If You Say It Enough Times ...

Recently I have been writing about the vital role critical thinking plays in a healthy democracy; this morning, after reading the letters section of The Star, I couldn't help but think about one of the oldest and most frequently-used techniques to inhibit that process: repetition.

Repetition , a strategy frequently accompanied by displays of demagoguery and fear-mongering, works on the premise that if you say something frequently enough, it will be perceived by many as true. A strategy especially favoured by the reactionary set, perhaps one the best examples is the myth that both small and large-c conservatives are good fiscal managers. A check of the fiscal health of both Canada and the United States over the past 30 years or so when under conservative rule easily puts the lie to that fable.

Yet the belief persists.

This morning, a letter written by Gary Brigden from Toronto, in part addresses this issue. Enjoy:

Re: Canada getting less competitive, Business Sept. 6

Once again the facts get in the way of pronouncements from the Harper government.

According to the World Economic Forum, Canada has slipped to 14th place in world standings in global economic competitiveness. Since 2009, Canada has slipped five spots in global competitiveness. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been in charge the whole time, yet he always speaks about how well Canada is doing compared to the rest of the world.

How is it that with all of our natural resources, our stable banking system and supposedly superior education system, we continue to slide downwards in global competitiveness?

Well, it turns out our education system is not training youth for the jobs of the future. Our research and development lags way behind most countries. And, most importantly, our government’s role in promoting innovation through procurement practices is severely lacking.

Ironically, while the Harper government seems to think lower wages, less safe work environments brought about through legislation and less attention to the environment overall will miraclously boost our GNP, the opposite is true.

As is usually the case, democratic socialist goverments account for 8 of the top 10 placements in global competitveness.

How is it again we keep hearing from Conservative and Republican governments that we must give more tax breaks to the corporations and rich people to create jobs, while the facts claim and prove the exact opposite?

The Assault on Reason

Yesterday I wrote a post on the important role education plays in the development of critical thinking skills, skills that are crucial for anyone who aspires to being something more than a puppet of government and corporate propaganda. Unfortunately, as I noted, current education reforms under consideration in Ontario will undermine the building of those skills.

Last evening I read an excellent article by Allan Gregg, essentially the speech he gave at the opening of Carleton University’s new School of Public Affairs.

Using Orwell's 1984 as his framework, Gregg offers a disturbing analysis of how the Harper government is in fact enacting the very practices that Orwell warned about in his novel. For example, Ignorance is Strength, a well-known oxymoronic slogan from the novel, seems to be one of the chief strategies at work in the Harper formulation of public policy; the elimination of the long-form census, the muzzling of scientists, the dismantling of research stations and the substantial reduction of workforce at the Library and Archives of Canada are but four very disturbing examples.

I cannot recommend his piece strongly enough. Although somewhat lengthy, it is well-worth the read for anyone who recognizes the vital role that an informed and reflective citizenry plays in a healthy democracy.

And ours is without question a democracy whose health is under threat; in my home province of Ontario, for example, young Tim Hudak begins the process of trying to rebrand himself, a rebooting whose success without doubt will be dependent on the voters' collective amnesia and short attention spans. Federally, of course, the Harper regime seems intent on giving corporate profits supremacy over sound environmental protection, just one of the many challenges posed by a government contemptuous of its citizens.

Such An Expressive Face

This is young Tim Hudak's mad face. Damn those union bosses!

An Embargo On Ideas In The Offing?

One of the pleasures of my retired life is getting together for coffee on a regular basis with my friend Ray, a retired vice-principal and one of the rare 'good-guys' of administration that I encountered in my life as a teacher.

When we meet, we discuss a range of topics, many of them political, but also others that could be classified as philosophical, social, and metaphysical. On our most recent meeting, I told him how much I enjoy our exchanges, providing as they do not only an opportunity for the clarification of my own thoughts, but also an expansion of their scope and range.

In many ways, our discussions are what I used to enjoy most about university, back in the days of small classes, small tutorials, and small seminars. I attribute whatever critical thinking skills I possess largely to that education.

Unfortunately, over the years the notion of a post-secondary education as a means of cultivating one's ability to think has fallen into disfavour, devolving in Ontario to its nadir when that master of division and dissension, Mike Harris was our premier. He floated but never actually implemented the idea of funding universities based on the percentage of people who were able to get jobs six months after graduation, a notion perhaps not surprising coming from the man who showed such disdain for nuanced and complex thought.

While not quite so blatant, the neo-liberal reactionary agenda is again at work in Ontario under Dalton McGuinty's 'leadership.' Glen Murray, the minister of training, colleges and universities has proposed sweeping changes in how the province conducts the business of education, most, it seems to me, prompted by cost-cutting considerations.

Two of the most insidious proposals involve making the basic undergraduate degree a three-year-pursuit, and establishing an online-university that would require no real contact with one's professor and classmates, thereby eliminating the opportunity for the dynamic exchanges that are the key to achieving new ideas and perspectives. The fact that these proposals do not serve the cultivation of critical thinking skills, I can't help but consider in my more paranoid moments, are quite consistent with a corporate agenda that seems to value only compliant, unquestioning employees, not independent thinkers capable of seeing a broader picture.

In any event, Heather Mallick has written a thought-provoking piece in today's Star which suggests that nothing good can come out of these proposed changes.

An Apt Contrast

There is the Energizer rabbit, brought to you by Everready:

Then there is the Never-ready rabbit, brought to you by Ontario's Conservative Party:

Political Contempt For The Electorate Continues

Reiterating one of his favorite themes of late, Tim Hudak, the never-ready-for-prime-time-politcal leader of the Ontario Tories, blamed the 'union-bosses' for denying him victory in last night's Kitchener-Waterloo by-election.

Blaming a “tsunami” of public sector union bosses who bought votes in a riding held by his party for two decades, the hapless Hudak proffered the following wisdom for the benighted electorate who thought they were exercising their own discretion in voting the NDP candidate, Catherine Fife, to victory:

“I think it’s dangerous and ominous for the province to see that power on display,” an embittered sounding Mr. Hudak said at a news conference Friday morning.

Just one more open display of contempt for the will of the people. But then again, I guess Tim would characterize anyone challenging his worldview as a mere union dupe, wouldn't he?

Uncommon Wisdom From The 'Common' People

That is the best way to assess the fact that last night, despite all of his gerrymandering, Dalton NcGuinty was decisively thwarted in his ruthless drive for the majority government he had been denied in the last general provincial election.

Thanks to the people of Kitchener-Waterloo, both he and the leader of the Official Opposition, young Tim Hudak of the Conservatives, are looking decidedly vulnerable today. A good analysis of that vulnerability can be found in Martin Regg Cohn's column in this morning's Star.

And just before I leave the topic of politicians who forget who they are elected to serve, I am reproducing a letter I came across yesterday in The Spectator. The observations made by the writer, Mark Kikot of Burlington, are ones that our arrogant political 'masters' would be wise to bear in mind the next time they contemplate the bald pursuit of power at the expense of the electorate.

McGuinty scapegoats public-sector workers

Premier Dalton McGuinty is demonstrating through his current strategy for dealing with the deficit that behaving like a conservative government is easier than being a liberal government, and that behaving like a corporation is easier than being a government.

Those Ontarians who have accepted the corporate mindset as the controlling metaphor in their lives, and the corporate structure as an inescapable reality, would argue that any responsible government should function like a business. Costs that cannot be sustained must be offset by cuts in order to produce a supposedly more efficient, hopefully more effective, and clearly more profit-driven organization; in other words, the ideal model for governance is the lean mean machine.

While any sensible person should acknowledge that we cannot continue to live beyond our means, any sensible person should also recognize that the debt incurred by a government must be shared by all the sectors of the society that that government represents.

By targeting primarily the public sector, and the educational sector in particular, in its attempt to balance the books, the McGuinty government has made scapegoats of those public sector workers who provide social services that improve the quality of life for all Ontarians. In adopting this politically convenient strategy, McGuinty has created the impression that the deficit is entirely an in-house problem, instead of a problem for which the private sector is also responsible. It is unreasonable and unjust to expect the deficit to be reduced almost exclusively at the expense of public sector employees who make on average much less than $100,000 a year, while private sector employees who make between $100,000 and $500,000 a year pay taxes at pre-deficit rates, and corporations continue to be granted privileged tax status in the hope that they will create jobs.

The McGuinty government in its bull-headed idiocy is moving forward with legislation that ignores the collective bargaining process and imposes working conditions, not negotiated contracts, on teachers and other educational workers. There can be no social contract without contractual agreements.

Mark Kikot, Burlington