tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post3659787628681403737..comments2024-03-22T05:20:44.167-07:00Comments on The Disaffected Lib: Attacked from Within, Attacked from Without.The Mound of Soundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-47450774549101182242017-09-09T13:18:34.691-07:002017-09-09T13:18:34.691-07:00I suspect you're right, Toby. That does seem t...<br />I suspect you're right, Toby. That does seem to be what Sal was getting at. There do seem to be lines of demarcation by regions but the regions are tightly integrated in some respects that would be difficult to unravel. For example in the US the Blue States essentially underwrite the Red States. Chuck Thompson has a tongue-in-cheek yet serious discussion of a modern America severed by Blue and Red lines in "Better Off Without 'Em." The South could exist as a single political entity but it's hard to imagine any further dilution resulting in viable mini-states. Even a Red State America would have its haves and have-nots.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-86279329052222322052017-09-09T13:11:13.732-07:002017-09-09T13:11:13.732-07:00John, remember how that fable ends.John, remember how that fable ends.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-52386208511266187692017-09-09T13:01:30.777-07:002017-09-09T13:01:30.777-07:00Part Two
When I began this blog in 2006 I dedicat...Part Two<br /><br />When I began this blog in 2006 I dedicated it to "the restoration of progressive democracy." I've come to realize that "progressive" is among the most misunderstood words in the realm of social and political sciences. It has a "feel good" quality that so many seek to cloak themselves in and yet many proudly self-proclaimed progressives treat it as a merit badge earned by not being as rightwing as the other party. They treat progressivism as a relative term adaptable to lists in the political keel. As Harper shifted Canada's political centre to the right, the Liberals and the New Democrats followed in trail. But, despite their pretensions, they didn't carry progressivism with them, they left it behind.<br /><br />Progressivism is a collection of principles to guide political and social affairs. It's an instrument of good, popular government and social cohesion.<br /><br />I've been delving into this subject in recent years, focusing on the Roosevelts, Theodore and Franklin. Now I'm going back a bit further. I've just secured a first edition of the 1907 book "The Meaning of Modern Life: A Course of Forty Lectures" by Charles F. Horne. It's a lengthy tome in excellent condition for its 110 years and I scored it for a paltry $15. Something of a find.<br /><br />The lectures or essays are by some of the great minds of that era - Theodore Roosevelt; Ira Remsen, President of John Hopkins University; Woodrow Wilson then President of Princeton; ax Nordau, President of Congress of Zionists; the legendary William Dean Howells, editor of "The Atlantic" and then "Dean of American Letters"; H.G.Wells; Grover Cleveland, Tolstoy; Andrew Carnegie; Caroline Hazard, Wellesley College; Simeon Baldwin and several others of that same stature. The level and diversity of intellect in this one thick book certainly seems daunting.<br /><br />The lecture titles reflect the scope of what I hope to learn: The Danger, The Beliefs, The Birth of Conscience, The Soul in Beasts, Our Country, the Making of the Nation; Patriotism and Politics; Our Past; Woman; Universal Suffrage; Society, the Role of Women in Society; Manhood; The Toilers, The Soil, Land and Its Ownership in the Past; Anarchism; War; Arbitration, The Mysteries; The Will; Our Hope; and Our Goal among them.<br /><br />The book is a time capsule of progressive thought before the advent of modernism - world wars, the Great Depression, the labour movement, modern capitalism, universal suffrage and the brief rise of the middle class. I hope this will make the writing uncluttered, perhaps less compromised. We shall see.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-18486347395178978982017-09-09T12:24:42.713-07:002017-09-09T12:24:42.713-07:00Sal, I think the way forward demands we first go b...Sal, I think the way forward demands we first go back. Think of the neoliberal era as a deadend street that gets worse, more dangerous the further down it you proceed. The only way out is to backtrack. You have to imagine that earlier, better time before we were herded down this useless road. In my thinking that takes us back before the era of Thatcher, Reagan and Mulroney, the trio who embraced Hayek and Friedman. Getting there doesn't bring us to some nirvana, anything but. It may be, however, the essential starting point for a restoration of progressive democracy.<br /><br />Imagine the enormity of that challenge. Here we stand lashed to an economic system that doesn't serve the public interest and yet we double down on it. Trudeau acts as though he's never heard the warnings of the IMF, the World Bank and others that neoliberalism is destructive of democratic society. That boy has an endless capacity for cognitive dissonance or else he's much dimmer than we imagine. Yet it doesn't work. It has to go.<br /><br />John Ralston Saul proclaimed free market fundamentalism a failed ideology back in 2005 in his book "The Collapse of Globalism." Saul noted that even flawed ideologies tend to have a shelf life of about 30 years. Neoliberalism is past due for a change. So, what's holding us back?<br /><br />Our leaders are petrified of change, waiting for someone to serve up "the next great thing" on a platter. They're waiting for change but they're not seeking it. Taking that first step is made all the more terrifying by the difficult changes now setting in at home and especially around the world. And so we're stuck with the "devil you know" dilemma. Trudeau is immensely amiable but that should never be confused with either courage or vision. He is not his father.<br /><br />I think we'll be waiting a very long time for the "next big thing" to arrive. That doesn't mean we have to abandon a progressive restoration. Whatever does come down the pike we'll be far better off if we rehabilitate liberal democracy before it arrives.<br /><br />Part Two -The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-83758360999145097072017-09-09T12:01:29.523-07:002017-09-09T12:01:29.523-07:00salamander was probably referring to this. " ...salamander was probably referring to this. " the US really has 11 separate 'nations' with entirely different cultures"<br /><br />http://www.businessinsider.com/the-11-nations-of-the-united-states-2015-7<br /><br />This idea is an old one that gets rehashed every generation. Regardless, it does have merit. Alberta and BC seem to be on different planets. Tobynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-79885287244627118822017-09-09T05:09:08.474-07:002017-09-09T05:09:08.474-07:00A Russian who seeks power will eventually settle o...A Russian who seeks power will eventually settle on a quest for the golden fish. Putin may have caught it.John B.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-30556618412086850952017-09-09T04:24:53.853-07:002017-09-09T04:24:53.853-07:00.. as always, thanks Mound .. its been very eviden..... as always, thanks Mound .. its been very evident for quite a while now, that you're likely the most significant indy 'lighthouse' warning Canadians of dangerous shoals, wicked rocks and truly confused weather.. amid disastrous climate 'evolution' - and that in fact we are all headed into uncharted waters.. <br /><br />I am measuring your disheartening message .. and wondering where the solution.. or even, what our 'heading' should be.. Since we don't know where our destination is.. how can we navigate there? What should we bring? Hell, should we be sailing on an ark? !<br /><br />I will try to refind an interesting essay I came across recently. It was by an American professor and its thesis was that the Americas will need to drop the pretense of states and provinces etc.. or individual countries per se - and instead evolve toward geographic regions, determined more by realistic function, resources, realities - a more organic structuring. Thus there would be 6 or 8 loosely defined regions. I can't off the top of my head expain better.. but must say, it made a lot of sense.. or better said, it seemed a more likely distant reality. Forget trade deals, NATO, political parties and the like. This was about the reality that the eastern seabord bore little connection to the midwest or the west coast overall. The Great Lakes was about Americans & Canadians jointly. The Carribbean was just that. And so on.<br /><br />I believe more and more we are at the abstract black tragi-comedy nadir of political parties.. They are so over, they are over.. toast.. they just don't realize how mutant, distorted & frightening they are becoming, no, have become. This is the of those of naked greed.. pissing in public on our leg and telling us its raining.. but what a fine day it is, and btw - can we count on your vote & please donate? They have our data, our voting record, & the police are onboard with them of course.. as are the government spy services, & in fact any agency they would like to employ secretly or via mainstream media to manage, massage or 'control the vote'<br /><br />I have more dark thoughts about this Mound.. and must say as I head off to work on a Saturday to help a client & help pay my bills.. that your comment about 'sedition' put a smile on my face.. I am likely nearing 15,000 tweets, many of which are extremely critical of the status quo.. and my related comments via blogs I find invaluable.. are on the record. I do wish to study and if possible, butress the Charter of Rights.. the idea and reality of Canada & Canadians.. and at the very same time understand & defend those who came before us.. ie The First Nations .. and at the root of it all.. especially in that vast complex region known as 'Canada' understand and defend the astonishing life supporting complex of Environment, Habitat & Species ..<br /><br />Put simpler.. to my last breath, I'll stand against the 'economics' espoused by political animals & related parasites. When my late great dog, a brilliant Bouvier de Flanders - The Mighty Quinn had fleas.. (hell we lived on a beach..) I might try a flea powder to provide so e relief.. but at some point I started at his head with tweezers & a metal comb.. and chased the clever cooties to the end.. the very tail. I belive that's where we are today Mound.. infested.. rats in the granary, mould on the bread.. and the water is rising..the salamanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06853337802990122289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-71612501039386816702017-09-08T23:58:32.784-07:002017-09-08T23:58:32.784-07:00It's an excellent, concise summary.
It should...It's an excellent, concise summary.<br /><br />It should be manditory reading across Canada.Jay Farquharsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03335226520940843630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-30354618575217164462017-09-08T20:16:26.313-07:002017-09-08T20:16:26.313-07:00I'm pleased you found it worthwhile, Jay.<br />I'm pleased you found it worthwhile, Jay.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-63371143270564038162017-09-08T18:56:20.874-07:002017-09-08T18:56:20.874-07:00A must readA must readJay Farquharsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03335226520940843630noreply@blogger.com