Ive been depressed for most of the last three weeks. I allowed the weight of the worlds madness to crush my spirit. Its been said that clowns are the saddest people, and always being the class clown of sorts, I have to agree. Things have been gradually becoming better, and I thought I owe an explanation to those who expressed worries and offered support. To the rest of you, who cares. What Facebook calls Friendship is a meaningless word, and just like we need to choose our battles, we need to choose our friends. You know who you are in both groups, and thats all Ill say about that. And if you are disappointed that I didnt keep my word about stopping my FB posts, well... it is what it is. Today marks 25 years since I left Czechoslovakia for good. Ive started a web site documenting my familys epic journey that brought us to Canada: freedom-25.ca. But this announcement is not why I broke my promise (mainly to myself) not to post on FB any more. I have a special message for you. I left a society where the government had an absolute power over your destiny. It had a large, corrupt bureaucracy that made arbitrary decisions about peoples life, without regard for the rule of laws or international treaties. It had a vast network of secret police informants that, in the name of national security, had practically unlimited powers to spy on people, making decisions about where they could live, what jobs they could do, where and when they could travel, and what schools could their children go to. It encouraged citizens to report on each other, and rewarded such behaviour with perks and awards. It burdened few remaining enterpreneurial souls with so much red tape and bureaucracy that most wouldnt even try to innovate, and if they did, their innovations would quickly be seized by the state. It had a police force designed not to protect communities, but to suppress dissenters and protect the ruling party establishment. Its social order was equal for all citizens, except those in party ranks who were more equal than others. Officially, it had four political parties who were allowed to put forward candidates for mock elections. In reality, the other three parties were controlled by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and no one was allowed to run in elections except through the National Front ballot. You couldnt hold certain jobs if you were not a party member. My wife was denied an opportunity to work at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences because she refused to join the Communists. If any of this sounds vaguely familiar, its because many of these things are slowly creeping into the Western society, including Canadas. If you havent lived under a rock and followed the news over the last few years, its easy to understand why this might be depressing to someone with my life experience. Whether its the huge NSA scandal (we dont yet know the full extent of its impact on Canada), the kettling of bystanders by police during the G20 fiasco in Toronto in 2010, the disregard to the wishes of citizens when making decisions with huge environmental and economic impact (Enbridge), the sacking of inconvenient voices in both government and academia on one hand, while allowing powerful unions to blackmail the public on the other hand. You cant have certain jobs if you dont join certain political organizations (which unions are). Your personal privacy is as good as dead. We have laws where neighbours can file a false report on whats happening at your home, but you dont have the right to know who made the complaint (as it recently happened to me, even though I have a very good idea who the snitch was in this case). The government can seize your home without a trial, just on the suspicion of an unlawful activity (the scandalous BC Civil Forfeiture Office story, anyone?). This is like a chapter from the Communist Party text book. The list could go on and on. Over the years, Ive had countless conversations with folks about the tyranny of totalitarianism slowly creeping into our lives. Many people would laugh at me, or call me crazy. But one thing I have seen, over and over again, is that those who have lived in totalitarian societies have developed a real sense of where things are going, and none of those people call me crazy. So, here is a special message to my friends, both on and off Facebook, on this special anniversary: Not all is lost, but you need to come to your senses. No matter what your cause is, know that I admire you and I pity you at the same time. Many of you are relentless in your pursuits, passionate about making the world a better place - through kindness, through community service, through activism or artistic expression. Its commendable. But its also useless if all your efforts are targeted at symptoms, not root causes. You cant possibly dream of building a better society if its kept running by ever growing army of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats whose main desire in life is that they keep their job and the reason for their existence, mainly to dictate how other people live. I know that equality and social justice are pressing issues, but I dont see how we can ever achieve it with growing layers of government with increasing secrecy and proportionally decreasing transparency and accountability. It doesnt matter which party is in power - they are all the same lot. Take the Toronto 2010 G20 police action: while the police actions have been almost unanimously condemned by ordinary citizens, eye witnesses and civil liberties groups, all three political streams have sung praises (federal Conservatives, provincial Liberals, and for Toronto, the definitely left-leaning then mayor David Miller). Most of governments decisions are not made by the cabinet or the ministers. They are made by public servants who are unelected, and have no limit on the length of their stay in their office. That your elected representatives vote along party lines instead of according their constituents wishes only makes it worse. With the really important decisions, the elected lot will vote as to not alienate the bureaucrats and their unions, because they have an immense political power in supporting candidates who are favourable to their agendas. Those public servants have become public masters. I am not advocating a revolution. History taught us that revolutions are not very good at making better societies. I advocate civic engagement and insisting on more accountable, more transparent government. If the government (and I dont mean a specific party of a specific time, but the institution itself) collects so much information about its citizens, its time we know more about the government. Who are the decision makers? What information they have about us? How long have they been in that position? You think its Christy Clark, or Stephen Harper who are a problem? Think again. Its the advisors, the paper pushers, the experts. If we dont put these people in their place, the totalitarian tyranny I mentioned earlier will just keep on creeping. Maybe I am deluded, and maybe I got it wrong. But rather than being depressed by the loss of control of my life (including at the more personal level which is not something I am willing to write about), its better that I vent this. And you bastards at Facebook who are now scan this post and pass it on snoops and advertisers, go ahead. I dont give a damn about you. Now I feel better. End of rant.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 03:22:28 +0000
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