Canada - Let's Talk Culture

It is curious to me that there are a group(s) of people who see fit to pass judgment on others' chosen way of life – whether it be diet, social habits – and the like.  They make observations, and engage in the application of various sources of pain from a position of anonymity – and never engage in discourse or debate to defend or support their position.  The challenge I have is that most times they are unclear on the criteria they are acting on: they execute in a subjective soup.

The propensity to remain anonymous builds a culture absent of accountability and impairs attributing responsibility for errant actions. It reduces people from people of substance to something less desirable. The random application of pain or discord is a tactic used very effectively by Stalin and others to quell the population’s inclination for self-advancement – in Stalin’s case, the random shooting of citizens was used to ensure the population's head stayed down – they lived in a state of surrender. Anonymity breeds underhandedness, one realizes that in the defence of good underhandedness can be a virtue; however, to make a habit of it in daily life is undesirable.

Are we culturally permitted to ignore the rights of others and to simply ignore the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the preeminent document to direct human interface in Canada?  If the right to hold domain over one’s mind, body, and property and to have a private life is no longer held sacred, then what is the society we are building? If an individual’s autonomy is taken by the anonymous, and all in authority turn a blind eye, have we taken rights and replaced them with corruption. There are many types of corruption, corruption is the permitting conduct that deviates from the stated modalities of conduct as prescribed by the government we all share; in Canada, it is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that defines the social contract. We can congregate, form allegiance and within a defined private association engage in whatever life modalities we choose - the Charter gives us that. HOWEVER, when you are handed a mandate by the government of Canada, you're bound to exercise yourself within that mandate in COMPLETE accord with the Charter. When historical conduct comes up against what the Charter says, in officialdom, the Charter Rules. If in governance we permit infidelity to occur between action and the principles expressed in the Charter - then we will stop being governed, and might and mass will determine where we go. When it is required to “gang” up to live, when people go outside the law to engage in force or corporal conduct when thugs suited leather or silk run like marauders with no channel to be brought to account – what society have we built. When underhandedness becomes your life modality, then you move from sight – for something somewhat necessary to uphold and repair becomes the mechanism for others to destroy and harm – worse, however, is that the distinction between the two becomes muddled.

A culture of subservience is a very ugly place to take society, it reduces people to chickens scratching for crumbs and approval, it progresses the worst of people; it makes the worst of people. To force people to surrender, to haze people to groupthink, is to make a population of Lemmings.  Lemmings are subject to following what is offered and have followed some of the most hideous forays in human history. This is why we must reform induction and hazing practices in some of our institutions in Canada, they are essentially forming themselves in option to the constitution of our country.

There is a better way, begin first with a declaration, inspire with creed, and let creed be supported by critically thinking & independent people – who make their own choices. Make honesty integral to the person first and teach subversion as a measure of last resort - very last. My mother taught me never to betray a confidence and my father taught me a firm handshake and that the eyes are the windows of the soul – there is merit in this life modality – while one lives in the open and with it comes a degree vulnerability, it sends the message that you're willing to challenge and be challenged – to make the societal interface an exchange of ideas, rather than an exercise in might.  

We can do better, in Canada we've got the gift the enlightenment gave us, albeit an imperfect and incomplete document, we have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms – we should complete the document, and we should build a culture that is consistent with its values.