Truck Off III - The Squish

 

WHEREAS the safety and security of the individual, the protection of the values of the body politic and the preservation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of the state are fundamental obligations of government. 

The paragraph above is a portion of the Canada's Emergency Act that was signed into law in 1985 with the most recent update being in 1988. It is with this piece of legislation that the Prime Minister of Canada, Justine Trudeau, shut down the Freedom Convoy 2022. While the specific details of the declaration have not been posted to the Government of Canada website, or at least not easy to find. In general the enactment allowed for the following: confiscation of truck, removal of insurance, removal of children if arrested, removal of pets if arrested, jail time or fine if  convicted, the tow truck companies could be ordered by the government, and the freezing of bank accounts at the discretion of the banking institution. 

Pensating on this situation, both as a mental and a political exercise has been a tumultuous exercise for the mind of  this author. Most conflicts are based on disagreements between two parties, in an attempt to be a good Canadian, a hockey game is a contest between two teams who feel that the puck belongs in the other teams net; and there in lies the contest. The Freedom Convoy 2022 is not much different from hockey in this respect, except that the puck has been exchanged for personable choice and personal autonomy. 

The word 'Freedom' has recently been labeled as an alt-right expression by many in the Main-Stream-Media (the MSM) this declaration does not come as a surprise to this author. While the political left and the political right do both exist, the real question, in this the current year is, is this all about power, has that become everything now? As such it seems that everything has become political and this is why politics ruins everything. In the mind of this author, the current problems found in our society is a trifecta of: the public Internet, truths and facts.

The noise to signal ratio on the public Internet is appalling and the MSM is more part of the cause than it is the solution; the economic incentive to capture clicks has turned many NEWS outlets into a modern day National Enquirer reminiscent of it's heyday between the 1950s and 1970s. Additionally, the public Internet provides an assortment of platforms for people seeking confirmation and monies for what they feel is most important to them. Adding to the signal is the ubiquitous adoption of the 'smart phone' equipped with cameras, as this allows for a fact to come out over the presentation of someone's truth. 

The word 'truth' has been detached from the word 'fact' in recent years. The term, 'you don't know my truth' has become common place these days. By including the word 'my' it is implied that it was a personal experience and  typically in these situations the personal experience of the opposition is fully ignored. Once again Plato's cave allegory comes back into the light of society.  

When the public is consistently and persistently subjected to both spin and narrative across the board, how can anyone be surprised of the side effects expressed by those people. Many people tend to mimic what they are exposed to, as an example - 'yippee ki yay mother fucker'; fell into and out of fashion in the late 1980s and now it is gone from the lexicon of the West only to be replaced by the verbiage of the latest blockbuster movie. Much in the same way, the NEWS outlets are putting forth messaging that many people will simply regurgitate. 

For the last two years, those who did not follow the machinations of the government have been labeled as 'the other'. Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) has been a long standing means of public persuasion. FUD was used to invade a country looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) in 1990, about Vietnam in the 1950s, in Germany in the 1930s. and Canada in 2020. All of these ventures were kicked off with propaganda which was shown not to be true over the course of time. 

In conclusion, we will see when we look back through time who were the heroes and who were the cowards. This author will leave it to the reader how to define the difference.

UPDATED at 4:57 AM 2/22/2022

When the sun rises on Canada this morning it will be a very different Canada than the one that existed yesterday at daybreak. There is still a glimmer of short term hope in that now the act has to pass the Senate. The only thing left is - we will see 

James Woods once wrote, "Scratch a liberal, and find a fascist every time..."