Fear over freedom..It was a story out of Prague. It feels like so long ago, way near the start of the pandemic. Citizens were having a massive street party. There was a three hundred meter table set up down the main street of the city. It was a potluck; people were being invited to bring shareable food. Musical instruments. “Come, and let's eat together” the organizers were saying. “Let's remind ourselves that we don't have to be afraid of each other anymore.”.Time to celebrate..Up on YouTube the other day popped this flash-mob dance clip (Ok...I'm a sucker for 80s tunes while I'm writing): a big troupe of teens visiting London train stations on the last day of lockdowns. Dancing to old tunes and celebrating. It was over, and the euphoria was visible. Yes, it was the up-snuffy UKs, celebration of “Freedom Day”..What a vibe. And countries everywhere did it..“Rowdy celebrations erupt in Norway as COVID-19 restrictions end”. September 2021..Denmark: “Back to Life” festival. “Denmark celebrates the end of COVID-19 restrictions with flower festival at Tivoli park.” September 2021..“In scenes akin to New Year's Eve celebrations, impromptu street fiestas erupted across Spain as a six-month state of emergency, imposed to tackle the Coronavirus pandemic, ended.” May 2021..Canada? Crickets..Yes, I'm with Sam Roberts when he sings “Everything moves real slow when its forty below” to describe Canada, but seriously: Something is wrong with a people afraid to celebrate..In The Princess Bride, Wesley describes for Buttercup his stint aboard the Dread Pirate Roberts' ship Revenge, and how Roberts' kept the crew and the surrounding countryside in check: “All right, Wesley,” Roberts would say. “I've never had a valet; you can try it if you like. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.”.While walking with his love through the Fire Swamp, Wesley explains: “Three years he said that: 'Good night Wesley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.'”.“Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.”.Keep pumping the fear. And like the leaky faucet, keep it dripping, every, single day..And we're swamped in it. You saw the fear in the clips of people interviewed on Canada Day. “How do feel about all this security, these checkpoints?” the interviewer asks. And the response, from an immigrant standing on the steps leading into Parliament Hill: “One can't speak openly about such things.”.Canadians have chosen fear over freedom. Made it into a virtue. Voted for it. Snitched on their neighbours for a lack of it. Put signs on their lawns to take pride in it. And then hidden..This fall I will return to class and greet hundreds of late-teen students, many of whom are struggling with their mental health. They don't know if their society and specifically their university will shut down again, and once again throw them off whatever moorings they have recovered. They are disoriented and fatigued and they don't know why..Fear does that..As happened recently in class, this September there will be hundreds of sideways glances when I shake students' hands, stand way within two meters, and at the beginning of every class attest to how good it is to be together..Is it ok to say that? they'll ask with their eyes..Is that criticizing the government?.Can I trust this guy?.What's happened? Why have we embraced fear? As I asked asked here last week: Are we now nothing more than weak-kneed virtue signaling hypochondriacs? We've weighed the risks and chosen safety, even if it means killing ourselves. At the very least we have abandoned the very impulse needed for entrepreneurship, inventiveness, creativity, and, well, a Canada that can stand on its own..Pretty soon I won't trust myself to drive a car, cut down a tree, eat junk food, play with a soccer ball in the school-yard, give a hug, or even speak for fear that I won't have the Toronto-psychologist approved word at hand. I'll just shut up. And then I'll stop thinking right. I'll start thinking weird things like men can have babies, robots are people too, big pharma loves me, that all my forbears were scoundrels, and that my skin, size, gender, demographic, religion, nationality, carbon footprint, political party, and Facebook/LinkedIn/Snapchat impression management and likes are the only things that matter..If we don't find our backbone again we are finished..CS Lewis said, "Those who torment us for their own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.".Democracy must be daily guarded and worked for. It is totalitarianism that is the slippery slope..Freedom should not worry us; we should worry of too much control..I don't know about you, but for me, its not about storming the castle or having the Jordan Peterson playbook in my back pocket. Its just going to take standing up straight and unflinchingly, facing other people with dignity as human beings, knowing that our rights to interact freely as one person to another are not given by governments....And then simply speaking reality..What about you?
Fear over freedom..It was a story out of Prague. It feels like so long ago, way near the start of the pandemic. Citizens were having a massive street party. There was a three hundred meter table set up down the main street of the city. It was a potluck; people were being invited to bring shareable food. Musical instruments. “Come, and let's eat together” the organizers were saying. “Let's remind ourselves that we don't have to be afraid of each other anymore.”.Time to celebrate..Up on YouTube the other day popped this flash-mob dance clip (Ok...I'm a sucker for 80s tunes while I'm writing): a big troupe of teens visiting London train stations on the last day of lockdowns. Dancing to old tunes and celebrating. It was over, and the euphoria was visible. Yes, it was the up-snuffy UKs, celebration of “Freedom Day”..What a vibe. And countries everywhere did it..“Rowdy celebrations erupt in Norway as COVID-19 restrictions end”. September 2021..Denmark: “Back to Life” festival. “Denmark celebrates the end of COVID-19 restrictions with flower festival at Tivoli park.” September 2021..“In scenes akin to New Year's Eve celebrations, impromptu street fiestas erupted across Spain as a six-month state of emergency, imposed to tackle the Coronavirus pandemic, ended.” May 2021..Canada? Crickets..Yes, I'm with Sam Roberts when he sings “Everything moves real slow when its forty below” to describe Canada, but seriously: Something is wrong with a people afraid to celebrate..In The Princess Bride, Wesley describes for Buttercup his stint aboard the Dread Pirate Roberts' ship Revenge, and how Roberts' kept the crew and the surrounding countryside in check: “All right, Wesley,” Roberts would say. “I've never had a valet; you can try it if you like. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.”.While walking with his love through the Fire Swamp, Wesley explains: “Three years he said that: 'Good night Wesley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.'”.“Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.”.Keep pumping the fear. And like the leaky faucet, keep it dripping, every, single day..And we're swamped in it. You saw the fear in the clips of people interviewed on Canada Day. “How do feel about all this security, these checkpoints?” the interviewer asks. And the response, from an immigrant standing on the steps leading into Parliament Hill: “One can't speak openly about such things.”.Canadians have chosen fear over freedom. Made it into a virtue. Voted for it. Snitched on their neighbours for a lack of it. Put signs on their lawns to take pride in it. And then hidden..This fall I will return to class and greet hundreds of late-teen students, many of whom are struggling with their mental health. They don't know if their society and specifically their university will shut down again, and once again throw them off whatever moorings they have recovered. They are disoriented and fatigued and they don't know why..Fear does that..As happened recently in class, this September there will be hundreds of sideways glances when I shake students' hands, stand way within two meters, and at the beginning of every class attest to how good it is to be together..Is it ok to say that? they'll ask with their eyes..Is that criticizing the government?.Can I trust this guy?.What's happened? Why have we embraced fear? As I asked asked here last week: Are we now nothing more than weak-kneed virtue signaling hypochondriacs? We've weighed the risks and chosen safety, even if it means killing ourselves. At the very least we have abandoned the very impulse needed for entrepreneurship, inventiveness, creativity, and, well, a Canada that can stand on its own..Pretty soon I won't trust myself to drive a car, cut down a tree, eat junk food, play with a soccer ball in the school-yard, give a hug, or even speak for fear that I won't have the Toronto-psychologist approved word at hand. I'll just shut up. And then I'll stop thinking right. I'll start thinking weird things like men can have babies, robots are people too, big pharma loves me, that all my forbears were scoundrels, and that my skin, size, gender, demographic, religion, nationality, carbon footprint, political party, and Facebook/LinkedIn/Snapchat impression management and likes are the only things that matter..If we don't find our backbone again we are finished..CS Lewis said, "Those who torment us for their own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.".Democracy must be daily guarded and worked for. It is totalitarianism that is the slippery slope..Freedom should not worry us; we should worry of too much control..I don't know about you, but for me, its not about storming the castle or having the Jordan Peterson playbook in my back pocket. Its just going to take standing up straight and unflinchingly, facing other people with dignity as human beings, knowing that our rights to interact freely as one person to another are not given by governments....And then simply speaking reality..What about you?
