I am very angry over what happened in Ottawa this weekend. A peaceful protest--the model of what a protest should be--was oppressed by a government using force (in a country granting the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression as the highest law) to suppress political opposition. And, when I see people on social media praising the government, it makes me raging. This Freedom Convoy wasn't just fighting for truckers; it was fighting--representing--for all Canadians, for our right to choose what we put into our own bodies, for freedom, to move, to think, to speak. Do these people not see that this is a civil liberties issue? We have set a terrible precedent. In a world in which, merely 500 years ago, men--women were not even people--were not allowed to own property in feudal states where kings ruled with absolute Divine Right, were not allowed to speak their mind or challenge their government with out fear of punitive action and death, were not able to worship as they chose, we have made tremendous progress through heartbreaking sacrifice; why do people this week rejoice in regressing? From the Magna Carta through to the Age of Enlightenment and on, great thinkers penned--what I thought were--immortal ideas whose spirits could not be snuffed out; ideas can never die, right? A spark that starts a fire that can not by quenched by any tyrant? Except...maybe the people can choose to put it out? The ignorance of people who don't see the greater implication, of the precedent of the actions of the government this weekend as we move more and more into a 1984 style Orwellian state, anger me. I ask myself, "When the free liberty loving people loose faith in their institutions, what recourse is left to them?" "Never in our time," we tell ourselves. The Europeans of the 1930s thought that too. After all, Germany was a modern industrialized educated democratic society. They were naive too. A piece of paper--The Charter of Rights and Freedoms--is just paper. I am reminded of the words of Patrick Henry, that the freedom of the people is a precious jewel that must be suspiciously guarded against anybody that should approach it. I think too of the words of many other great thinkers. I think of John Stuart Mill saying that a man with nothing he values above his own security is despicable, and how we say that our WWII soldiers died for freedom, something we lie to ourselves about, as by de-facto we claim freedom more valuable than life. I think too of the words of Thomas Jefferson as he says that we should be free to live unmolested by our government so long as we don't ourselves infringe on the liberty of our fellow citizen. I think too of Frederick Douglass saying that a government or state that controls all aspects of people's lives and livelihood is the slavery of all to all. I yearn for the masses to take up the tenets of Thomas Sowell, my favourite contemporary philosopher. I believe that the institutions' main role is to safe guard the liberty of the citizen. I am not anti-establishment. Far from being an anarchist, I believe the institutions need to exist to serve the people. The law must always be on the side of the citizen against the government; the government, after all, is not only stronger and in a position to abuse, it is not a living being. Why have we become so ignorant? Why have we forgotten the lessons of history? I have lost a lot of respect for Peace Officers, as they willingly complied--"just following orders"--with orders to, by force, oppressively and through violent means suppress free expression. Becoming the tool of a tyrannical regime, they abandoned their moral compasses and became the shock troops of a new tyranny. A am so angry, so filled with rage. I'm disenchanted, and have lost a lot of faith in the establishment. These were not people burning down businesses, throwing rocks through windows and burning police cars, although in the back of my mind a small part of me wonders if that may be necessary and coming. These were peaceful people criticizing their state, which is their right! Their fucking right!
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