his hallucinations are getting us into tribulations.
Steve you thought I was a dweeb but you and all your plebeians are no shit tack this hit go away and never come back stay in your closet forever more. God dam I'd like to settle down and have a life in peace but you have not done a thing except ruin and fleece now just leave me in peace that is all I ask from the loser in hell named Steve....
Uno dos tres cuatro cinco cinco seis siete ocho nueve in other words good bye Stephen Harper you have pissed off to many real people who had jobs all their lives that where other than mail room boys your dad got you you had none. You Steve where a casual stroller through life that never contributed but in fact work for the global 1%. I can't wait to see you in one of those sweet new prisons you are building?
I am not the best Dr. Seuss out here on the 'left coast' but I sure had fun doing this...
Cheers,
Mogs Moglio
Hunger
Treachery
Myopia
Hunger--Like many of the worst neocons, he wants more. He has no limits. He is the shark with the bottomless maw. He wants all the power, all the control, probably also all the wealth although he is patient about it. He'd much rather be dictator than prime minister, and would prefer rule of the US or the world to rule of Canada if he could figure how to swing it. As long as any independent decision is being made anywhere he will not be satisfied; he wishes he could micromanage every last functionary and employee through the entire government or even the entire country. If he could he'd police our thoughts and control what we dream at night.
There are many psychopaths in the world. Lots of them never do anything too horrible, but it's the ones with that HUNGER who become the leaders who commit crimes against humanity.
Treachery--He is treacherous in large and in small. He backstabs his underlings whenever it's convenient. But his whole political career is an act of treachery, in which he claims to be a Canadian seeking to serve Canada when he is in fact seeking ultimately to serve only himself, and proximately mainly to serve foreign multinationals (especially oil ones) and their local wealthy-class satraps, by delivering those he claims to serve into their clutches. Since there is no shred of integrity in the underpinning of his entire approach, it is unsurprising that there is no specific tactic too unethical for him, no individual betrayal or vengeance too petty.
Myopia--Despite his world-spanning ambition and greed and the comprehensiveness of his treachery, his view of even his personal benefits goes no further than the nose on his face. Patient as stone when it comes to slow step-by-step tactics to achieve damage, he resolutely avoids looking into any aspect of the future which might suggest his own benefit would require thinking of the benefit of anyone else. He refuses to see things like global warming, or the economic instability of the deeply unequal economy he's fostering, or the existential nuclear threat involved in pushing conflict with Russia. Sure, at some level he knows about these things--but obviously he's capable of telling himself that he'll still be fine, that none of this stuff can touch him even if it screws the rest of us proles. But it clearly can, and if he were capable of looking a bit farther even a man as vicious and selfish as Harper would have different policy objectives. It's, again, a common failing everywhere in the establishment but it infuriates me that Harper, this supposedly intelligent man, this patient grinder who picks away at long term objectives, cannot see an inch ahead of him in more important ways.
Those are the three I dislike the most. Vindictiveness is just as foundational a part of his personality, as is (although he manages to keep it mainly out of the public view) narcissism, but those bother me marginally less. And of course there are many, many more . . . with that package we also get sociopathy, mendacity, arrogance, petty cruelty . . . the list goes on.
Purple Library Guy...
Brilliant I think you got the award. For best Dr. Seuss hey what can I say I can't stand Harper closet Queen either...
Franke James seems to fit your Dr Seuss bookster
http://www.frankejames.com/what-is-harper-afraid-of/
http://www.frankejames.com/
http://www.frankejames.com/what-can-one-person-do/
No sense of homour.
Entitled.
Denialist. Anyong
Puppet, Elitist, Arrogant
Psychopathic, evangelical end of times religious fanatic who is as bald as a baboons ass all kept in the closet!!! LMFAO
Really hard to stop at three, but here goes:
A) vindictive - like Nixon,
B) all-controlling - like any fascist you care to mention,
C) soul-less - like Putin, he has dead eyes.
(By Andy)
My first boss coined a term that always stuck with me around recognizing those folks who are not what they portray themselves to be. I can't think of a better description for our long-serving prime minister: an empty suit. Emptiness from so many levels. Although we don't elect our leaders in this country, they come to be by default to their party and we're stuck with them, so a leader with zero charisma, no real communication skills, no vision (other than that of his rich connections), no respect for anyone who is a "follower" of the person in leadership, in other words, no real leadership qualities. This list goes on. For all we know about leadership, this guy is not. I could take any adjective others have provided to describe harper, but empty suit fits him best. There are two key aspects of his "legacy" that annoy me the most. Firstly how he is an unapologetic climate denier and it strikes me that when the media presents a climate related story, such as global's story yesterday on how the northwest will be the eutopia, that there is no mention that this means nothing to our steve. Secondly the economy. The man brilliantly latched onto the word at the right moment of the financial collapse and has taken credit for everything positive, while meanwhile dismantling everything that will ensure long term sustainability. This I'm afraid is going to be the key component that ensures we are truly stuck with this man for many years to come. I feel he is not going away any time soon.
BCW, what's this business about a Global story that the northwest will be utopia? As you know, a lot of us coastal denizens are a bit paranoid about a deluge of newcomers.
This one:
http://globalnews.ca/news/1750950/scientist-predicts-mass-exodus-of-climate-change-refugees-to-pacific-northwest/?utm_source=Article&utm_medium=MostPopular&utm_campaign=2014
By the way, happy new year Mound, regular reader here, enjoy your depth of analysis and insight as always. Cheers!
Me too BCWB and MOS let us turn this around...
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